Psalm Meditation 1145 ¶Seventh Sunday of Easter ¶May 29, 2022 ¶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 humans 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) ¶Somehow, those of us from European backgrounds in particular, have taken the gift of, “dominion over the works of your hands” as entitlement to use any part of creation as we see fit. We have abused and damaged so much of the world we have been given, it is likely we will be called upon to answer for the ways we have lived in the world we were supposed to have cared for. I am sure we each have a list of the ways everyone else has abused our home planet without taking responsibility for our own actions. ¶In at least some tribal societies, the community leader owns everything within the group. A part of exercising dominion over people is to care for their needs out of the resources held for the sake of the whole group. When that happens, all is well and the people of the community are happy to keep the leader in place. When the leader takes on an attitude of entitlement, and hoards the community resources for selfish gain, the community is forced to rebel for the sake of all, over against the one. ¶God has given us dominion over the earth, not as an entitlement, rather as a responsibility. We are to care for the earth’s resources for the benefit of all with whom we share this place. God’s majesty continues in every arc and corner of creation, continues to let us exercise dominion over creation when we do it well and when we don’t. “O LORD, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” ¶May 23, 2022 ¶LCM