Scripture:
“When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place–what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?” (Psalm 8:3-4 ESV)
“O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” (Psalm 8:9 ESV)
Observation:
David lets it go with praise to God, enumerating (counting and listing) observations about the Most High in song, in prayer, in reflection.
Application:
I can almost feel the elation that David exhibits and relates with this psalm. Whether all the Psalms are in chronological order (they are not always) Psalm 7 was a reflection about repentance and the process, the rewards and consequences of repenting (or not). Here in Ps 8 I get the sense of almost complete abandonment to declaring SPECIFIC praise to God—“You have set Your Glory above all the earth.” “When I look upon the heavens at the Work of your Hands, the Moon, the stars—how You have set them in place in their orbits—and all the wonders of Your Hands…” David is losing himself in the Wonder of God’s Creation, marveling at the things that he sees, not missing the important over the urgent. And then David compares: “What is man that You are mindful of him…” The neat thing, the wonderful thing is that God is mindful of man!! How much the Creation declares His Wonder, His Glory, His Worthiness and is magnificent to behold from the sky to the microbe—nevertheless He is unfathomably mindful of Man. We cannot fathom why He is or why He should be—but He is and to that I must bow my head and my heart and humbly rejoice at the wonder that His is—because, like David, I recognize that I don’t deserve His attention.
Prayer:
God, oh God: How majestic is Your Name above all the earth. I don’t spend enough time just reflecting and meditating on You—Your Attributes, Your Character, etc. I run too quickly to “help me this and help me that”—making all of my prayer time about me and not You. I want to discipline myself to fall in love with You again; to fall on my face to understand the terrible, magnificent, and glorious Holy God that You are. The entire Bible is about You—Your Mercy, Your Grace and so much more—and how You have CHOSEN to be mindful of me. What a humbling wonder…AMEN.
-Rick Sutton