Day 19: David as Musician – Psalm 8

LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory in the heavens.

Have you ever had a song stuck in your head? Usually it is not the whole song – just one line of music and perhaps a fragment of a phrase that plays over and over and over in your brain. It sneaks up on you in the middle of doing a mundane chore or while driving to work.

I sometimes wonder if David had days like that. He certainly wrote many psalms to be sung. I imagine him going through his day with bits and pieces of psalms winding their ways together into a form that was suitable to be put down on paper. He must have had fragments and phrases like the ones that begin and end Psalm 8 stuck in his thoughts as well.

While there are times that the song that is stuck in my head is meaningless, there are times when I think the phrase I keep remembering is something I need to focus on, to bring into conscious thought and practice in my daily life. These words from Psalm 8 are ones like this. They introduce a Psalm which goes on to describe the miracle that is creation. It is so easy as we go through the day to forget to praise the Lord for what he has given us. We don’t look around us at the many blessings he has provided. We look for miracles and signs that He loves us in the midst of trouble and forget to see the miracles that the world and our own bodies are. We forget to praise the Lord in the little, every day joys and sorrows he gives us.

David wrote many Psalms. We use all or parts of them in many parts of our liturgy in worship on Sunday mornings. When was the last time you took these words, probably burned into the autopilot part of your brain, and really thought about what you were singing or saying as you participated in the Sunday service? Have you looked at these words and thought about them enough to have them be repeated in your thoughts as you go through the week? “Oh come let us sing to the Lord, let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation…” (Psalm 95:1, The Venite). Think about the words as you sing them. Have them stick in your head through the week. When we have these words surrounding our thoughts as we go through our days, we can only feel blessed by the Lord.

As we go through the season of Lent, may we all have this song stuck in our heads: “O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the earth!”
-Shirley Drier

Almighty Lord, amid the grandeur of Your creation You sought us out, and by the coming of Your Son You adorned us with glory and honor, raising us in Him above the heavens. Enable us so to care for the earth that all creation may radiate the splendor of Your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.


Sources:
Schnorr von Carolsfeld woodcuts © WELS used by permission for private and congregational use
Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 Biblica. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved
Collect for Psalm 8 For All the Saints – A Prayer Book For and By the Church Vol. IV © 1996 by the American Lutheran Publicity Bureau, Delhi, NY