“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