1 O Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
2 Out of the mouth of babies and infants,
you have established strength because of your foes,
to still the enemy and the avenger.
3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
4 what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?
The School Text (Plain Message)
This is a Psalm of praise, written by David, which contains reflections on truths that should boggle the mind if given to their full consideration.
First, David addresses God as “Our Lord” whose name is “majestic in all the earth” (v 1). By implication, he is saying that the name of the Lord is the MOST majestic in all the earth. And since in reference to all the earth God is called “Our Lord” he is therefore also implied to be the Lord over all the earth. Over every man and women. Over every king and nation. Over all of human history, and all of the earth’s history prior to man. But his majesty does not stop with the earth.
The glory of God is magnificent that it stretches “above the heavens.” The beauty and the massive power of all the combined stars and galaxies in all the universe sits far below the beauty, power and majesty of God. Our sun, a raging ball of fire 1.3 million times the size of the earth, is still only a mid-range star in size… and is only one of 250 billion stars in our galaxy swirling around a supermassive black hole 400 times the size of our sun.
Then consider that our galaxy is a relatively tiny, single galaxy in a sea of over 2 trillion other galaxies… and that’s only the portion of the universe that we can observe!
And all of that doesn’t even begin to touch the power and glory of God.
So then it is no surprise when David writes, “When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers… what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?” How is humanity even a blip on the radar of a God so big, intelligent, and powerful as that? Yet God not only made us and keeps tabs on us… He is “mindful” of us (v 4) and he “cares” for us. We occupy a special place in His mind and consideration.
Why? When so many of us become his “foes” “enemies” and “avengers” (v 2), why are we even tolerated, let alone given any attention? This God who is so powerful and ingenious that he can establish strength, and silence his enemies, usuing only “children and babies”…
… perhaps it is because of those children and babies, and others that still offer themselves to be used by Him, that mankind still enjoys his attention. Perhaps David himself is an example of one such child, who God used to take down Goliath when David was only a small boy. A seemingly impossible feat for a grown man, accomplished with seeming ease by a child who walked with God.
Who can grasp the fullness of these lofty things of God? From the incalculable size and power and beauty of the universe; to the puny races of depraved man, who so ironically set themselves against the Creator of the universe; and finally to the smallest of these, who God uses to accomplishes his great deeds in the affairs of men.
What a mysterious and infathomable Creator and Lord we have.
The Praise Text (Thanksgiving)/ Confessional Text (Penitence)
In this case I feel that the praise and confession of this text are so tightly interwoven that I could not separate them into two sections.
Praise to the Lord that so great and magnificent a God as He should have any mindfullness or care for me. I could never deserve his attention or his love.
I have been his enemy and his foe. I have dared to hold my own desires above those of the designer of galaxies. I have worshipped my own flesh and lusts and ignored the one who knit me together, and assembled this universe, this galaxy, this solar system, this planet… to eventually bring me about.
He did all these mighty and perfect things to eventually bring me about, so that I might know Him, love Him, enjoy Him, and bring Him glory. And instead my eyes found created things to worship above the Creator. And yet he still loves me, pursues me, cares for me enough to provide a way for repentance and reconciliation.
He even places His Holy Spirit within me to do the work of purification that I am too puny and powerless to accomplish myself. What a seemingly worthless and helpless creature I am! And yet He treats me as though I am worth so much. Thanks and praise to God forever for this.
The Prayer Text (Petition)
Lord God,
Thank you so much for your infathomable, inscrutible and mysterious love for me. I could never earn or deserve it, and yet I have it because you care so deeply about a creation so small as me.
Help me to always keep the perspective of this Psalm before me. Help me to always remember just how huge and grand and powerful and beautiful you are, adn how much and higher and better your ways are. Keep these things before me so that when my own ego begins to grow, and I consider myself to be something, I will remember that without your care and love for me, I am literally nothing but the tiniest speck of dust.
It is only in you that I have any worth or significance at all. It is only in you that I can do anything lasting, or have any real use or purpose. It is only in you that I can find fulfillment and joy. Help me to always remember, so that I will not trade the only thing of worth I have (my joy in You) for temporary worthless nothings.
In Jesus Name,
Amen
Steps On The Water 