Psalm Meditation 850
World Communion Sunday
October 2, 2016

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)

This is a celebration of the place of humanity in creation. With a much more narrow view of the scope of creation than we have today, the psalmist is aware that humans are a relatively small part of it in terms of size. Despite our seeming insignificance God has given us a glory and honor more grand than we seem to warrant. In addition, humans have the added responsibility of caring for parts of creation with whom we share time and place. Even as the psalmist celebrates the place of humans in creation there is an awareness that it is all under the auspices of God.

While we are quick to accept our place at the top of the ladder of evolution and the food chain, we are not always so quick to recognize our responsibility to those on the rest of the ladder. Some folks excuse a lack of concern for creation by allowing that God will bring an end to us before we get a chance to use up all the resources available. Our attitudes can be compared to the way we view any set of rules. As children and youth, as those under the rules, we see rules as attempts to squelch our fun and creativity. As adults, as the makers of the rules, we see rules as a way to keep everyone safe, to keep the playing field as level as possible and to give the greatest number the greatest chance to succeed and excel.

Celebrate the place of humans in creation. Celebrate the majesty of God and the blessings bestowed on us by God’s creative power. Recognize, too, that we are a part of creation and have some responsibility for it. We are not over and above the creative process, something other than creatures, free to use and abuse it as we see fit. We live under the majestic authority of God rather than in the place of God.

September 26, 2016
LCM