Psalm 8
I remember when I was a teenager at a church weekend retreat pondering the words of this psalm - we were staying on a farm, camping and at night in the country away from street lighting. When it is dark there, boy is it dark and the stars just go on forever with more distant, less bright stars between the closer, brighter constellations. Unfortunately towns, cities and street lighting just kill the subtle star light in our night sky.
Anyway I was looking at the clear night sky and thinking "When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and stars which you have set in place, who am I that you are mindful of me, humans that you care for us?"
Next morning I woke early and watched dawn in the valley with the mist just on the river - and I think I got an answer - God does not just do stars, he has a good line in beauty here too.
But God really does some amazing things and his majesty can be seen if one has eyes that perceive.
Men of faith, like Kepler, Copernicus, Newton and Galileo all considered the heavens, the movement of stars and sought to understand the workings of God in the heavens and in so doing discovered some amazing things about how the universe works.
From the praise of children and infants God gains strength. Which seems a bit weird, children can be a bit fidgety in church - yet God is strengthened by their praise.
Jesus famously told his disciples that unless they believe like children, they cannot enter the kingdom of God and he welcomed children and spent time with them and their parents.
By the way - anybody with a 2-3 year old will know that belief and praise come with a LOT of questions.
Anyway back to the psalm - God has been so generous to mankind that he has made us a little lower than angels and crowned us with glory and honour and given us responsibility for the planet we live on - we can use (or misuse) the resources of the world.
O LORD, our LORD, how excellent is thy name in all the earth.
Can I share something that happened to me yesterday? I think it is pertinent to this chapter.
It happened at work, somehow the conversation in the kitchen turned from kettles to God - not sure how and one of my colleagues said he did not believe in God, but he knew I did and respected my faith as I respect his views.
However he does not hold God's name as majestic or excellent and many other people feel the same.
He mentioned a friend of his who was paralysed in an accident who became an atheist at the time of his accident - he prayed desperately that he would not be paralysed and when he woke up God had not answered his prayer .
Now I don't have an answer for this person, or for anybody whose prayer is not answered but I did have a thought -
Jesus, before he was arrested, beaten, tortured, flogged and executed prayed desperately to God "Take this cup of suffering from me" - on that occasion God did not answer his prayer either.
I remember when I was a teenager at a church weekend retreat pondering the words of this psalm - we were staying on a farm, camping and at night in the country away from street lighting. When it is dark there, boy is it dark and the stars just go on forever with more distant, less bright stars between the closer, brighter constellations. Unfortunately towns, cities and street lighting just kill the subtle star light in our night sky.
Anyway I was looking at the clear night sky and thinking "When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and stars which you have set in place, who am I that you are mindful of me, humans that you care for us?"
Next morning I woke early and watched dawn in the valley with the mist just on the river - and I think I got an answer - God does not just do stars, he has a good line in beauty here too.
But God really does some amazing things and his majesty can be seen if one has eyes that perceive.
Men of faith, like Kepler, Copernicus, Newton and Galileo all considered the heavens, the movement of stars and sought to understand the workings of God in the heavens and in so doing discovered some amazing things about how the universe works.
From the praise of children and infants God gains strength. Which seems a bit weird, children can be a bit fidgety in church - yet God is strengthened by their praise.
Jesus famously told his disciples that unless they believe like children, they cannot enter the kingdom of God and he welcomed children and spent time with them and their parents.
By the way - anybody with a 2-3 year old will know that belief and praise come with a LOT of questions.
Anyway back to the psalm - God has been so generous to mankind that he has made us a little lower than angels and crowned us with glory and honour and given us responsibility for the planet we live on - we can use (or misuse) the resources of the world.
O LORD, our LORD, how excellent is thy name in all the earth.
Can I share something that happened to me yesterday? I think it is pertinent to this chapter.
It happened at work, somehow the conversation in the kitchen turned from kettles to God - not sure how and one of my colleagues said he did not believe in God, but he knew I did and respected my faith as I respect his views.
However he does not hold God's name as majestic or excellent and many other people feel the same.
He mentioned a friend of his who was paralysed in an accident who became an atheist at the time of his accident - he prayed desperately that he would not be paralysed and when he woke up God had not answered his prayer .
Now I don't have an answer for this person, or for anybody whose prayer is not answered but I did have a thought -
Jesus, before he was arrested, beaten, tortured, flogged and executed prayed desperately to God "Take this cup of suffering from me" - on that occasion God did not answer his prayer either.
No comments:
Post a Comment