Psalm 8 “…What is man that You are mindful of him?...”

One of the great pleasures in my life is to go outside on a clear starlit night and peer into the night sky. With my telescope I can become totally absorbed in the sheer majesty and mystery of the heavens. A full moon is a marvellous sight to behold. Its craters are the perfect reflectors for the softening of the sun’s rays to illuminate earth in the night time.  My first sight of the beautifully ringed Saturn through a telescope is still lodged in my memory. 

The Psalmist David had neither telescope nor binoculars. But as a young boy looking after his father’s sheep on a moonlit Judean hillside, he too was fascinated by the mysteries of the universe.  Looking up into the night sky David asks God a big question. Its one we should ask God too. In Psalm 8 he says, “When I consider the heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained;…What is man that You are mindful of Him? And the son of man, that You visited him?...For You have made him a little lower than the angels, and have crowned him with glory and honour.” The big issue with David was, “God, seeing You have an enormous universe to run, why bother with us mere mortals? Why should you visit us and honour us so?”

I think the author Victoria Brooks gives a good clue to this question. She says, “Although man is surrounded by relationships, he gives himself to accomplishments. Whereas God, although surrounded by His accomplishments, gives Himself to relationships.” We are accomplishment driven. God is relationship driven. Many a man or woman, in pursuit of some accomplishment, has lost their husband, wife, and family in the process. Their gain was their loss. But God, the creator of the whole universe, doesn’t look up to be fascinated. He looks down. Down to earth. Down to the sons of men. Down to you and me. God desires a relationship with man, the crown of His whole creation. Wonder of wonders that it should graciously be so, but it is. This is what David was wrestling with. The mystery of why Almighty God should care for us sinful, failing, weak, faltering human beings. But we are eternally grateful that He does.

David wasn’t to know, that his Greater Son, as Christ is often called, literally did visit this earth. God sent His only begotten Son to redeem us,  so that He could be our Heavenly Father and bring us into relationship with Himself. Next time you look up into the evening sky, remember David’s Psalm and thank your Heavenly Father for sending His precious Son Jesus. 

- Pastor David Goudy