Monday Devotional: May 29, 2023

Bible Reading: Psalm 8:1-9 (NRSVUE)

¹ O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. ² Out of the mouths of babes and infants you have founded a bulwark because of your foes, to silence the enemy and the avenger. ³ When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; ⁴ what are humans that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? ⁵ Yet you have made them a little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honor. ⁶ You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet, ⁷ all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, ⁸ the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas. ⁹ O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Reflection upon scripture often brings to mind hymns, poetry, or images. As you ponder Psalm 8, is there anything that comes into your consciousness?

Two familiar hymns bubble into my spirit: “How Great Thou Art” and “All Creatures of our God and King.” These songs marvel at the wonders of Creation and, like the psalmist, burst into refrains of praise: “Then sings my soul … how great Thou art!” “O praise ye, Alleluia!” “O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all earth!”

It’s common for people to identify nature as a place where they feel particularly close to God or experience moments of transcendence in nature. Imagine the psalm-writers in a beautiful part of God’s creation, walking, sitting, or even working. They become aware of just how amazing it is to live in such a world. From the heavens to the depths of the sea, God’s wonders abound. Then all at once, an awareness of being one creature amid the vastness of God’s world emerges, bringing with it a question: “What are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?”

What a question that is. Why should the eternal God, the Creator and Sustainer of all that is, care about the likes of us? Why are we “crowned with glory and honor” and given the responsibility to care for what God has made?

Libraries are filled with books trying to answer the question. But this psalm invites you simply to pay attention to the world all around you, humbly acknowledge your place in it, and marvel at God’s trust in you, God’s grace for you, and God’s love for you. And then, together with others, burst into praise.

Prayer

Gracious God, thank you for the wonders of your creation, the wonders of your love, the wonders of your faith in us. Help us honor these gifts through our lives. Amen.

By Ginger E. Gaines-Cirelli, The Upper Room Disciplines 2023, page 186.