...be faithful...

One of the things I have loved about the Psalms are their honesty about the human person. The Psalms speak clearly about the darkness that resides within every human heart. But in Psalm 8 we hear words that help us face our own sin and darkness, words in Psalm 8 that speak to us of the vocation, the fundamental call of all of our lives, to face our own sin and darkness and work each day of life living in Christ, faithfully living as we have been created to live.

“What is the human person, Lord, that You should be mindful of them?

Human beings that You should care for them?

You made us a little lower than the angels

And crowned us with glory and honor;

Thou have made us rulers over the works of Your hands;

And You have put all things under our feet” (Psalm 8.4–6).

But we must be careful here, for God does not make us “masters of creation!” No, instead consider how this Psalm 8 begins and ends:

“Lord, our Lord,how majestic is Your name in all the earth” (Psalm 8:1 & 9)!

We ALL live on behalf of God! We are to carry out our lives humbly and obediently. The real arrogance, the real sin, comes each time we refuse to carry out the life God has marked out for each of us! God created you and me, indeed the entire world, in such a way that it was to be looked after by humans who reflect His image. When we humans rebel, God did not rescind that project. Instead, He called upon the human family to reflect not simply His wise and divine ordering and stewardship of the world, but now also His rescuing love into that same world, disastrously flawed as it now is.

We must keep in mind what the Psalms wish us to keep in mind, the ecstasy and the agony of our lives: the rich, breathtaking vocation God has bestowed on us all, and the dark, tragic fact that our vocation, our rescue mission, has always meant to be undertaken by people, people like you and me, people who our ourselves in sore need of the very same rescue.

So, take special heed of the words spoken in Psalm 78:

“Give ear, O my people, to my teaching;

incline your ears to the words of my mouth…

We will tell to the coming generation

the praiseworthy deeds of YHWH, and His might,

and the wonders that He has done.

That they should not be like their ancestors,

a stubborn and rebellious generation,

a generation whose heart was not steadfast,

whose spirit was not faithful to God” Psalm 78: 1,4, 8.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner.

From the Bible:

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen”

Hebrews 11:1.

“Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain” 1 Corinthians 15:58.

“The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever” Isaiah 40:8.