Psalm 8
O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.
2Out of the mouths of babes and infants you have founded a bulwark because of your foes, to silence the enemy and the avenger.
3When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established;
4what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?
5Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor.
6You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet,
7all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field,
8the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
9O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
Introduction to Trinity Sunday
Today is the one Sunday in the entire church year when we celebrate a doctrine rather than an event. The doctrine we proclaim is a Mystery. There is no other way to express it. We proclaim the mystery of God’s revelation. For those who want a black and white religion with easily defined answers—the doctrine of the Trinity poses a huge problem because we are acknowledging that our attempts to understand God are feeble at best and what understanding we have is only because of divine grace.
When we gather to worship—we do so in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. When we gather at the font for baptism—we baptize in the name for the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. We pray at weddings in the same triune formula. When we gather at the grave we commit our loved ones to the ground in the name of The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
So as we approach the mystery of God’s revelation we understand that we stand on holy ground.
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The psalmist captures for us this morning this mystery and does so by raising an ancient question.
Who Are We that God is Mindful of Us?
The image in the bulletin insert this morning is an image captured by the Hubble Telescope as it discovers and reveals to us the mystery of space. It captures in a moment in time—the sense of wonder and awe of the psalmist (Psalm
when he asked a question of the ages: When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; What are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?
Our knowledge of the universe is expanding at lightning speed. A few decades ago it was thought that there were two galaxies for each person alive. Lately, since the Hubble Space Telescope has explored the heavens, scientists have revised those figures and now estimate there are nine galaxies for every human alive on the face of the earth. To put that in perspective, each galaxy harbors an average of 100 billion suns. In our galaxy alone, the Milky Way, there are 69 suns for every person alive. (Homiletics, K.D. Herron, 5/30/10, p.80) The more we know—the more we see—the greater the wonder and awe of both the seen and the unknown.
When the words of the psalmist were penned, what was known of the universe was based on the observation of the human eye. At the same time, however, the human mind was ablaze with wonder and awe.
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