Psalm 8
O Lord, our Lord,
How majestic is Your name in all the earth,
Who have displayed Your splendor above the heavens!
From the mouth of infants and nursing babes You have established strength
Because of Your adversaries,
To make the enemy and the revengeful cease.
When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
The moon and the stars, which You have ordained;
What is man that You take thought of him,
And the son of man that You care for him?
Yet You have made him a little lower than God,
And You crown him with glory and majesty!
You make him to rule over the works of Your hands;
You have put all things under his feet,
All sheep and oxen,
And also the beasts of the field,
The birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea,
Whatever passes through the paths of the seas.
O Lord, our Lord,
How majestic is Your name in all the earth! NASB
Wow! This is a majestic psalm that just demands to be sung. There are many arrangements for this, from the Israeli folk tune in the YouTube link below, to Sandy Patti's famous version from a few years back. How can you read or sing these words and not glorify His name for His magnificent works? From nursing babes to the moon and stars, all God's creation is wonderful!
Let us consider for a moment, the special place that man has in God's creation. Since Darwin, modern man has started to take more lowly view of mankind, but according to the psalmist, who echoes Genesis, man was created to rule over the works of God's hands. Over the sheep and oxen and the beasts of the field; over every living creature. In fact, the Lord's view is than man is just a little lower than the angels. A magnificent creature indeed, with a wonderful task and destiny!
Do we act like magnificent creatures? Do we exercise our God given dominion over the created world? When we do, we honor God, because, it is for this, that He created us. We demonstrate the glory and majesty of God when we act according to His plan. When we act cowardly and sniveling we dishonor the image of God, not living up to all that He has planned for us.
Reading, singing and meditating on the Psalms helps us to put our lives into perspective, to realize both how majestic the Lord is, and how majestic we are when we live according to His plan and design. The next time you sing a Psalm, hymn or spiritual song, lift up your head and proclaim the majesty of God with all the gusto that you can manage, because the Lord is worthy of praise, and we exalt both God and ourselves when we worship Him.
A little something different: Psalm 8 sung in Hebrew:
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