1 O LORD, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens.

2 Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.

3 When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;

4 What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?

5 For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.

6 Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:

7 All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field;

8 The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.

9 O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!

One town we lived in during my teen years had less than 200 people. It boasted a grocery store, barbeque restaurant (which drew people from all over), a manufacturing plant where my father worked as a welder, a garage, a tavern, a church, and schools up through eighth grade. They bussed the high schoolers to the next town ten miles away. There was one traffic light. We had a “route” number rather than a street address, and we identified our house as “the house on the second hill.”

One of the nicest things about that house on that hill was the view of the sunsets. With the town a little below and a minimum of “city lights” and a wide-open sky, every evening brought a magnificent view.

Often while beholding a glorious array of colors on the sky’s canvas, I would be drawn to thoughts of God’s grandeur and majesty and man’s insignificance in contrast. What mere specks we are in the universe! Yet God created us and cares for us.

When I first “discovered” Psalm 8, I felt I thoroughly understood David’s meditations here. I could picture him on a hillside with his sheep, or on the roof of his palace, gazing up into the sky at the majesty of God’s handiwork, naturally flowing into praise and wonder.

Join us for other meditations on this Psalm at Butterfly Kisses.