How Majestic Is Thy Name!
I’ve often wondered what goes on in the minds of those who choose the lessons for the daily lectionary. I mean, how do they decide? Does it come from prayer and fasting, a dart board or perhaps the Holy Spirit?
Take the combination of the Psalm and the Old Testament for today:
O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is thy name in all the earth! When I look at thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast established; what is man that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou dost care for him? Yet thou hast made him little less than God, and dost crown him with glory and honor. Thou hast given him dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet… O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is thy name in all the earth!
Psalm 8:2–9, RSV
And then there is the reading from Job, in which God responds to Job’s overconfidence in his own opinion:
“Have you [Job] commanded the morning since your days began, and caused the dawn to know its place, that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth, and the wicked be shaken out of it? Have you entered into the springs of the sea, or walked in the recesses of the deep? Have the gates of death been revealed to you, or have you seen the gates of deep darkness? Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth? Declare, if you know all this.”
Job 38:12–21, RSV
The first and last lines of the Psalm sum up both readings and give us something to ponder:
O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is thy name in all the earth!
The Lord’s name is
majestic
. In Webster’s Dictionary, the definition of this word ‘majesty’ is given as “sovereign power, authority or dignity” or “greatness or splendor of quality or character.” What do you think of when you hear the word
majesty?
Perhaps a vista of the Rockies on a cool spring morning, an eagle soaring above the tree line or something else? More to the point, what comes to mind when you when you read the words “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is thy name in all the earth!”? Just for a moment, close your eyes, take a few deep breaths and ask God to allow you to glimpse something of His majesty through your experience of the earth today. Ask God that you might see more of the height and depth and breadth of
His marvelous majesty
!
The Rev. Robert E. Wareing
Pastoral Care Associate
