WATCHWORD:
1 Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory in the heavens.
2 Through the praise of children and infants, you have established a stronghold against your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger.
3 When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, 4 what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? 5 You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor.
6 You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their feet: 7 all flocks and herds, and the animals of the wild, 8 the birds in the sky, and the fish in the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas. 9 Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! Psalm 8 NIV
Meditation:
Maker of the Stars – Awesome!
Psalm 8 would seem to be an appropriate passage during this time of Lent. The psalms that immediately precede it (Psalms 3-7) are prayers spoken by people who are suffering or who are persecuted. While Psalm 8 is in first-person and reveals that those suffering at the hands of evil forces are those made in the image of God and valued highly by their creator.
Psalm 8 proclaims that humans are God’s agents on earth, and this psalm is to be spoken to God. It emphasizes God’s sovereignty over all and proclaims that humans exercise authority over the earth within the rule of God. Who among us has not marveled at God’s creation as displayed in the skies at night. See if you can relate to this passage from my novel, Middle of Nowhere, scheduled for release March 22:
“They watched the sun set behind the rugged Tetons, far to the west, and marveled at the beautiful scene it created, thinking about God’s gifts, and praising Him. The darkness deepened and the silence of the prairie was broken only by the calls of coyotes communicating and the distant bugle of an elk somewhere far out on the prairie. Beautiful music of the night. Then, as they leaned back in their chairs and lifted their eyes toward the heavens; the biggest surprise of all! A sky filled with millions of stars and constellations. Shooting stars raced before their eyes, and were gone, replaced by still another, and another. It was a splendid show! Quietly, Tom spoke, “When I look at this night sky and see the work of your hands, dear Lord, the moon and the stars you set in place, what are we mere Mortals that you should think about us, that you should care about us, that you should gift us with your amazing grace?”
The Maker of the stars can certainly turn it on, and we do gaze in awe at His handiwork. There are times when our breath is taken from us by the beauty there before us, and, maybe, we, too, speak a prayer to the Almighty for what we behold.
It is not just the stars, it is the whole of his creation, right down to the moss on the side of the old trees that group together to form a spectacular forest. Mountains capped with snow. A lake, so still and clear, reflecting the beautiful scene that surrounds it. Nature, the handmaiden of our Lord, praising the Creator.
Each glimpse of creation is a promise, just as the rainbow is a promise and the sunset, a promise of tomorrow. Lent is a promise of a beautiful dawning of a new day, of a new age, of the coming of forgiveness, blessings too great for our mortal minds to grasp. Praise the Lord! Amen.
Friday’s Lenten Passage to Ponder:
Luke 13:3: I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.
Bulletin Board:
Billy Collins and his view of the moon:
He used to frighten me in the nights of childhood, the whole wide adult face, enormous, stern, aloft. I could not imagine such loneliness, such coldness.
But, tonight as I drive home over these hilly roads I see him sinking behind stands of winter trees and raising again to show his familiar face.
And when he comes into full view over open fields he looks like a young man who has fallen in love with the dark earth.
A pale bachelor, well-groomed and full of melancholy, his round mouth open as if he had just broken into song.
Closing Prayer:
God, I thank you for the healing rain that washes the curving hills bright green. I thank you for the beams of sunlight that falls softly on a child’s face. I thank you for butterflies and flowers, birds and fish, stars and trees, all of these beautiful things you created for us. I pray that all of your children see and wonder at these, and that the joy of these follows them through their lives now and forever. In your name we pray, Amen.
