Great is your Faithfulness
1 Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory
in the heavens.
2 Through the praise of children and infants
you have established a stronghold against 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,
4 what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
human beings that you care for them?
5 You have made them a little lower than the angels
and crowned them with glory and honour.
6 You made them rulers over the works of your hands;
you put everything under their feet:
7 all flocks and herds,
and the animals of the wild,
8 the birds in the sky,
and the fish in the sea,
all that swim the paths of the seas.
9 Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
We have all sung or heard the famous hymn by Cecil Frances Alexander
“All things bright and beautiful, All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful,
The Lord God made them all.”
Well, this verse is the main outline of what Psalm 8 is telling us. David is praising God for His majesty and splendour. He is rejoicing over God’s work in creation and the special status he gave us as humans to steward the earth. King David viewed his surroundings with ‘God-shaped lenses’ which enabled him to comprehend both the majesty and glory within God’s handiwork of creation. C.S. Lewis also understood the importance and significance of creation in the nature that surrounds us. He said,
“Nature never taught me that there exists a God of glory and of infinite majesty. I had to learn that in other ways. But nature gave the word glory a meaning for me. I still do not know where else I could have found one. And if nature had never awakened certain longings in me, huge areas of what I can now mean by "love" of God would never, so far as I can see, have existed.”
A question we must ask ourselves is do we see God’s glory AND have we learned to appreciate it when we look at our surroundings?
Many of the Psalms were sung as a celebration of God’s greatness and the privileges that come with those who belong to him. These songs were sung when Israel would gather for public worship and were written to totally glorify God and reveal aspects of His Sovereign character to us, the reader.
Let’s take a closer look at the passage. Immediately, verse 1 “oh Lord, OUR LORD” reminds us of God’s covenant name, that is, LORD. “How majestic is your name in all the earth.” Even though all people do not acknowledge God’s majesty, David exclaims it to remind the people here. Psalm 8 is talking about God’s creation and we can see that it is a reference to Genesis 1-2 which records God’s making of the world. God created the world around us, everything we see was created by him and it was the work of his fingers.
Verse 3-4 put it like this “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?” God used His hands, His fingers to mould mountain ranges and carve out our rivers and created our seas and those stunning coastal views we love to photograph. God’s creation is His handiwork. When He created the entire universe, we read, He did it with His fingers. What a majestic God we have.
He depends on nothing for His being but everything else depends on Him. There is no place in all the earth where God is not God—where He is not the absolute one. Everywhere everything depends absolutely on Him. The Psalmist presents mankind as the pinnacle of creation, as rulers over the animal world and as the object of God’s special attention. With this responsibility and privilege given to us, are we seeing His glory in the created things we care for? Do we glorify Him in caring for His earth or have we started to take for granted everything we see around us?
If we move on, verse 2 mentions “foes, enemies” and the “avenger” reminding the readers of Genesis 3, the point in which sin entered His perfect world and we became broken and in need of rescue, that is, God’s plan for fallen mankind. Israel was to be the first fruits of that restored humanity. Verse 5 reads, “you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honour.” This is describing mankind as God’s kingly representatives. From Psalm 8 we are given a clear message of responsibility bestowed on us by God who has given us “dominion” over His works, putting all things under our feet. We are given a list of what this looks like in verses 6-8. Verse 9 finished with the initial exclamation, almost putting a stamp of approval on everything that has just been said. David repeats with exuberance “oh Lord, OUR LORD, how majestic is your name in all the earth!”
Now keep those thoughts in your minds and consider this: when the Bible talks about what it took to save us, to redeem us, it describes God doing so by His strong arm. His strong right hand of salvation. When it came to redeeming sinful people like us, it took the very life of God in His Son Jesus Christ. It was blood, sweat and tears on a cross that bent the strong arm of God’s salvation. It may have been an easy effort to create the world, but it was no easy effort for Jesus to go to the cross. We as Sons and Daughters of God, are the glorious result of the word of God’s arm.
Glory to Him. He is so majestic we owe Him more than an hour on a Sunday. We owe Him everything. Let us live in a manner that is truly worthy of all that the Gospel means. Let us not forget to see and appreciate God’s glory in our surroundings and praise Him for it. “Oh Lord, OUR LORD. How majestic is your name on all the Earth!”
Prayer
Lord we pray for our world. We know it is fallen but we thank you for the promise of an eternal hope in your plan of restoration. We pray for countless examples of conflict that is happening all around the world. Be with each one of us as we face dark and difficult days. We thank you for our hope and your majesty. I pray that we would see your glory, even clearer, day by day. Be near those who are suffering, provide a comfort that surpasses our understanding and encourage each one of us in our walks with you. In your Sons precious name. Great is your faithfulness. Amen
By: Sophie Clarke
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