The awesomeness of God
"O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! ” (NIV) Psalm 8:1
Bible reading: Psalm 8
Psalm 8 is one of my favourite chapters in the bible because of its rich description of the awesomeness of God. I got the opportunity to memorize this chapter when I was a kid at Sunday school. It’s fairly easy to commit these words to memory when you relate the words to situations in your life that God showed His awesomeness. I would like to encourage you to give it a try. Before that, let us consider the various aspect of the Psalm.
The Psalm begins by expressing the sovereignty of our mighty God. If you get the chance to check up the word “sovereignty” in the dictionary, you would see meanings such as “having supreme power or authority” or “rightful status, independence or prerogative”. It is interesting to come to the realization that although God has all these powers and control, He exercises only over His enemies (the devil, lesser gods and the wicked) to protect or avenge His children. A few biblical examples include the story of Daniel in the lion’s den (Daniel 6), Jews versus Haman (book of Esther), and Nehemiah versus Sanballat and Tobiah (book of Nehemiah). I believe there are situations in your life where God exercised His power to save you or give you an unexpected breakthrough. Think about those situations to help you relate personally to this chapter.
Now let’s focus our attention on the beautiful and well-organized things in our universe; the moon, the stars and the other planets. It is so amazing to watch these things in the sky or on the internet (thanks to technology). The mind-blowing question has always been; can these things just happen by accident? According to science, the things in the universe “feel” each other and in one way or the other work hand in hand for their existence or destruction. But the beauty of all these is that they were all created for the benefit of mankind. For example, the sun gives us light and warmth during the day and the moon and stars give us light at night.
The final part of the Psalm expresses how much God loves humans to make us rulers and beneficiaries of all that He has created. I always feel humbled to read that upon all our iniquities, God still cares for us (Psalm 8:4) and He demonstrated this ultimate love by sending His only begotten son to die on the cross for our sake (John 3:16). Beloved, if you are not a Christian, I would encourage you to consider the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross to reconcile us with God (John 10:11, 2 Cor. 5:18-19). If you are a Christian, I would encourage you to share the awesomeness of God with the people around you. He is the majestic God who has our interest at heart!