Psalm 8 - How Majestic is Your Name

I remember the very first time I was on a long distance flight. I was in my twenties and had grown up never travelling very far. I guess I was nervous, but I was also fascinated, sitting down at the back of the plane gazing down at the ground, miles below. 

One image is etched on my mind from that journey, and that was the view as the plane flew over Greenland (taking the ‘polar route’ to the United States). I sat in awe and fascination as snow capped mountains filled my view for as a far as the eye could see. It was awesome. I had a Bible with me and I remember turning to Psalm 8 and beginning to read:

LORD, our Lord,

How majestic is your name in all the earth!

You have set your glory in the heavens. 

David lived a long time before the days of trans-continental travel but in Psalm 8 he looks up to the skies, gazing at the moon and stars, and he is awestruck. He is awestruck at the bigness, the vastness of what he sees. He is awestruck by something that is so much more than him and yet he is awestruck that in some sense he is part of this.

David sees an incredible creation and he marvels that God has placed him in it and called him not just to be a spectator but a participant within it.

Flocks, herds, animals, birds, fish, all of these live within God’s creation, and yet it is only humankind who God has called to know Him and who God invites to worship Him.

In recent days we have seen David troubled, we have seen David anxious, we have seen David on the run. Tonight we see David staring out the window, as it were, and quite simply He says ‘wow’ and He worships God.

Pause for thought: The LORD is Lord over all the earth. He is majestic. His name is like no other. Look out at creation, so much more than us, so much bigger than us. Marvel, bow down, worship God.