God of Glory
Psa
8:1
O LORD , our Lord, how majestic
is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.
In
the 6th of these meditations, when we considered the face of the Lord,
we briefly considered the glory of the Lord. Let's now think about
that more fully. David starts this eighth psalm off by reflecting
on how wonderful the Lord's name is. He uses the covenant
name for God (LORD = “I am who I am” – see Exodus 3:13-15 and footnotes)
which is another way of saying “God of Eternity” or “the Eternal One”.
When
he thinks of the Lord he feels His name is majestic, higher than any
other, and then he gives the reason for this: the Lord, he says, has
set His glory above the heavens. Now that's an interesting way of
putting it: “above” the heavens. In some old paintings the painter
showed the earth and the sky above it, and then had heavenly beings
above the sky. It's like they wanted to put the heavenly world above
“the heavens”, the sky, to give a fuller or more complete picture
of reality.
When
we look at the rest of this psalm we see David marvelling at God's
work in Creation (v.3). He then wonders at the fact of God making
man and giving him all this and making him ruler over all of it (v.4-6).
As he ponders on this and on the wonder of this incredible world,
God's gift to mankind, he just bursts out with, “how majestic is your
name in all the earth!” (v.9). Man may have been given this world
to rule over, but God Himself is the King over all things. He's the
One who created all things and therefore He's the only one who can
really claim to be King, Lord of all.
But
there's more than this, there's this reference to the Lord's glory.
When we considered God's glory before, we saw it as the brightness
that literally shines from God's presence, the glory that was first
revealed to Israel at Sinai. It was subsequently seen
at the completion and dedication of the Tabernacle (Ex40:33-35) and
the completion and dedication of Solomon's Temple (1 Kings 8:10,11).
Is that the glory that is being referred to here by David now?
Not quite but the same sense is there in what he describes.
He is saying that when you look at the wonder of God's creation
you see the wonder of the Master Craftsman, the Creator, behind it
all; it isn't just a bland piece of construction; it is a masterpiece
that reflects the staggering nature of the One who brought it all
into being from nothing. What it reflects is the glory or wonder
of the One who made it all.
Have
you ever seen it like this? Have you ever been somewhere in
the world and gazed upon what you see before you – and marvelled and
wondered at what is before you – the handiwork of the Master Creator?
Have you ever stood on the seashore with the sun setting and
marvelled? Have you ever stood on a hillside gazing on the panorama
before you, and marvelled? Have you ever seen the Canadian Rockies,
or any other great mountain chain, and marvelled? It would be
possible to write for hours describing the incredible variety of the
features of the world that are so beautiful. This is God's world;
this is what He has made. You have to be hard-hearted or blind
not to see the handiwork of God in all this and remain unmoved. Paul
wrote about such people, “ what may be known
about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.
For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his
eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen”
(Rom 1:19 ,20). His conclusion about their blindness and refusal to
respond? They have no excuse! Let's not be like them!
Response:
Pause up and briefly consider what parts of God's world you
have seen and wondered at. Thank Him for His handiwork.