(Click here for a video of John reading this Catch.)

You have set your glory
in the heavens. Psalm 8:1

I continue to be mesmerized by this picture of deep space taken by NASA’s new Webb telescope which we put out there in orbit along with us from where we can see further than we’ve ever seen before.. Yesterday we talked about the eternity in the heart that this picture represents, but there is more — so much more. One of those things is what David has captured in the Psalms.

When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
human beings that you care for them? Psalm 8:3-4

When you consider that we are on this tiny little planet that isn’t even the center of its solar system much less its galaxy, and placed who knows where in this vast universe, you have to come to a place of great humility. Who are we that we should place any importance on ourselves or our accomplishments? 

And yet, this is where the psalmist in the word of God surprises us. Instead of dwelling on that lowly state, he suddenly lifts us up to a place slightly lower than the angels. Some translations have that slightly lower than God, and then God crowns us with glory and honor, and set us up as rulers over what He has made.

You have made them a little lower than the angels
and crowned them with glory and honor.
You made them rulers over the works of your hands;
you put everything under their feet:
all flocks and herds,
and the animals of the wild,
the birds in the sky,
and the fish in the sea,
all that swim the paths of the seas. Psalm 8:5-8

Amazing. From the lowest to the highest. And yet all of it is marked by humility. And no place do we receive praise; at every place God does. “What is mankind that You are mindful of them, and human beings that You care for them?” And yet He does. This is His glory and we are all about His praise. How pathetic that we could ever think we could forget Him, or be anything without Him!

Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth! Psalm 8:9

Amazing what you can get from looking through a telescope.