Brown's Daily Word 3-4-09

Good morning,
Praise the Lord for this Wednesday. It is going to be wonderful and beautiful. We will meet for our mid-week fellowship and study at 6 p.m. We are currently studying "The Purpose Driven Life". We are blessed to have several resident chefs. Tonight, one of them is making a special meal of Chicken cordon bleu and all the specials foods to go with it. At every meal we would like to celebrate the presence and the goodness of the Lord. The choir will meet for practice at 7.30 p.m. The choir is currently practicing for the Easter Cantata.
I am reflecting on Psalm 8 this morning. King David was a poet, a lover, an astronomer, and a theologian. He gazed into the night sky and was properly dazzled at what he saw. He saw a lot, but there was much more that he could not see. Ten minutes looking through a telescope at the wonders of the night-time sky would have seized him with wonder. It is estimated that there are at least 10 billion galaxies in the universe, with each galaxy containing perhaps 100 billion stars. We can see only the tiniest fraction of the universe that our God created.
Even Psalm 8 admits that the wonders of the universe are humbling. Of course, you don't need to go into space to see wonders. The wonders of God's creation are all around us. For instance a teaspoon of topsoil from the forest floor viewed under a high-power microscope, could reveal upwards of 1,400 beetles and springtail's, not to mention about two billion fungi, algae, and protozoa. On both the macro and micro levels, in both human and non-human creatures, the cosmos teems with life, with complexity, with music, and with movement. It is every bit as humbling as Psalm 8 claims.
But Psalm 8 is not intended by its writer to make us feel as if we are nothing. In only 70 Hebrew words, Psalm 8 directs us how to think about God, about creation, and about how God relates with His creation. Psalm 8 is the first psalm of praise in the Book of Psalms. It is also the only one of the 150 psalms that is a direct address to God throughout the entire poem. In Psalm 8 the psalmist has no problem saying that the physical is the glory of God. The stars, sun, moon, flocks, beasts, birds, and all the rest declare the glory of God. This psalm begins and ends with a declaration that God's name is visible in all the earth. Psalm 8 authorizes us to look for and to find God in the beauties of the galaxy. Whether you are peering into a telescope or a microscope, or gazing in wonder at a red fox passing through a meadow, what you are beholding is nothing less than the glory of God.
All of that, however, is just half of Psalm 8's larger purpose. The other is sometimes called "the humanity question." Who are we really? How do we fit into God's greater design? Knowing nothing of the true scope of the universe, the psalmist saw the moon and stars and felt like nothing by comparison. If there is anything more marvelous than the sheer scale and splendor of the universe, it is the revelation that in all of that vastness, we really do matter. We have been endowed with the image of God, or as Psalm 8 puts it, with a crown of glory and honor. We are put in charge of this gift so graciously bestowed on us by our loving Creator, to tend and keep and rule it on God's behalf.
All through the Bible man is given tasks and commands by God. God in the Old Testament demanded that his people pay attention to widows and orphans. In the New Testament Jesus charged the disciples to pay attention to the poor. These tasks are to be carried out in ways that glorify God. We are intended to enjoy the fruits of creation, using trees for wood or oil for cars or water for boating and fishing. In all things, however, we must always keep God in mind, thanking him for the bounties we can consume but also giving careful thought to how we can simultaneously keep alive the works of God's creative fingers. In a fallen world, this is difficult to achieve. Yet, the Bible everywhere assumes that it is possible.
It is possible to tend, keep, till, and consume the fruits of Eden while still keeping it Eden. It is possible to care for this world in a way that will keep the majesty of the Creator on display for all to see. Remember that we have been crowned with glory and honor by the Creator himself! "O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!"
In that holy Name, Amen.
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qm8BVF1NPfE