LIVING WORD DEVOTIONAL
By Pastor Mensa Otabil
Wednesday 8th December 2021
WHAT IS MAN?
Scripture Reading: Psalm 8
When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained, What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him? Psalm 8:3-4
Imagine David sitting alone in the still night. He looks up to the skies and sees all shining lights of the stars and the moon. He does not have a telescope to see the planets and galaxies of the universe. Yet, his spirit fully grasps the grandeur of God’s creation.
Let’s follow the meditations of the Psalmist’s heart, as he ponders the place of human beings in God’s creation.
• When I consider your heavens. David is drawn by the order of God’s creation. Beyond the vastness of the expanse around him, the Psalmist sees order – coordination. He wonders at the cyclical precision with which the moon and stars move to mark out the months and years of human existence.
While human generations come and go, the moon and stars continue in their regular appearance and movement undisturbed or altered. David takes note of the purposefulness of creation.
• The work of your fingers. The Psalmist recognizes all this wondrous display as God’s direct work. He knows that the creation belongs to God. David knows that the sky under which he stands belong to God.
Creation is God’s art on display. He spun the heavenly bodies from the tips of His fingers.
• What is man? That is David’s big question. The rhetorical questions in verse 4 emphasize that man is an insignificant creature in the universe.
Like David, we can sometimes feel small in the vastness of God’s creation. Have you ever taken your stand, as the psalmist does here, on a ship in the middle of the ocean or at the foot of a mountain or quietly under the night sky and felt yourself dwarfed to insignificance?
Prayer: Heavenly Father, you are the King of Creation. From the depths of my being, I bow to worship you. In Jesus’ name, Amen.