O Lord, our Sovereign,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
Out of the mouths of babes and infants
you have founded a bulwark because of your foes,
to silence the enemy and the avenger.
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars that you have established;
what are humans that you are mindful of them,
mortals that you care for them?
Psalm 8 NRsvue
When I looked to the psalm reading for this first day of 2025 I found that is the eighth in the Psalter, with the heading "Divine Majesty and Human Dignity." It is a psalm of the heavens, although not "pie in the sky when we die, and a Creation psalm as well.
In 2024 we were blessed with a number of heavenly experiences. We donned our eclipse glasses In April for a view and then watched the shadow sweep across a large field as confused Spring Peeper frogs gave voice in the darkness.
At the Summer Solstice in June we were on Haida Gwaii, the astonishingly beautiful islands off the BC coast, close to Alaska. We'd never been that far north at that time of year and the seemingly endless daylight was novel.
In August we were on Change Islands, off Newfoundland, near Fogo, where we set our alarm for the wee hours of a rare clear night in the hope of seeing the Milky Way. As I noted before, Ruth let me go first while she kept the bed warm (very considerate). I returned to let her know that not only was the Milky Way visible, so were Perseid meteors and the Northern Lights, albeit rather pale.
All of these, along with beasts of the field, birds of the air, and fish of the sea, were "signs and wonders" inviting us to praise the Creator and delight in Creation.
I hope there is more to come for all of us as appreciative Groundlings in the year before us. And I pray that we humans can exhibit much more humility and far less dominion, misinterpreted as domination, as well.
Happy New Year!
Yet you have made them a little lower than God
and crowned them with glory and honor.
You have given them dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under their feet,
all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field,
the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
O Lord, our Sovereign,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
Psalm 8 NRsvue (continued)
