# 2 - Praise God for Creation: Psalm 8; Reflection by Megan Bruening

A Reflection on Psalm 8

Whenever I read this psalm, verse four always strikes me: “What are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?” The simple question evokes wonder at the mystery of God’s love for us; I know that we are His children, but personally it astounds me that He who created the “moon and the stars” loves this rag-tag crew of sinners called humanity. We are in awe of His love and creation, but God does not treat us as mindless devotees who exist only to boost a divine ego. Instead God lifts us up to become part of His heavenly family and stewards here on earth.

Everyone has heard the clichéd phrase ‘with great power comes great responsibility.’ In my opinion the same responsibility applies to love, which in itself is a great power. Because of God’s incredible love for us, He invests us with power, with “dominion over all the works of [His] hands.” This call to stewardship is often interpreted as a call to care for God’s earth, and while I believe this is a valid reading I also believe in a broader interpretation. God gives us power. He has “put all things under” our feet: now these “things” are specified in the reading as animals and resources, but has not God given us power over more? His love has put many other things under out feet, obstacles that prevent us from acting as His stewards such as fear, hatred, anger, sin and even death. We are given power over these things through God and His love so that we are free and ready to serve the world in a manner that magnifies the Lord’s majestic name.

Psalm 8

O LORD, our Sovereign,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
²Out of the mouths of babes and infants
you have founded a bulwark because of your foes,
to silence the enemy and the avenger.
³When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars that you have established;
⁴what are human beings that you are mindful of them,
mortals that you care for them?
⁵Yet you have made them a little lower than God,
and crowned them with glory and honor.
⁶You have given them dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under their feet,
⁷all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field,
⁸the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
⁹O LORD, our Sovereign,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!