Psalm 8

Psalm 8 (NRSV)

1 O Lord, our Sovereign,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
2 Out of the mouths of babes and infants
you have founded a bulwark because of your foes,
to silence the enemy and the avenger.

Lord,

I confess that I don’t quite get it. “Out of the mouths and infants…you have founded a bulwark…to silence the enemy….” Whatever the poet is trying to say is a mystery to me.

So let me tell you about our grandchildren. What miracles they are! How two cells can combine in the womb, divide and sub divide and sub divide again until a person emerges is beyond mystery to me. And that they, at least biologically, continue my life and will do so long after I am with you; Lord, words cannot express the deep deep feelings that swirl within my heart.

Does this cell division that leads to the formation of an “Image of God” human being speak to your glory? It does! Does it “silence the enemy”? Not yet.

Even so Lord, for the birth of children that reminds us of the mystery of life itself, I am grateful. For time with children and grandchildren, thank you. For the future into which they are being thrown, I seek your blessing and grace.

PERSONAL PRAYERS:
Pray for the grandchildren, for the infants and toddlers of this world, especially those close to you.
Ask God to lead you to the way that you can make this world a little better for them.
Name 5 things for which you are grateful and say “Thank you” to God.

In Christ’s name,
Amen.

3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars that you have established;
4 what are human beings that you are mindful of them,
mortalsa that you care for them?
5 Yet you have made them a little lower than God,b
and crowned them with glory and honor.
6 You have given them dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under their feet,
7 all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field,
8 the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
9 O Lord, our Sovereign,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
[1]

a Heb ben adam, lit. son of man

b Or than the divine beings or angels: Heb elohim

[1] The Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version. Nashville : Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989