Image from mybible.com
God, brilliant Lord, yours is a household name. Nursing infants gurgle choruses about you; toddlers shout the songs That drown out enemy talk, and silence atheist babble. I look up at your macro-skies, dark and enormous, your handmade sky-jewelry, Moon and stars mounted in their settings. Then I look at my micro-self and wonder, Why do you bother with us? Why take a second look our way? Yet we've so narrowly missed being gods, bright with Eden's dawn light. You put us in charge of your handcrafted world, repeated to us your Genesis-charge, Made us lords of sheep and cattle, even animals out in the wild, Birds flying and fish swimming, whales singing in the ocean deeps. God, brilliant Lord, your name echoes around the world. (Psalm 8 The Message Version)
This is the same passage in the New International Version: 1 O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. 2 From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger.3 When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, 4what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? 5 You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. 6 You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet: 7 all flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field, 8 the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas. 9 O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
This psalm is best known for the question asked in verses 3 and 4, and the declaration by the psalmist in verses 5 through 8, and the praise of verse 9. Who hasn't stopped to consider the works of God's hands? If you're one who hasn't; you're too busy or too silly. The artwork for today captures a modern scene of someone sizing us up against God's creation. The blood red moon of a few nights ago made some of us ooh and aww at how awesome this world, and things near our world, are to us. But it still comes down to what Jesus asks His disciples and what the psalmist declares: What about you? What say you about me and my creation? The modern version of this passage has the psalmist declaring that the name of God is a "household name" so much so that even infants still nursing "gurgle choruses" about God; "toddlers shout the songs" that even drown out thoughts that seek to bring us down. We should join their singing and shouting as we consider how close and how loving God truly is in our lives.
Dear friend, God is mindful of you, and God cares for you. Just take some time and look around. And if that doesn't get you excited to the point of singing or shouting, I don't know what will.
PRAYER: Loving God, thank You! Let me join the songs all around me that are praising You and Your work here on the earth. Thank You for caring for me and sharing Your love for me. I praise You in Jesus' precious and powerful name, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord!
Eradio Valverde
