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A little lower than God? Psalm 8 (please: read this short psalm first)  This Psalmist really gets carried away! After starting out with: O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! (1, NRSV), the poet then waxes eloquent about the glory and majesty of God’s creation, including the heavens, the moon and the stars. I’m OK with all of that, I really am, for I share the ecstasy of the poet when it comes to our natural world and universe. Then the poet poses this question: what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? (4) Now there’s a good question for you! That’s a question which, quite frankly, comes into my (oft cynical) mind on a regular basis. When I see us human beings engaged in endless wars, when I see our nation’s obsession with guns and other weapons of violence (which we delude ourselves into believing will bring peace), when I hear of our prisons bulging at the seams – yes, I do at times ask myself why God cares about us. OK, OK, I know I’m digressing. So, reading on - the psalmist offers this next (problematical) conclusion: Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor. (5) A little lower than God? Do you read that as I read that? A little lower than God? My inclination is to scream at the psalmist: Get a grip – you do mean to say a LOT lower than God, do you not?  Undeterred by my outburst, the poet goes on: You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas. (6-8) Well now, come to think of it – that is correct. Us mortals, us human beings have been given such authority, such responsibility. In fact, you may recall that Jesus talks about giving us power and authority, and promises that this will come to us in the form of the Spirit, the breath of God. (Acts 1:8) So the question revolves not around our having power and authority, but rather upon the manner in which we choose to use the power and the authority which comes only from God the Father and Mother of us all, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.   My concern about the poet who created Psalm 8 is misdirected. The poet is quite right in being rapturous about God’s creation, including God’s creation of us mortals, made in the image of God and made with great and majestic possibilities. What a piece of work is wo/man – or can be, with God’s help, God’s grace. O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! (9)  - Pastor Piet - June 3, 2007: Trinity Sunday