Year C. The Holy Trinity Sunday Psalm 8 June 10th, 2001
Title: “Ecology,” is really a matter of morality.”
This is a Song of Praise, sung by an individual but framed by a choral refrain verses two and ten. The main reason given for the praise is the “glory and honor” God has bestowed on humankind, God’s regent in the governance of creation.
This psalm would be appropriate for many cultic occasions even though it most probably was non-cultic in its origins. It would be best suited for an evening service, since there is reference to the moon and stars but none to the sun and light. There is no chance of being able to date this psalm’s composition. It clearly has affinities with Genesis 1-2:4a, especially 1:26, “Let us make man in our own image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish…birds…cattle…wild animals…”)
The structure of the psalm is “outer-inner.” On the edges, verses two and ten, the first and last verses, God is praised for his glorious name. Inside, verses three to nine the paradox of humankind is expounded: though small and fragile, humanity is “second-in-command” in ruling the world, made so by God’s wisdom. The refrain in verses two and ten could have be sung by the choir after each line or chanted continuously, sotto voce, while the lines were sung.
Verse one, the heading of the psalm reads, “For the leader; “upon the gittith.” A psalm of David. “Gittith” possibly refers to the type of melody to which the psalm was to be sung or to the musical instrument to accompany it.
In verse two, “Lord, our Lord,” the first “Lord” translates the Hebrew yhwh, God’s name. It was not pronounced as such when read. Rather ‘adonai, “my Lord” was substituted out of reverence for the name of God. The second “Lord” translates the Hebrew ‘adonainu, “our Lord,” God’s title with the plural pronoun. Together they make quite a solemn sound.
How awesome is your name: The reason for the praise of God is his “name,” which means himself, his very being, in all his character, characteristic ways of doing, and uniqueness. The word name in the Bible really means, “nature.”The psalmist is less impressed by the glory of creation than by the glory of the creator to which it points and which it reveals. The name of God is the sacramental bearer of the divine reality.
You have set your majesty above the heavens: Both God’s “name” and his “majesty” are poetically synonymous. His majestic name both permeates the earth and transcends the heavens.
In verse three, out of the mouths of babes and infants: The text is obscure and the point is not entirely clear. It seems to be saying that God performs his great deeds, “you have drawn a defense against your foes,” through apparently in humans’ eyes and estimation, insufficient means babes and infants, so that his power may be revealed all the more plainly, “to silence enemy and avenger”. Or, another way of putting it, God is so powerful that the “power” of his enemies is broken even by the voice of mere children. Babes symbolize human weakness and humility. They are devoid of arrogance, yet have a strength greater than that of the arrogant because they speak God’s name with a trust and sense of awe denied to God’s enemies. This is one of those instances where the text seems to have a clear general direction but the actual words do not quite take you there.
In verse four, your heavens, the work of your fingers: God is pictured as a potter molding his creation with his mere fingers, bearing his fingerprints, his personal mark, fashioned with an ease and grace incomparably superior to humans.
The moon and the stars: The original inspiration for this poem-prayer must have happened at night. There is no sun or sunlight mentioned in this prayer. For most, nighttime was a scary time. For the psalmist this night was an awesome time wherein he connected with the awe of God in his creation and in humanity.
In verse five, “what are humans,” this is both a rhetorical question and an exclamation of wonder. Under the vast expanse of the heavens the psalmist becomes so aware of the frailty of his own humanness, so small in such a large “container,” so frail amidst such powerful forces. Humans must be to the universe as small bugs are to humans- inconsequential in the great scheme of things.
“That you are mindful of them,” The verb in Hebrew is zakar, “remember.” Humans, by comparison, hardly think of the little critters until and unless they get pesky or bite. God is ever conscious of every human person. How so?
“Mere mortals,” This translates the Hebrew ben-‘adam, “son of man.” It is poetically synonymous with “man” or “humans” in 5a. That word in Hebrew is ‘enosh, a term for both man and woman as frail earth-creatures. “Son of man” is also gender-inclusive.
In verse six, “little less than a god,” “A god” is not the best translation for the Hebew ‘elohim, a word in the plural form used for God, gods, and heavenly beings such as angels some translate the word here as “angels”. Since gods had no reality, let alone status, in God’s universe, this is hardly the comparison being made here. While “less than God” himself is an acceptable translation and an acceptable interpretation, it is best to take the meaning here as referring to angels or heavenly, spiritual beings. The point seems to be that God created human beings almost at the level of heavenly beings.
Crowned them with glory and honor, “Glory and honor” are attributes generally related to God. They are now given by God to humans in a crowning. This means that God treats all humans like kings and ruling queens, ruling as opposed to consort queens, merely such by marriage to the king. They have real power, real authority, but delegated power and authority, to be exercised according to God’s will, not their own. Humans have “glory and honor” and “dominion” only because they reflect, as opposed to possess on their own or in their own right, the divine glory, honor and dominion. So, humans are not unlike God; they are made in his image and likeness. Their glory and honor are divine gifts, not human achievements.
In verse seven, “you have given them rule,” as God’s regents or, “agents,” really, they are to master and govern the created world “in his name.” That is to say they govern “because of” and “by virtue of” his name, as his representatives, not as in their own name or right. In verse five the psalmist was struck by the contrast, namely, that in comparison to God the heavens are tiny but in comparison to the heavens humans are tiny. Now he is struck by the central role God has assigned to these puny, fragile creatures. Only by the revelation of God could this be so.
In verses eight and nine, the field -land…sea…and air, the psalmist includes all of creation as he knows it, concentrating on living creatures, domesticated and wild animals, and includes every known form of environment, earth, sea and sky.
In verse ten, “how awesome your name,” this verse and Verse two form an envelope around the psalmist’s reflections on the less awesome, but awesome nonetheless, role of humans in God’s creation.
The psalmist’s assessment of the lofty place assigned by God to his human creatures is, of course, not the whole story. The same humans given dominion over creation have messed it up, trashed it up and turned the garden into a junkyard. Nonetheless, the author is adamant that humans’ sins do not change the divine intention. God might postpone his plan and its fulfillment to give humans time to come to their senses on their own. He may even seem to revise his plans in the face of human opposition, pressure and disagreement, but not really. But he will not change his plan. After all, it is better than anything humans could devise. Has any human every truly “created” anything? And, in the long run, it is better for humans than anything they could even imagine, let alone “create.”
It is just like God and that is what the psalmist is getting at when he says, “How awesome is your name,” to be so confident in himself that he would assign the number two position of management of the universe to human beings! Knowing how we are, how petty, stupid, self-willed and self-centered we are, he still did it. He must know something we do not.
Even we, in our saner and more poetic moments, know how we are. Over the centuries, but especially recently since the scientific age, humans have been painfully aware that they are not even dwarfs when it comes to the size and measurements of even many earth-creatures, let alone stars, comets, meteors and the like. Of course, when humans looked within, into the composition of all these things, we realized that we are the most complex, atomically and anatomically. Even though we may bluff, boast, bolster ourselves, brag and engage in bragging, in our more honest moments we know we are weak and essentially scared creatures. Yet, God has entrusted to us this awesome task of “remembering” or being ever mindful of his creation, caring for it and developing it just as he does for us.
How self-confident is God! The authority, power and position he has given humanity over his creation do not threaten him. He does not think that it takes anything away from his “honor and glory” by crowning humans with it. Thus, praising human achievement takes nothing away from God, provided we do so in his name, recognizing the power-source of human accomplishments, all done in and with God. This psalm helps put to rest God’s enemies’ contention that he always needs to be praised and so is or must be insecure, if he exists at all. What human would not be jealous of another being praised and, especially, praised for something that human did?
The psalm calls us to take more seriously and more playfully, our awesome responsibility within creation and see to it that all God’s creatures- great and small- are treated well, respectfully and even, reverently. They are not there to be exploited. They are there for humans’ use, provided they are not abused in the process. Only then can the glory and honor, which God has given to humans, reflect God’s.
To be serious about our awesome role in ruling over creation does not mean to be somber, solemn, staid or stodgy. We can also be playful about it, knowing that God is ultimately in charge. We should be intense about life, but not tense. It all does not, in fact, depend upon us. God has given us room to make mistakes, even to willfully make them, that is, to sin. Yet, part of God “name,” his character, is to forgive and forgiveness is God’s playful side. Like Lady Wisdom in the Old Testament, we delight God when we play, especially when we turn the serious business of being his regents on earth into play. “Play” describes the attitude, character, name, God has brought to the work of creation.
The “glory” of creation is nothing compared to the glory of the Creator.
Only those who stand in the right place, the vantage point of faith, can see creation as a sacrament of God. Without faith of some sort creation or nature, the universe, if themselves, does not reveal God or anything about human responsibility for creation.
God can perform and does perform his great deeds through what humans, without faith, would consider insufficient means that is babes and infants.
God is so secure in himself that he can share his “honor and glory” with humans without loss to himself.
God has retained his veto power in giving humans dominion over his creation.
Morality: In Romans 1: 15-32 Paul makes the same point that is made here, only Paul makes it more explicitly. In Romans 1: 19 Paul says, “What can be known about God is evident to them “them” being those without benefit of divine revelation found in Scripture, because God made it evident to them.” Paul means that humans can come to some knowledge about God through their natural reasoning powers. In other words, there is a standard of moral behavior to which all humans are held by virtue of the fact that God has revealed his “name,” his character, his nature, in and through his work of creation. That level of morality, at least, is available to all humans, even non-Christians. However, Paul does not rule out “faith” on the part of all humans. There is “faith in Christ” and there is “faith.” Jews had and have faith. So do Muslims, Buddhists, and many other religions. So do atheists. Yes, even atheists have some sort of faith. Otherwise, they would not bother to deny the very existence of God. They do so, the sincere ones, at least, because they have “faith” in “truth” and do not believe the existence of God to be true. Faith of any sort begins with the realization that there is more to reality that meets the physical eye. Reality is deeper than its surface manifestations. When we pray this psalm we realize there is nothing of Christ in it, nothing that hopes for a savior. Any sincere, open human being could pray this psalm without reservation. However, it is based on an act of faith. The psalmist had to have had a religious experience, a faith experience, that night when he gazed at the moon and stars and saw them and himself in the context of something someone?- bigger and deeper. That gift, that dimension or level of faith is open to everyone. It is the felt recognition, intellectual but more than intellectual, that we humans are powerless without an outside source for our power is a fundamental act of faith. Thus, all humans are only truly human when they let that power direct their lives and actions and not merely use that power for their own selfish purposes. That is what morality is. True, Jesus and those after him who reflected on the implications and applications of the entire Christ event made even more explicit just what those responsibilities are. Nonetheless, humans who do not know or accept Christ are not left clueless as to how they are to behave in the world of God’s making. True, we cannot know God from the inside without Christ. But, there is enough of the outside of God for non-Christians to behave in a way that is consistent with their place or “pecking order” in creation. Psalm 8 is a psalm for all people.
Ecology: Why would humans be motivated to clean up the environment, an environment they messed up? Why would humans be motivated to put their selfish interests second to the ecology? Would folks who cared only about their own self-interests be motivated enough to discount those in favor of endangered animal species? True, such folks can be intellectually convinced of the necessity to clean up the air or the water, but unless they realize that it is their responsibility to do so, there is little chance that they would remain motivated long enough and sacrifice their own interests enough to make a difference. Only the appeal to a higher power will provide impetus and stimulus enough to move folks to action. “Ecology,” is really a matter of morality. Psalm 8 teaches that. Amen.
