O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
2 From the lips of children and infants
you have ordained praise
because of 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 man that you are mindful of him,
the son of man that you care for him?
5 You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor.
6 You made him ruler over the works of your hands;
you put everything under his feet:
7 all flocks and herds,
and the beasts of the field,
8 the birds of the air,
and the fish of the sea,
all that swim the paths of the seas.
9 O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth! Psalms8:1-9
The X-men movies series suggests that human beings are still evolving and that homo-sapiens will be surpassed by the next generation of superior humans.
Psalm 8 sees it differently: Humankind, created in the image of God, already has all it needs to be the apex of creation. This is not because of our DNA, the size of our brains or the flexibility of our thumbs. (Some folk are suggesting that the next generations will have more nimble thumbs because of all the sms-texting we are doing!!!)
The Psalm is clear: We are the apex of creation because of one key concept: The responsibility of choice.
* We have the option to praise - and when we do, it silences our enemies.
* We are only a little lower than the angels who were also given the gift of choice (and we know that Satan abused that choice and rebelled.) We have the choice of letting God be our God or trying to be our own gods (that's what Adam and Eve's choice was about.)
* We have the responsibility to look after God's creation - to be custodians of it.
Unfortunately we keep getting this wrong:
- We try to be our own gods
- We abuse creation
- We try to get praise for ourselves instead of praising God.
How do we know when we get it right?
The end of the Psalm makes it clear - we have exercised our choices and responsibilities correctly when God gets the praise.
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Theo Groeneveld theo@emmanuel.org.za
You can see past EmmDevs at http://emmdev.blogspot.com/
