O Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth! (Psalm 8:1, 9)
David both begins and ends this psalm with that declaration. It’s not a question. It’s an exclamation! God’s name is majestic because God is majestic. He is beautiful beyond our reckoning.
In the seven verses in between these twin exclamations, David gives us an interesting reason why God is so full of majesty, because we don’t always get it. Sometimes things don’t make sense to us. We look at the world around us and ask, “Can this possibly be right? Is this really how God meant to do this?”
Verse two gives us an example of this.
Out of the mouth of babies and infants,
you have established strength because of your foes,
to still the enemy and the avenger.
What? How does that make any sense? If God has enemies, and he wants to “still” them, in other words, stop them in their tracks, why would he use the weak and insignificant to establish his strength? Why would he use a simple farm boy like David to stop a trained warrior who is a giant of a man who terrifies the armies of Israel? It just doesn’t make sense to our way of thinking. But it shows his power and greatness, not ours. It calls attention to his name, not ours.
As if that we’re enough, think on this.
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)
Take a good look at the world around you, at the oceans and the mountains, at the moon and the stars. God did that, with his fingers…not his ‘strong arm’ or his mighty strength, but his fingers. It really wasn’t that big of a deal for him. Pretty easy really. And when you look at the vastness of the universe, and the intricacy of life, it will blow your feeble little mind.
Given the scope of all of creation, what is man?! Nothing! Insignificant. Like a tiny bug on the sidewalk, that you don’t even bother to notice. That’s more than we are when you consider God’s greatness.
Yet…
Oh what a wonderful word, ‘yet’!
Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor.
You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under his feet… (Psalm 8:5-6)
He created this vast and intricate universe, and he put mankind in charge of it? He gave dominion to insignificant man? Yes! He honored us beyond our ability to understand.
To be clear, our dominion is merely stewardship, not ownership. God is still on the throne. He is ultimately in charge, but we are his agents in the world. He has entrusted his creation to us, to care for it. How amazing is that?! Think about it, take a look around, and see if you don’t want to exclaim with David:
O Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
Leave a Reply