Psalm Meditation 567
Second Sunday of Easter
May 1, 2011

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!
(NRSV)

There are religious folks who believe we have no need to take care of the earth because the world will end before we have time to find and use all the resources the earth holds. That does not seem to change the commands and exhortations to care for the earth around us that run as a theme through Scripture. There are secular folks who believe we need to get all we can from the earth because if we don’t someone else will do it and get all the benefit from those resources. Both sides appear to be more concerned with domination of the earth rather than dominion over the earth.

The good thing is, there are both religious and secular folks who have made a commitment to care for the earth. The religious folks see themselves as partners with the God of creation who desire to exercise dominion in a way that cooperates with the creative processes set in place from the beginning. The secular folks see themselves as caring for the only planet/place we currently have in a way that honors the resources of the earth as well as our own survival needs.

Through it all God cares for us and for the place where we live and the other parts of creation which with we share our life together. God cares for us and about us and asks us to care for and about the place in which we live as co creators with God. It is about the relationship with God, the people around us as well as the living creatures and the resources that make up the world in which God has placed us. “O LORD, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! “


April 25, 2011