“O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. ² Out of the mouths of babes and infants you have founded a bulwark because of your foes,  to silence the enemy and the avenger. ³ When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; ⁴ what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals  that you care for them? ⁵ Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor. ⁶ You have given them dominion over the works of your hands;  you have put all things under their feet, ⁷ all sheep and oxen,  and also the beasts of the field, ⁸ the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas. ⁹ O Lord, our Sovereign,  how majestic is your name in all the earth!” Psalm 8

“The Psalmist wonders at the amazing fact that a man who feels himself abandoned and forgotten by God, and is convinced above all else that God is not concerned with him [her], should still remain in the thought of God. It is further puzzling that a man’s heart should and can retain the conviction that God is friendly, precious and good when he [she] feels God to be angry, terrifying and unendurable. Who would not wonder at this? “What is man that thou art mindful of him?” this is the incomprehensible work of God, recognized through faith alone”. (“What is Man!”, Martin Luther, Devotions and Prayers of Martin Luther, Andrew Kosten, translator)

I often come back to Psalm 8–because the question the Psalmist poses is an unanswerable question—“What are humans that you care for them, Lord?” Obviously G-d has humanity held in a place of honor—but coming to some conclusion as to why, is, well, difficult. Even if we think G-d does not care, the Psalmist reminds us that G-d does care—and not just cares, but loves us. And it is not due to any particular “thing” we have done. My friends, G-d is mindful of you and me—and all we can do is response is believe, and love.

Pastor Dave

Deliver me, O Lord, from evildoers; protect me from those who are violent, who plan evil things in their minds and stir up wars continually. They make their tongue sharp as a snake’s, and under their lips is the venom of vipers. Guard me, O Lord, from the hands of the wicked; protect me from the violent who have planned my downfall. The arrogant have hidden a trap for me, and with cords they have spread a net, along the road they have set snares for me. I say to the Lord, “You are my God; give ear, O Lord, to the voice of my supplications.” O Lord, my Lord, my strong deliverer, you have covered my head in the day of battle. Do not grant, O Lord, the desires of the wicked; do not further their evil plot.  Psalm 140:1-8

“God’s will is. Determined by His wisdom which always perceives, and His goodness which always embraces, the intrinsically good. But when we have said that God commands things only because they are good, we must add that one of the things intrinsically good is that rational creatures should freely surrender themselves to their creator in obedience. The content of our obedience—the thing we are commanded to do—will always be something intrinsically good, something we ought to do even if God had not commanded it.

If pain sometimes shatters the creature’s false self-sufficiency, yet in supreme ‘trial’ of ‘sacrifice’ it teaches him [her] the self-sufficiency which really ought to be his [hers]—the strength, if Heaven gave it, may be called his [he] own; for then…he [she] acts in that strength, which God confers upon him [her] through His subjected will.” (C.S. Lewis, Preparing for Easter, “Encountering Philosophies of Death”, “The Problem of Pain”, “Human Pain”)

How hard it becomes to continue to seek G-d’s will, and to do it, or at least try, when we are suffering or in pain. When all is good, and we are generally happy, seeking and doing G-d’s will is routinely good—and easier. Oh it is never easy to do G-d’s will, but if we feel happy and good, it is easier to suppress our will in favor of G-d’s will. But add some pain, insert a little agony, or suddenly encounter suffering in our lives, stepping out of our own will to continue to do G-d’s will becomes supremely more difficult. It is especially true and necessary, when we are in pain, or suffering in some manner, that we should all the more seek G-d’s will and understanding through the suffering and pain. That is the most difficult understanding of all.

Pastor Dave