PSALMS 8
O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
Out of the mouth of babies and infants,
you have established strength because of your foes,
to still the enemy and the avenger.
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?
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,
all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field,
the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
Does God care about you?
Who are you that God should seemingly waste His time thinking and caring for you, let alone the idea that He would put you in charge of something!
I know there have been times in my life where I have lost focus and perspective because of the situations that I may be going through at that time. There are times in your Christian walk where you may feel that God is distant and far away. Surely at those moments He is not being mindful of you, right?
Let me suggest to you the truth that God is perfect and does not make mistakes(i). This means that Him making the choice to be mindful of you is no mistake. He does this by His design, by His plan, by His choice, and it is because of who He is not you. God chooses to be mindful of you even when you don't feel His presence or think that you are the least of all things created and He should not be wasting His time.
After considering that God is sovereign and His will is perfect the questions then remains; why would God want to be "mindful of us"?
David, the author of Psalms, wondered these same things in Psalms 8:1,3-4. Perhaps on a bright, clear night when the vast host of the heavenly lights, stretching from horizon to horizon erased from David's musings small everyday affairs and engaged his mind with deeper thoughts(ii).
By observing David's thought here we are able to conclude the following.
Two astonishing thoughts in Psalms 8.
First, the glory of God himself is reflected in the starry nights, in the heavens, in creation itself. Second, the same God that is displayed so clearly in creation, in His infinite wisdom and perfection decided to not only be mindful of puny little man, but to even give man dominion over the same creation which God chooses to reveal himself!
Wow! What an amazing privilege and honor, yet, we still wonder why God would do this? Who are we that He should be mindful of us and put us in charge of something that seems so much greater than we are.
It is a false presupposition that we are less of a creation than the world we see around us which is fostered from a lack of understanding about who we are in Christ, but even before that who we were created to be!
So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
Genesis 1:27 (ESV)
Who you are!
You were created in God's own image no other thing that was created has ever been given that honor and description of having been made in God's own image! Live as who you were created to be recognize your roots and live!
Even though we are so puny compared to God and small in stature compared to many things we see in creation God has great plans for the creation He made in His image. Take charge and be who He created you to be.
Don't stop there! It gets even better. When we look at John 1 we realized more about who we are. To all who receive Christ, who believed in His name, God has given them the right to be children of God!
Now not only are we made in God's image but we have, undeservedly, be given the gift of being heirs to the throne of God. We, once we believe in the name of Jesus, are children of God himself!
Man may be puny but God has huge plans us Praise be to God! Change your perspective on who you are and who God wants you to be today!
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i. This God—his way is perfect; the word of the LORD proves true; he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him. Psalms 18:30
ii. Zondervan NASB Study Bible, Copyright 1999 by Zondervan Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530, U.S.A.
