Psalm 8

Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth, Who have displayed Your splendor above the heavens! From the mouth of infants and nursing babes You have established strength because of Your adversaries, to make the enemy and the revengeful cease. When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained; What is man that You take thought of him, and the son of man that You care for him? Yet You have made him a little lower than God, and You crown him with glory and majesty! You make him to rule 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 through the paths of the seas. Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth!

What do infants and revengeful adversaries have to do with each other? Really! An infant is small, innocent, without their own voice, vulnerable and dependent on the strength of others. The other is independent and bent on displaying their strength as they attempt to settle scores on their own terms. Yet, the psalmist reveals it is from the mouth of these inherently weak and innocent ones that strength will be established.

What is man that You take thought of him, and the son of man that You care for him?

And we could also ask, “What do we mere humans have to do with God?” Humans are so limited and transient while God’s infinite majesty is best articulated by the cosmos. One appears as momentary, minute and irrelevant. The other eternal, all-knowing and all-powerful. Yet the psalmist tells us that, in spite of appearance and track record, we were fashioned to be only a little lower than God! Whatever our opinion may be of ourselves, we need to keep in mind that when we were created in the image of God, we were crowned with glory and majesty and we were commissioned to have dominion over this earth.

Because I have read and believe the scriptures I can imagine a day when not only will the Lord’s majesty be displayed above in the heavens but on earth as well in His Church. I can also imagine that this glorious day will be hastened as His children look at the heavens and see not only an impossible contrast but simply another element of creation with a kindred origin and destiny. Here are just a few scriptures that inform me that my dreams and hopes are in bounds.

No one’s ever seen or heard anything like this, never so much as imagined anything quite like what God has arranged for those who love him. (1 Cor 2:9)

It has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. and…  All of us who look forward to his Coming stay ready, with the glistening purity of Jesus’ life as a model for our own. (1 Jn 3: 2,3)

God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us. (Eph 3:20)

All the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the cross. (Col 1:20)

We are told by Isaiah of a day that is coming where “The whole earth will be brimming with knowing God-Alive, a living knowledge of God ocean-deep, ocean-wide.” I don’t believe this knowledge is going to just be plastered on billboards and bumper-stickers. I believe it is going to be the Word of God finding further expression through the Church. This knowledge won’t just be expressed in books and sermons. It will be Christ in us, the Word of God made flesh – being lived out in these lives we have been so apt to discount in terms of their worth and power.

I can also imagine this long awaited and foretold season being hastened as His children look to God’s Word and see not just an impossible mission that can only happen after a rapture due to the  unconquerable conspiracy of the world, our flesh and the devil. No. We will increasingly look to God’s words and see that the kingdom of God has come and that, in Christ, this kingdom potential is resident within us, making us pregnant with possibilities that we must dare to dream and live out.

It will be an immeasurable help to the Kingdom when we finally agree with God regarding who we actually are. As sanctified as it may sound, to confess that we are just sinners saved by grace is a debilitating lie. It is just not so. Listen to Paul and tell me just who you really are.

But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

Father, may we dare to dream Your dreams, embrace Your promises, think Your thoughts and in so doing, repent; overthrowing every lofty idea that has exalted itself above the full knowledge of God. Let the inevitable expansion of Your kingdom begin in our hearts. May Truth show itself infinitely superior to every half-truth ever sown. May our childlike and innocent hearts voice Your Truth and Wisdom, exposing the satanic plots and vanquishing Your adversary forevermore. May we reassert dominion over this earth which you placed beneath our feet. May we finally discover that, in Christ, the image is being restored. Holy Spirit, may you radically succeed in the deep and gentle works You aspire to. All to the glory and honor of Your majestic name. Amen.

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