It’s easy to wake up full of praise for the glory of God’s creation when you’re on vacation. Or to whisper a prayer of thanksgiving when you witness a glowing sunrise at 5:00 am during a hiking trip. But what about Monday morning, when you are driving to a hellish workplace, or when you lay in bed at night unable to sleep because your mind is bombarded with worries and anxieties? The glory of God’s handiwork that King David describes in this psalm appears less radiant when you’re bogged down in the mundane tasks of life. Worse, God’s creation is completely forgotten or even treated as an annoyance when you are trekking through especially turbulent times. When that happens, it is not simply that creation’s brilliance dims as a result of our despair, anger, anxiety, or bitterness. It’s that we lose focus of our brilliant and awe inspiring Creator.
Do you realize that the characteristic beauty of creation is meant to draw our attention to its Designer? Everything around us that we appreciate through our senses is a gift of God to be enjoyed. That also includes the food we eat, art, architecture, literature, technology, and medicine – things made by people by God-granted creativity. It’s meant to be enjoyed for the pleasure it brings us. But creation is also a reminder to all people at all times and all places that God is the architect of its grandeur. He is the deserved recipient of praise and worship.
“Oh LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.” (Psalm 8:1)
In creation, the simultaneous exaltation of God and submission of humankind is made evident.
“When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?” (Psalm 8:3-4)
It should be obvious that however creative humans can be, we are incapable of anything as wondrous and complex and awe-inspiring as God’s created order. And yet incredibly, God has granted us responsibility for tending to earth.
“Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.” (Psalm 8:5-8)
We are made care-takers of this world, to watch over all the plants, animals, and seas. But we do so in a way that should be likened to a Sunday morning church worship team – to direct all admiration, praise, and worship to the God of creation. The name of Jesus will be exalted in all the earth because all the earth bears his trademark.
Are you participating in expressing the fame due his name? If you are bogged down by struggles or even the status quo, look at the good gifts around you. Even better, open the Scriptures which make abundantly clear the good news of Jesus Christ. You don’t have to take a special camping trip to experience the joy of the glory of Jesus Christ. You just need to intentionally seek him out. His glory never fades, and his goodness never diminishes.
“Oh LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” (Psalm 8:9)