Psalm 8 (NRSV)
Read Psalm 8 on biblegateway.com
Verse 1O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.
Verse 2Out of the mouths of babes and infants you have founded a bulwark because of your foes, to silence the enemy and the avenger.
Verse 3When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established;
Verse 4what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?
Verse 5Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor.
Verse 6You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet,
Verse 7all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field,
Verse 8the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
Verse 9O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
Devotion
Imagine the excitement of a child first seeing just one part of God’s creation—a rainbow, a waterfall, panda bear. “Oh Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” Or as a child might put it, “Look mommy, look daddy, look, look!”
But once adulthood arrives, we might be amazed that we have been created a little lower than the creator. We might hang our heads when we realize that we have been given dominion over that very creation. Or as Eugene Peterson writes in The Message, “You put us in charge of your handcrafted world.”
May we, today, be faithful to our charge! As Eugene Peterson writes again: As we attend to the creation so loved by child and adult alike, may our care for the world be repeated so that God’s “name echoes around the world.”
Prayer
May your name echo in each of our lives. May your name be praised as we care for all you have given us. How majestic is your name in all the earth! Amen.