Psalm 8
If you follow this post you would remember that last week I bemoaned the Psalms and how they challenged me to find the glories of God amid the "God is our leader in war" talk. I did eventually understand how the Hebrew people needed to remember their history and how it was God who brought them through all of their trials and into a place of peace, even if for a while.
The string of Psalms hailing God as the one who defeats, the one who crushes, and the one who divides gives way this week to a God who is majestic. There's still a line in there about God being on "our side" in our victories, but the overall message is more one of how God thinks about us rather than how we think about God.
Sometimes we forget that we have a God who thinks about us as well as a God who cares for us. We spend a lot of time thinking about the things we need to do to make God happy or what the best way to praise God is that we let the fact that God loves us unconditionally pass us by.
This Psalm reminds us that God put so much faith in humanity that God gave us the daunting task of taking care of God's creation. I use the word daunting because that task is both awe-inspiring as much as it is overwhelming. Taking a look at where creation is now - all of creation which includes the cattle of the ground and the birds of the air and the grass in the field and the fish in the water and the humans who all share it - I, for one, say we've not done as good a job as we should have.
The question now is, "Where do we go from here?" Remember, my friends, all change comes from within. As the song goes..."Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me." Take a hard, honest look at where you are, or better, who you are. Then ask yourself, "Do I love unconditionally, or do I pass judgment on others?"
If you believe we are made in the image of God I hope your answer is that you love unconditionally.
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