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PSALM 8; ISAIAH 12

Psalm 8 is one of my favorite psalms. When I'm feeling blue and lonely, when I become preoccupied with failure, and when depression threatens to turn the sky of my life into clouds of grey, I shower my mind with a portion of this psalm.

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,

the moon and stars that you have established;

what are human beings that you are mindful of them,

mortals that you care for them?

Yet you have made them a little lower than God,

and crowned them with glory and honor. (Ps. 8:3-5)

It's a thrilling reminder that God knows who I am. And when I think that way, if I am alone, I shout "hallelujah." If I'm where I can't shout, I allow my inner self to sing with joy, otherwise I might explode.

LIVING A HALLELUJAH LIFE

Singing, shouting, celebrating—it's the response of anyone, especially Christians, when contemplating God's story. The psalms are songs—songs that express every mood and attitude of persons. The highs and the lows, the successes and the sorrows, the doubts and the disillusionments are all there. So you have pensive confession, desperate longing for God's presence, honest questioning of God's activity, helpless dependency on God's strength, abandonment of self to God's will and way—and punctuating it all are exclamations of joy.

The coming of Jesus makes the singing more vibrant because we are now even more confident of God's character—his love and grace.

No question about it, the religion of the psalmist is a religion that sings. Psalm 8 is a pristine example. It begins and ends with that exulting greeting, "O LORD, our Sovereign, / how majestic is your name in all the earth!" (vv. 1, 9).

The postmodernists are right when they tell us that modernity—life based solely on science, rationality, and reason—has failed us. Researchers in physics and math are creating and making more space for wonder, imagination, mystery, and majesty. Science itself is discovering that while facts are important, facts alone are not enough either to explain or to experience the mystery and majesty of creation and this magnificent planet that is our dwelling place.

Evolution and intelligent design theories will continue to be debated. They deal with the "how" questions. Faith asks "why" questions dealing with the meaning and purpose of it all, our place as human beings in the "great scheme of it all."

Two of the best-known verses of Scripture are in this psalm. "O LORD, our Lord, / How excellent is Your name in all the earth" (v. l NKJV) and "What is man that You are mindful of him?" (v. 4 NKJV). Do you see it? It is only in the context of praising God, certainly only after praising him, that we can rightfully consider who we are. The psalmist places humanity within the vastness of God's creation. At first glance, that vastness highlights the smallness of humans. The motive of the psalmist is brilliant. He wants us to see God's immense care and concern for us, so he marvels, "What are human beings that you are mindful of them, / mortals that you care for them?"

Our marveling at the heavens, the work of God's fingers, might well be beyond that of the psalmist. We have far more data than was available to David's naked eye. We know that in one second a beam of light travels 186,000 miles, which is seven times greater than the distance around the earth. It takes eight minutes for that beam to go from the sun to the earth. That beam from sun to earth travels almost six trillion miles in a year. Scientists call this a light-year. It boggles the mind. Eight billion light-years from the earth is halfway to the edge of the known universe. There are a hundred billion galaxies, each with a hundred billion stars, on average, within the universe. There are perhaps as many planets as stars within all the galaxies—ten billion trillion!

With our heads spinning, we ask with the psalmist, "What is man . . . ?" The psalmist doesn't give us all the answers, but he gives us enough to go on. He says we are made a little less than God, and that we are crowned with glory and honor. That means you and me. That puts us in our place—a wonderful place in relation to God. A part of what that means is in the question of the psalmist: "What is man that You are mindful of him?" The adjective mindful derives from the verb remember (zakar). Take heart: we are remembered by God. God knows who we are.

LIFT UP YOUR HEART

"What is man that you are mindful of him, / And the son of man that You visit him?" (NKJV). Visit here means "to attend to, to observe," so the NRSV has it "mortals that you care for them." Lift up your heart. Rise from any cowering back in self-disdain or self-depreciation. God has his eye on you. Even when we forget, he remembers. Even when we get lost and wander away, he keeps us in mind. He knows who we are.

The prophet Isaiah kept reminding Israel that God would not forget the nation he had chosen to be an instrument of his redemption. As he preached to Israel, he sang a song of thanksgiving and praise.

Surely God is my salvation;

I will trust, and will not be afraid,

for the LORD God is my strength and my might;

he has become my salvation. (12:2)

Isaiah was confident that there is no way for us to get beyond the scope of God's love.

"The Lord of hosts is mustering an army for battle" (Isa. 13:4b). God always acts to redeem and rescue us. We can't outrun, out-give, outlast, or outgrow God's love. Out of the depth of that love, God delivered the people of God out of Egypt, moved an army to deliver the people of God from exile, and later would send the Son to rescue the world. The whole of Scripture captures God's great love affair with humanity. We may try to run and hide, but the arm of God's love for us is always long enough to reach and rescue us. (Wesley Study Bible, Life Application Topic: "Love of God," p. 830)

The final answer to the question "What is man . . . ?" is answered in Jesus. In all sorts of ways he answers the question, but in one particular way he gives us the answer of who we are by telling us who God is. Jesus called God, "Abba, Father" (Mark 14:36). He taught us to pray, "Our Father . . ." (Matt. 6:9). Don't forget: we are God's children. God knows who we are.

Loving God can even help us love one another more or even at all. Loving God and accepting God's grace with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength will restore us to a right relationship with God. And it will also help us love ourselves and other people.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION

Do you really believe God is Abba, Father, and loves you? Who do you need to love more? Who do you need to remember in prayer? How will you praise God with your life today?