Dear all,
Psalm 8 is such a wonderful psalm. In this psalm, a hymn of praise for God’s love and care for humans, we read that God has created the universe to reflect his glory, from the sky to the earth to the sea, and God has bestowed his image on humans. We discover that God created humanity with free will and gave them responsibility and dignity. The psalmist is in awe at God’s beauty, revealed through creation, especially the moon and stars and he wonders why such a God would care so deeply for humanity. How could a God capable of creating the sky and the weather also be loving and tender with humankind? God has honoured humanity by giving them responsibility over the earth (verses 5-8). He has trusted humanity to take care of the animals, the food supply, and the environment. Building on sharing in the image of God, and thereby the knowledge of God, humans will shepherd what lives on earth, participating in God’s love and care, which they both receive and offer as part of that image.
Reading this psalm in the midst of daily news of horrendous wars, great global inequality, injustice and suffering, and a looming climate crisis does not sit well at all, does it? We seem to have become somewhat blasé with all that God has given and have all but abandoned our responsibility to care for the earth. We seem to have lost sight of the splendour with which God made us. As one commentator writes, ‘what God made to reflect God’s majesty has become horror scene. We have turned on each other. We have turned on our planet. We have turned on God.’ Here are some questions that all of humanity needs to wrestle with: what does it mean that we were meant to find the loving tenderness of God in the beauty of our planet, and yet we are destroying it and all its creatures with our greed for more and more resources? What does it mean that God trusted the animals in our care, and yet many of them haven’t survived because of our neglect? What does it mean that we were created in the image of God? Out of all that God could have chosen to love, what does it mean that God loves humankind?
So, we consider how the proclamation from this psalm invites deep reflection on questions like these, especially remembering God’s design for humankind in Genesis 1:27-30. Friends, we, and all people, are the bearers of God’s image, blessed by God, and called to care for the earth. How do we live in faithfulness in this moment? How do we address the climate crisis as God’s hands and feet in the world? How do we engage in our food chain and address access to food as those God has commissioned to care for all that live on earth? Friends, let us offer ourselves afresh to God and assure him of our willingness and our ability to fulfil his calling to more faithfully bear his image in the way we care for one another and in the way we care for the earth and its living things. And let’s start by doing something new today to care for God’s creation, no matter how small or seemingly ordinary. One act at a time, one day at a time, let’s reveal something of God’s loving tenderness to creation, being transformed and transforming the earth as we journey on, starting today!
With much love,
