Dominion – Psalm 8

A text – Psalm 8

¹ O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.
² Out of the mouths of babes and infants you have founded a bulwark because of your foes, to silence the enemy and the avenger.

³ When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established;
⁴ what are humans that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?

⁵ Yet you have made them a little lower than Godand crowned them with glory and honor.
⁶ You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet,
⁷ all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field,
⁸ the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.

⁹ O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

A reflection:

As I understand it, this may be the only psalm in which every verse is spoken directly to God. It is a prayer of praise and also deep wonder that God has created us and all other creatures, and yet God has given human beings dominion over the earth and everything in it. Is the psalmist awed and delighted at the calling humans have been given, or is the psalmist wondering why God has entrusted the earth to a bunch of short-sighted greedy humans like us?

Everything comes from the Lord, and the Lord has given dominion to us. It might be good to remind ourselves that dominion is a word that had a particular meaning when the scriptures were translated out of Hebrew into Latin and other languages for the world outside Israel to be able to learn. Dominion is what an earthly king had over his realm. The king was responsible for it – its care, its wise use, its capacity to keep going, its sustainability. Wise management, we might call it. We currently live in a world that has not been wisely managed, and many current world leaders seem less concerned about the planet’s future than their own bank accounts. The life of the earth and the lives of the people who inhabit the earth seem to mean very little to many, even though this psalmist is saying that our job, given to us by our Creator, is to make sure the Earth and its people and animals and plants and oceans and forests thrive.

This is a psalm of praise, not a psalm of lament. What might we do this week to live into its vision of a majestic Creator Lord and a bountiful planet with careful caretakers?

A prayer:

Lord God, thank you for loving us. Thank you for giving us the job of caring for the earth and everything in it. Help us to see chances all around us this week to be good caretakers and use our energy for the benefit of everything that you have made, including other humans like us. Amen.