Aug 21 - Ps 8:3-4

When I look at your heavens,

the work of your fingers,

the moon and the stars

that you have established;

what are  … mortals

that you care for them?

Psalm 8:3-4

NRSV

I want to give you an assignment:

•     go to the beach (or to the nearest sand box),
•     fill a pail with sand,
•     and count all the grains.

No, thanks?!

How many grains of sand to a bucket? How many grains to a beach? How many grains to the great Sahara?

When God spoke to Abraham, he said, “I will make your offspring as numerous … as the sand …” (Gen 22:17).

It probably seemed like hyperbole, especially since God had also said, “I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven” (Gen 22:17).

I don’t know about you, but if I were Abraham, I’d rather count stars than sand. For most of human history, humans looked up and believed that there were only about a thousand stars in the sky. (And if I were counting, it’d seem like less than that since I’d choose a cloudy night to count.)

Our most recent and most powerful telescopes tell a different story, however. I’ve heard that nowadays scientists believe that there are literally as many stars in the heavens as there are grains of sand on earth. Wow!

Wow!

That’s why today’s question in Psalm 8 reverberates so powerfully in my heart? “[Lord,] when I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are  … mortals that you care for them?”

As Casting Crowns sings, “Who am I, that the Lord of all the earth would care to know my name, would care to feel my hurt, … would choose to light the way for my ever wandering heart.”

The great truth – and greatest wonder – of the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Jesus, you, and me is that he cares for us personally:

     He “knit [us] together in [our] mother’s womb” (Ps 139:13).

     He numbers “the hairs of your head” (Lk 12:7).

     “He hears [your] prayers” (Prov 15:29).

     He “rescues the weak and helpless” (Ps 35:10).

     God chooses us (Eph 1:4), forgives us (1 Jn 1:9), guides us (Ps 37:23), and protects us (Ps 95:1); and it’s all because he loves us (Rom 5:5)!

God sent his Son to die for you and me (Jn 3:16). Indeed, Jesus “took the humble position of a slave and appeared in human form. And in human form he obediently humbled himself even further by dying a criminal's death on a cross” (Phil 2:7-8).

“How great is our Lord!” (Psalm 147:5)

In Christ’s Love,

a guy who hasn’t counted all the stars

or all the grains of sand,

but is making God’s job easier each year

by losing more hairs on his head