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
I stand under the canopy of the starlit heavens, and I am struck by its awesome beauty. Faced with the vastness of space and eternity, I feel so small. Did the composer of Psalm 8 feel the same way? Don’t we all, from time to time?
And yet our frail mortal lives here on earth have meaning. We are made by God, named, claimed, and created for a purpose. Babbling mouths of infants utter powerful praise! They remind us that our sovereign Lord blesses not only the great and mighty, but—perhaps most of all—the weak, the small, the seemingly “insignificant.” We may be mortal, but we are surrounded and upheld by everlasting love. Underneath the swirling stars of night, we have nothing to fear. Our Creator is still Savior and Lord. God reigns! Christ is risen! The Holy Spirit hovers over a new creation!
Prayer
God of wonder, continue to astound us! Open our hearts and minds to the beauty of creation, so that our babbling lips sing your praise. Amen.
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