The Praise of Children
OPENING PRAYER:
Amazing God, you are the creator of the world in which I live. Yet, every person I meet is made in your image and precious to you. You are truly amazing.
Psalm 8[a]
For the director of music. According to gittith.[b] A psalm of David.
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?[c]
5 You have made them[d] a little lower than the angels[e]
and crowned them[f] with glory and honor.
6 You made them rulers over the works of your hands;
you put everything under their[g] 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!
Footnotes
[a] Psalm 8:1 In Hebrew texts 8:1-9 is numbered 8:2-10.
[b] Psalm 8:1 Title: Probably a musical term
[c] Psalm 8:4 Or what is a human being that you are mindful of him, / a son of man that you care for him?
[d] Psalm 8:5 Or him
[e] Psalm 8:5 Or than God
[f] Psalm 8:5 Or him
[g]Psalm 8:6 Or made him ruler . . . ; / . . . his
REFLECT:
When you pray, how do you address God? In this psalm, David uses the two Hebrew words Yahweh and Adonai. God is (his name is too holy to be spoken), and he is Lord of all. Praise him now.
What a lot of word pictures this psalm paints! In verses 1, 3 and 4, I picture an insignificant person gazing up at a vast sky, perhaps looking at a sunset, a rainbow, the stars, or Northern Lights. God’s glory set in the heavens.
Verse 5 evokes a picture of heaven, with God stooping to crown humans with glory and honor, with hordes of angels spectating. It is a puzzle – why does God care for humans so much? Verses 7 and 8 remind me of Genesis 1 and 2, when God brought the living creatures to Adam to name, and charged humans with the responsibility of ruling over everything.
In the middle of all this splendor, verse 2 seems almost incongruous. And yet it is the praise of the babies and little children which leaves God’s enemies totally stumped, with nothing to say. Perhaps this is what Paul was referring to in 1 Corinthians 1:27 when he said, ‘God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.’
APPLY:
Which of the word pictures in the psalm most cause you to turn to praise? Could you draw, paint or even find an image on the internet that represents something of the majesty of God’s name for you?
CLOSING PRAYER:
Let it not be Lord, that praise should rise to you and I remain silent. I lift my thanks and praise to you.
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