July 25, 2022

JD Wilhelm
"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[b] 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!"
Psalm 8:1-9

Psalm 8 was the first biblical text to make a trip to the moon. In 1969 it was a part of the Apollo 11 mission, which left a silicon disk on the moon containing messages from seventy-three countries, including the Vatican, who made the text of this psalm its contribution to the disk. When reading Psalm 8, it is clear why this was an appropriate choice to make the journey to the moon. It proclaims not only the sovereignty of God over the cosmos in an eloquent way, but it also affirms the exalted status and vocation of human beings to exercise dominion over the earth. In Psalm 8, we come face to face with a paradox. The paradox is that God is wholly sovereign and transcends our perspective of reality, yet at the same time, He uses weak and seemingly insignificant human beings as partners in caring for creation.

When we meditate on this paradox, we can’t help but proclaim the refrain from this psalm, “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” As we enter this week, may that be our personal refrain of praise. Praise be to God who chooses to use us, as broken and sinful beings, to bring about his kingdom here on earth.