"God Pause Daily Devotional" The Luther Seminary from Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States for Tuesday, 17 May 2016 with Scripture Psalm 8

"God Pause Daily Devotional" The Luther Seminary from Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States for Tuesday, 17 May 2016 with Scripture Psalm 8

Psalm 8:1 (0) For the leader. On the gittit. A psalm of David:

2 (1) Adonai! Our Lord! How glorious

is your name throughout the earth!

The fame of your majesty

spreads even above the heavens!

3 (2) From the mouths of babies and infants at the breast

you established strength because of your foes,

in order that you might silence

the enemy and the avenger.

4 (3) When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,

the moon and stars that you set in place —

5 (4) what are mere mortals, that you concern yourself with them;

humans, that you watch over them with such care?

6 (5) You made him but little lower than the angels,

you crowned him with glory and honor,

7 (6) you had him rule what your hands made,

you put everything under his feet —

8 (7) sheep and oxen, all of them,

also the animals in the wilds,

9 (8) the birds in the air, the fish in the sea,

whatever passes through the paths of the seas.

10 (9) Adonai! Our Lord! How glorious

is your name throughout the earth![Complete Jewish Bible]

-------

Did you know that Psalm 8 is on the moon? The Apollo 11 moon mission in 1969 delivered messages from the heads of state engraved on a silicon disk about the size of a fifty-cent piece. As the political head of the Vatican, Pope Paul VI sent along the text of Psalm 8 which says in verse 3: "When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?" 

These verses in particular remind us that Psalm 8 is a stargazer psalm. Gazing at the night sky has a way of raising all the big questions: "Who am I? Who is God? What can I do with the few years I have to live on this earth?" I like the way Leslie F. Brandt paraphrases these verses in Psalms Now: "When I gaze into star-studded skies and attempt to comprehend the vast distances, contemplate in utter amazement my Creator's concern for me, I am dumbfounded that You should care personally about me." 

Thank you, O God, for this wondrous creation of Yours that both fills me with awe and reminds me of your comforting care. Amen.

David Kupka

Retired

Doctor of Ministry, 1983

Psalm 8:1 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.

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, mortals that you care for them?

5 Yet you have made them a little lower than God, 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! [New Revised Standard Version]
---------------------