Text: Psalm 8
O Lord, our Lord, How excellent is Your name in all the earth, You who set Your glory above the heavens! Out of the mouth of babes and infants You have ordained strength, Because of Your enemies, That You may silence the enemy and the avenger. When I consider Your 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 visit him? For You have made him a little lower than the angels, And You have crowned him with glory and honor. You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet, All sheep and oxen – Even the beasts of the field, The birds of the air, And the fish of the sea That pass through the paths of the seas. O Lord, our Lord, How excellent is Your name in all the earth!
Devotion
The holy singer of Israel praises the Lord’s grace and goodness toward us. This is the basic thought of our psalm. The Lord is so great and has spread His glory over the heavens so much that even little children must praise Him, – to the shame of blinded mockers and deniers. He has set lowly mankind as lord over all His works and has laid all under the feet of mankind.
Excellent is the Lord’s name over all the earth! Look at the splendor of the sky. It is our Lord’s name that streams down upon you from these rays of immeasurable brilliance. When you know that nearly all of them are mighty suns, they say to you: Infinitely great is the Lord of hosts. But when they shine and blink so wondrous and gentle, then they tell you that the Lord is good, and when the clouds roll away and the stars reappear and stand there today as in the days of Abraham and Moses, then they proclaim the Lord’s unchanging faithfulness. If the whole creation forms one circle of heavenly bodies, then what is an earthly king’s crown compared to these!
But what unimaginable good it is toward us, that God has made man to have dominion over all His works! Man, know your lowliness and your greatness! Know the Lord and His grace, and be humble, and you shall become great! From the beginning He created man in His image and said: “Have dominion over all things in the heights and in the depths.” With the Fall we lost our glory, but in Christ we have gotten it back, and in Him we shall enter into supreme dominion over all things. Christianity has fostered an intellectual culture, so that man can peer deep into the mysteries of nature and harness its powers. But what shall perfected mankind be able to do, and what royal position over all things shall be taken up! God whose glorious name sounds forth in all His works has not only given us intellect above all creatures, when He breathed life into us from the beginning, but He has granted us fallen creatures His Son and renews us in Him to be His children and fashions us into a Church which is the flesh and bone of His Only-begotten. These things I remember when I consider the Lord’s greatness over all the earth and His splendor in heaven. And then I fall before His feet with the fear of a lowly, sinful creature before the infinitely glorious and holy One, but also with childlike confidence in my heavenly Father, and I say: “O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the earth!”
Hymn
The Lord forsaketh not His flock,
His chosen generation;
He is their Refuge and their Rock,
Their Peace and their Salvation.
As with a mother’s tender hand
He leads His own, His chosen band, –
To God all praise and glory!
Ye who confess Christ’s holy name,
To God give praise and glory!
Ye who the Father’s pow’r proclaim,
To God give praise and glory!
All idols under foot be trod,
The Lord is God! The Lord is God!
To God all praise and glory!
Then come before His presence now
And banish fear and sadness;
To your Redeemer pay your vow
And sing with joy and gladness:
Though great distress my soul befell,
The Lord, my God, did all things well, –
To God all praise and glory!
Schütz: All praise to God who reigns above L 546:7-9 ELH 435:4-6 tr. Composite;
tune: Lobt Gott den Herren