The God of the universe

 This week's verses are Psalm 8:

O Lord, our Lord,
how magnificent is your reputation throughout the earth!
You reveal your majesty in the heavens above.
From the mouths of children and nursing babies
you have ordained praise on account of your adversaries,
so that you might put an end to the vindictive enemy.
When I look up at the heavens, which your fingers made,
and see the moon and the stars, which you set in place,
Of what importance is the human race, that you should notice them?
Of what importance is mankind, that you should pay attention to them?
You made them a little less than the heavenly beings.
You crowned mankind with honor and majesty.
you appoint them to rule over your creation;
you have placed everything under their authority,
including all the sheep and cattle,
as well as the wild animals,
the birds in the sky, the fish in the sea,
and everything that moves through the currents of the seas.
O Lord, our Lord,
how magnificent is your reputation throughout the earth!

I didn't have much time to prepare a Bible study this week, but I wanted to share this Psalm that talks about God's kindness to us for giving us so much. We have a great place in his universe, better than any other created being. We don't often stop and acknowledge it. The Psalmist does.

The universe is huge. It's so huge that we sometimes forget that it was designed by God. We get lost in its vastness. We are hypnotized by the minute details of its perfect functioning, always trying to find smaller and smaller particles, to learn all of its laws and secrets. It becomes a math problem to be solved and not a work of art, or a gift to be enjoyed.

The Psalmist was luckier in that sense. He didn't have science curricula, core education requirements, and God-hating faculty boards to warp his sense of wonder. You see differently when you're looking up instead of down. Nowadays you can get a doctorate without ever stopping to consider that God is behind it all.

But the vastness and intricacy of it all is part of what the Psalmist wonders at. Of all of the things out there, how did we get to be the ones who get to be in charge of shaping it? The lights of our cities are visible from space. We can cure diseases, and make our own species. Some would even say that we control the weather. Why us? Why does God love us so much?

God is glorified in the world around us, and he is glorified in our accomplishments, if we're willing to look up and see. Thanks to him we aren't helpless. We have options, even options he created and hid just for us to discover.

So meditate on how great God is for creating the world for us to enjoy and for giving us such a great position in it. All of creation points to his supernatural greatness, and we are most blessed when we are able to see it.