“LORD, our Lord, how magnificent is your name throughout the earth!” 8:1
I have been focusing on the glory of God this year and there are few passages that better emphasize God’s glory than this psalm of David. David begins by saying that the Lord’s name is magnificent, or “majestic” as we often sing, and that it is throughout the whole earth. The whole earth is filled with His majesty from the mouths of lowly babes to the very heights of heaven. All of this speech that is poured forth from the babbling brook to the babbling baby, and everything in between, brings honor to God and silences the enemy.
David tells us that God has even demonstrated His glory in the pinnacle of creation; you and me. He says that when one considers the grandeur of creation, from moon and stars, man seems infinitesimally small. This is a big universe and I have to admit when I fly from one continent to the other I get a sense of the vastness of the ocean, the magnitude of the continents and that doesn’t’ even begin to take in the utter infinity of space. In the midst of that universe, and even amid humanity’s 7 billion-plus people, I am just a speck. Insignificant is not a small enough word to describe how small we are. Now add to that the concept of time… from eternity past to eternity future, and our life is just a fleeting vapor; here for a moment and then gone.
Yet, in the midst of God’s glory demonstrated throughout all time and creation, God has even demonstrated greater glory by creating us and, as David says, “crowning us with glory and honor.” While we are specks and fleeting vapor, that is not all that we are. We are created in the image of God and as image-bearers, we were given authority to rule over creation; we have an echo of God’s glory in our very souls. How shameful it is that we spend so much of our time and effort concerned with our glory and our majesty instead of His. Any glory and honor I have been crowned with is His and has come from Him. Yet we live in a social media and selfie society that is obsessed with self-promotion. We are indeed above the animals, and it is true that we were created in God’s image, but let us never forget who really deserves the glory and let us covenant with one another that we will never steal (or even touch) the glory that is due Him.
