How Majestic
“O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” Psalm 8:9
Psalm 8 is only nine verses long and it starts and ends with the same declaration: that God’s name is great in all the earth.
The verses in between verses one and nine talk about how things on earth praise God. Maybe you’ve looked around you while being outside and thought, “Wow, God is so great to have created such a beautiful world.” I know this happens to me a lot when I’m at Greystone.
I have always lived around mountains but I’m always filled with wonder when I think about how big and beautiful the mountains at camp are. Lake Edith is gorgeous when the sun starts to shine and makes the water sparkle. The trees lining the lower road and around the cabins are so tall and majestic. We see all kinds of beauty in nature in and outside of camp. Big things like snowcapped mountains, breathtaking sunsets, and powerful oceans. Smaller things like pretty flowers, symmetrical leaves, and busy insects. All of these things tell of the greatness of their Creator.
Unfortunately, sometimes we miss those things. Take a moment and praise God for what He has created and how great He is. Watch a mother bird build her nest. Blow the seeds off a dandelion. Spread a blanket in the grass and lay in the sun on a warm day. God’s fingerprints are everywhere.
One thing to keep in mind though is that we don’t need to go outside to enjoy God’s creation. He made us too, and we are the most wonderful of everything He has created. We praise Him every day by just being alive and we can do so much more.
We can praise Him with our words: telling people the truth and speaking kindly. We can praise Him with our actions: helping others and doing everything we do to the best of our ability. We can praise Him with our thoughts: staying positive and thinking of good things. There are so many ways that we can praise God.
Creation praises God passively. That is, God is praised because the things He made are beautiful. But we can praise Him actively, looking for ways to praise Him and doing them.
When I was younger, I learned a song based off of Psalm 8 that said: “Oh Lord, Our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. The heavens declare your greatness, the oceans cry out to you, the mountains, they bow down before you. So I’ll join with the earth and I’ll give my praise to you.” If creation praises God by just being beautiful, how much more can we join in and praise God with all that we do?
We are God’s greatest creation. He gave us life so that we could praise him with it, but He lets us choose whether we will or not because He loves us. Are you looking for beauty in God’s creation and how it praises Him? Are you praising God with the life that He has given you?