Day 8 of Searching the Psalms
Please share your thoughts in the comments below each day so that we can
learn and grow together as we seek to know God and live justly.
Psalm 8 (MSG)
1 God, brilliant Lord,
yours is a household name.
2 Nursing infants gurgle choruses about you;
toddlers shout the songs
That drown out enemy talk,
and silence atheist babble.
3-4 I look up at your macro-skies, dark and enormous,
your handmade sky-jewelry,
Moon and stars mounted in their settings.
Then I look at my micro-self and wonder,
Why do you bother with us?
Why take a second look our way?
5-8 Yet we’ve so narrowly missed being gods,
bright with Eden’s dawn light.
You put us in charge of your handcrafted world,
repeated to us your Genesis-charge,
Made us lords of sheep and cattle,
even animals out in the wild,
Birds flying and fish swimming,
whales singing in the ocean deeps.
9 God, brilliant Lord,
your name echoes around the world.
I remember my mom gleefully saying, " Out of the mouths of babes!' every time my little brother or sister said something amazing. When I asked her at age 6 or 7 what that meant she told me that Jesus said it to tell people that babies and little children were innocent, truthful and very close to God. She didn't tell me he was quoting this psalm or that he he told it to some priests who were challenging who he was, but she did tell me the story of the disciples trying to shoo the children away from Him.
ReplyDeleteWe all know what the message is... easier said than done as much or more in these times as it was in Jesus' time.
A thought just crossed my mind, that older people with dementia are often said to be in their second childhood. Maybe we shouldn't fear it so much, it could be a blessing in disguise!
I like how you drew us to v.2. Babies and infants "gurgle the choruses about God" as they look up into the evening heavens. The babes drown out the voice of the enemy. Image of children is a good reminder for me to "be like a child", always amazed and in wonder of God. I hope it will be 2-3 decades off b4 I'm back to gurgling incoherently. hahaha! And yes, maybe dementia, senior living(not high school, right! ha!) but moving up in age is a chance to re-wonder, not just remember, and to once again fall in love with God. We can pray for those suffering under Covid, especially elderly people of color, feeling the afflictions of not getting best healthcare for many different reasons. Come, God, care for all those hurting. Also, too, this Psalm reminds me to enjoy all of His creation. But also to take good care of it. I'm thinking today about how I can care for the Earth, along with my 5 beauties that I live with, even by watering the garden, the pomegranate tree, caring for the plants, caring for my family. :) thanks for your entry, Mom.
ReplyDeleteI do fear for the elderly as they are increasingly targeted in what Pope JPll called the throwaway culture. I read at the onset of covid in NY that positive elderly patients were being sent to nursing homes. I do suspect , although I do not know for sure that those being sent there were most likely those who had no resouces other than medicare and no family to object. And those to whom they were sent were among the most vulnerable...seems unconcionable. But I stop short of saying that this was a cruel and deliberate attempt to illiminate the vulnerable. The covid has been so confusing for all, even medical advisors and those who must try to act on their advice.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't get off v.3 & v4. I read them over and over, pondering each word of the brilliant picture David painted of the night sky.
ReplyDeleteThen the memories over took me... my dad loved astronomy and the beach. Summers he'd take us to the beach and as the dusk started we'd lay on our backs and watch as God's "handmade sky-jewelry"
appeared. One by one as the dusk gave way to
evening he'd point out the star and tell us it's name or if a cluster like the "Big Dipper" explaining the stars that made the handle of the dipper and those which made the bowl.
Memories...
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DeleteWyndi
Verse 2 of this passage: "From the lips of children and infants, You have ordained praise." I like the way TPT puts it: "You have built a stronghold by the songs of babies." There's strength and power enough to shut Satan's mouth and silence the maddness of all who oppose the Lord our God. The innocence of a child, literally or a child in Christ, as a new Believer, with genuine praise that comes from the heart, quiets the enemy and stills his hand.
ReplyDeleteVerses 3-5 TPT really opens it up for me and again I am amazed when I think of how much God values me, and honors me; and I am humbled, and I bow and worship!