Psalm 8

¹O Lord, our Lord,
How excellent is Your name in all the earth,
Who have set Your glory above the heavens!

² Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants
You have ordained strength,
Because of Your enemies,
That You may silence the enemy and the avenger.

³ When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
The moon and the stars, which You have ordained,
⁴ What is man that You are mindful of him,
And the son of man that You visit him?
⁵ For You have made him a little lower than the angels,
And You have crowned him with glory and honor.

⁶ You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands;
You have put all things under his feet,
⁷ All sheep and oxen—
Even the beasts of the field,
⁸ The birds of the air,
And the fish of the sea
That pass through the paths of the seas.

⁹ O Lord, our Lord,
How excellent is Your name in all the earth!

Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants

In Matthew 21:16, Jesus makes a reference to this phrase when priests and scribes are complaining about the children yelling out praises in the temple after Christ has healed the blind and lame. I think back to when I was a kid and remember doing and saying what the grown-up and more sophisticated me thinks was dumb. I admit, I am embarrassed of my younger self. When I was about 11 or 12, I was obsessed with the Backstreet Boys. My walls were plastered with their posters, I saved magazines that even mentioned them, I listened to their cds over and over, I screamed until I was hoarse when I got to go to their concert even though I was sitting in the back row, and I talked about them to anyone who would stand still long enough to listen. And there is just about the most embarrassing fact of my life. But, my point is, children are uninhibited about being excited. They love things and want to talk about them and praise them and do them and know about them ALL THE TIME. Wouldn’t it be great if we could let go of our grown-up inhibitions and praise God as if we were little kids with an obsession?

When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars

I am reading a book for a Bible study called The Ragamuffin Gospel. In the chapter I was just reading today, the author mentions this verse. He pointed out that there are like a bajillion stars in the universe. If you were to hold up a dime to the sky, you would be covering about 15 million of them from your view. That’s a lot of stars! The power of God is limitless. Thinking about that, I am inclined to ask, like the psalmist, “What is man that You are mindful of him?” Isn’t it amazing that God pays attention to us, when he could be doing anything else?

For You have made him a little lower than the angels, and You have crowned him with glory and honor.

It’s important that we remember how important we are to God. Of course we’re not worthy of anything He gives us, but the thing is, no one is. God chose to make humans in His own image. We don’t have to think for one second that God doesn’t want us because we aren’t good enough. God created the whole universe and gave us a very special place in it near to Him, and we need to give Him the glory for that.