PSALM 8 VACATION

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. Last week I enjoyed several days of relaxing vacation visiting relatives. Part of my time was spent in rural Connecticut and the rest near Barnegat Bay at the Jersey shore. Not surprisingly, I suppose, I found myself spending as much time as I could outdoors, whether on the peaceful banks of the Connecticut River, walking along country roads, or, perhaps my favorite, listening to the sloshing of little waves on the shore of Barnegat Bay.

As I was sitting alongside the bay on Thursday I read a beautiful meditation on Psalm 8 which under the circumstances really touched my heart and made me appreciate more than ever the beauty of God’s creation and my own place as part of it.

When I returned to the noisy heart of downtown Newark I was really struck by how much we city-dwellers give up by living surrounded by pavement and brick walls, where fresh air is a pleasant surprise when it happens, and seeing stars in the night sky is an exception rather than the norm.

But at least from now on when I pray Psalm 8 I’ll remember that sunny afternoon and that feeling of being one with all the rest of God’s creation.

...............................Psalm 8

How great is your name, O Lord our God,
through all the earth!

Your majesty is praised above the heavens;
on the lips of children and of babes
You have found praise to foil your enemy,
to silence the foe and the rebel.

When I see the heavens, the work of your hands,
the moon and the stars which you arranged,
What is man that you should keep him in mind,
mortal man that you care for him?

Yet you have made him little less than a god;
with glory and honor you crowned him,
Gave him power over the works of your hand,
put all things under his feet.

All of them, sheep and cattle,
Yes, even the savage beasts,
Birds of the air and fish
that make their way through the waters.

How great is your name, O Lord our God,
through all the earth!

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