Devotional Tuesday: Psalm 8
Fragile me. Majestic God. Purposed creation.
Psalm 8
To the choirmaster: according to The Gittith. A Psalm of David.
1 O Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.2 Out of the mouth of babies and infants,
you have established strength because of your foes,
to still the enemy and the avenger.3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,4 what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?5 Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor.6 You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under his feet,7 all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field,8 the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas.9 O Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
So often, our flawed understanding and view of God stem from our flawed understanding of ourselves. We imagine ourselves as powerful and articulate beings able to control and determine the splendor of our own lives.
This is not the case. We too often overestimate our abilities and underestimate our need for outside help. We truly are not as great, powerful, or profound as we think.
The Psalmist, David, understands this. He is well aware of the vast and inconceivable expanse that separates the Lord Almighty and his simple creations.
3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
Humans, you and me alike, are so quick to forget the power and majesty of God. God, the creator of heaven and earth, spoke life into existence with a simple breath. Without effort, God is and was able to fill creation with more beauty than we can fathom in one hundred lifetimes.
David knows the reality of this vast separation.
4 what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?
Why would God, the majestic and wonderful creator, even allow us a second of his time? When we forget who God is at his core, dazed in the glory of his transcendence (divine supremacy), we forget the creator finds joy in his creation.
Imagine this circle, the divine Creator is tied to the purpose He gives his creation. The purpose of the creation (their view of themselves) is unknowable apart from the knowledge of the divine Creator.
When we understand the majesty of God, we better understand the purpose of his creation.
6 You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under his feet,7 all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field,8 the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
As lowly and fragile as we are as humans, God has entrusted and commissioned us to a divine work. We are called to watch over and care for the creation of God.
So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food.
30 And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.
Genesis 1:27–30
Trapped in this downward spiral of seeing God incorrectly, thus seeing ourselves void of our true purpose, we forget that God has given us divine purpose as part of his creation.
Regardless of how insignificant we are, we have been given life, value, and purpose by the majestic King, the Lord. This is wonderful news.
God is in the business of raising up, not pushing down.
Those who submit to him and follow his purpose will always find themselves raised up, all the closer to God above.
