Psalm 8

****THOUGHT FOR THE DAY****

God uses broken things. Broken soil to produce a crop, broken clouds to give rain, broken grain to give bread, broken bread to give strength. It is the broken alabaster box that gives forth perfume. It is Peter, weeping bitterly, who returns to greater power than ever.

-- Vance Havner, Christian Reader, Vol. 32, no. 4.

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PSALM 8

The universe is vast and full of grandeur, so why should God pay any attention to weak and insignificant men and women? BUT HE DOES! He can use the weakness of babes to reveal His great strength (Matt. 21:16) and to defeat the enemy (the way David defeated Goliath (1 Sam. 17). If He can use infants, SURELY HE CAN USE ANYBODY.

YOU ARE IMPORTANT BECAUSE GOD MADE YOU IN HIS IMAGE (v.5); Gen. 1:26‑28). Sin has marred that image, BUT IN JESUS CHRIST, THAT IMAGE CAN BE RESTORED (2 Cor. 3:18; Col. 3: 10).

You are important because God has shared His dominion with you (vv. 6‑8). Man lost that dominion when he sinned, but Jesus Christ has regained it (Heb. 2:6‑8). Can you think of occasions when Jesus Christ proved that He had dominion over beasts, birds, and fish?

YES, YOU ARE IMPORTANT TO GOD, AND HE HAS A PURPOSE FOR YOU TO FULFILL. He wants you to "reign in life" through His Son - Rom. 5:17), for you are enthroned in the heavenlies with Him (Eph. 2:6). WHY LIVE LIKE A SLAVE WHEN YOU CAN LIVE LIKE A SOVEREIGN?

With the Word - Warren W. Wiersbe

Thomas Nelson Publishers

Nashville

"Used by permission of Thomas Nelson, Inc."

GOD IN THE STRAW

Theodosius Harnack, Luther scholar of note, said that for Luther the imperative was to have "God deep in the flesh." Christmas celebrates just that: God deep in the flesh. So great was God's longing for his creatures' redemption, says Luther, that God's preference for human nature over angelic nature might even have provoked the angels to jealousy!

But PSALM 8 nudges that issue: what are human beings that you are mindful of them? They have been made a bit lower than angels but crowned with glory and honor. A preference for humans: in that lies the Christmas gospel. ...

There is God in the flesh, thriving in a placenta, protected by a water bag, bouncing on a donkey ride to Bethlehem where his folks had to meet the local IRS. No different than any other baby at the time. While God preferred human nature to the angelic, God asked no human favors and got none. When inns are full they are full. Sleep where one can. GOD DEEP IN THE FLESH BECAME GOD DEEP IN THE STRAW. Mary, the mother of the Creator, sustained the one who sustained all the living.

-- C. John Weborg in The Covenant Companion (Dec. 1994). Christianity Today, Vol. 39, no. 14.

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(Psa 8 NIV)

O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. {2} From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger. {3} When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, {4} what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? {5} YOU MADE HIM A LITTLE LOWER THAN THE HEAVENLY BEINGS AND CROWNED HIM WITH GLORY AND HONOR. {6} YOU MADE HIM RULER OVER THE WORKS OF YOUR HANDS; YOU PUT EVERYTHING UNDER HIS FEET: {7} ALL FLOCKS AND HERDS, AND THE BEASTS OF THE FIELD, {8} THE BIRDS OF THE AIR, AND THE FISH OF THE SEA, ALL THAT SWIM THE PATHS OF THE SEAS. {9} O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!