Saturday, November 9, 2019

3 ways to look at 8

Tom Fettke wrote a song using this psalm that to my mind was the choir anthem of the 20th century.



Psalm 8


New Living Translation
1 O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth!
    Your glory is higher than the heavens.
2 You have taught children and infants
    to tell of your strength,[b]
silencing your enemies
    and all who oppose you.
3 When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers—
    the moon and the stars you set in place—
4 what are mere mortals that you should think about them,
    human beings that you should care for them?[c]
5 Yet you made them only a little lower than God[d]
    and crowned them[e] with glory and honor.
6 You gave them charge of everything you made,
    putting all things under their authority—
7 the flocks and the herds
    and all the wild animals,
8 the birds in the sky, the fish in the sea,
    and everything that swims the ocean currents.
9 O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth!



The Message
God, brilliant Lord,
    yours is a household name.
2 Nursing infants gurgle choruses about you;
    toddlers shout the songs
That drown out enemy talk,
    and silence atheist babble.
3-4 I look up at your macro-skies, dark and enormous,
    your handmade sky-jewelry,
Moon and stars mounted in their settings.
    Then I look at my micro-self and wonder,
Why do you bother with us?
    Why take a second look our way?
5-8 Yet we’ve so narrowly missed being gods,
    bright with Eden’s dawn light.
You put us in charge of your handcrafted world,
    repeated to us your Genesis-charge,
Made us lords of sheep and cattle,
    even animals out in the wild,
Birds flying and fish swimming,
    whales singing in the ocean deeps.
9 God, brilliant Lord,
    your name echoes around the world.


The Voice
1 O Eternal, our Lord,
    Your majestic name is heard throughout the earth;
Your magnificent glory shines far above the skies.
2 From the mouths and souls of infants and toddlers, the most innocent,
    You have decreed power to stop Your adversaries
    and quash those who seek revenge.
3 When I gaze to the skies and meditate on Your creation—
    on the moon, stars, and all You have made,
4 I can’t help but wonder why You care about mortals—
    sons and daughters of men—
    specks of dust floating about the cosmos.
5 But You placed the son of man just beneath God
    and honored him like royalty, crowning him with glory and honor.
6 You ordained him to govern the works of Your hands,
    to nurture the offspring of Your divine imagination;
    You placed everything on earth beneath his feet:
7 All kinds of domesticated animals,
    even the wild animals in the fields and forests,
8 The birds of the sky and the fish of the sea,
    all the multitudes of living things that travel the currents of the oceans.
9 O Eternal, our Lord,
    Your majestic name is heard throughout the earth.

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