404. Monday after Twentieth Sunday after Trinity.
Psalm 8. O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength, because of thine enemies; that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers; the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; what is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honor. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands: thou hast put all things under his feet: all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas. O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!
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The holy bard of Israel glorifies the mercy and goodness of the Lord toward man; this is one thought of the psalm before us.** The Lord, who is so great, and has set his glory above the heavens in such a way that even babes must praise him, — to the shame of blind and infatuated scoffers and infidels; — he has appointed little man to have dominion over all his works, and put all things under his feet.
Excellent is the name of the Lord in all the earth! Consider the splendor of the heavens; it is the name of our Lord which you see written in these lines and curves of countless jewels. When you know that nearly all these points of light are mighty suns, they speak to you, saying: Infinitely great is the Lord of hosts. When they look down upon you with their wondrously gentle and kindly light, they declare that the Lord is good; and when the mists roll away, and the stars reappear, each in the place in which it was seen by Abraham and Moses, they proclaim the unchangeable truth of the Lord. The universe is a crown of heavenly orbs; and how incomparably more grand than the crown of an earthly king! What then, shall we say of the inconceivable goodness of God, in that he has made man to have dominion over all his works? Man, know your littleness, and your greatness! Know the Lord and his mercy, and become humble; so shall you become great! From the beginning he created man in his own image, and said: Have dominion over all things, in the height and in the depth. By the fall we lost our glory; but it has been given us again in Christ; and in him we shall attain to supreme dominion over all things. One outgrowth of the Christian religion is an intellectual culture which has enabled man to penetrate deep into the secrets of nature, and harness its forces, and compel them to do his will; and yet, how much more shall humanity see when it has been made perfect, and how like a king shall it be then in its relations to all things! God, the glory of whose name shines forth in all his works, did not only give us an intellect above all other creatures, when he breathed life into us from the beginning; but he has given to us fallen creatures his Son, and in him renews us to be his children, and fashions us into a church which is flesh and bone of the only begotten Son of God. This I remember when I consider the greatness of the Lord in all the earth and his splendor in the heavens; and then I sink down at his feet with the fear of the humble and sinful creature before the infinitely glorious and holy One, but with the trust of a child in my heavenly Father, and say: “O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!”*
Before Jehovah’s awful throne,
Ye nations, bow with sacred joy:
Know that the Lord is God alone;
He can create, and he destroy.
His sovereign power, without our aid,
Made us of clay, and formed us men;
And when like wandering sheep we strayed,
He brought us to his fold again.
We are his people, we his care,
Our souls and all our mortal frame:
What lasting honors shall we rear,
Almighty Maker, to thy name?
* Here the head of the family says a short morning or evening prayer in his own words, and closes with the Lord’s Prayer and the Benediction. This is to be done every day. If the stanzas are not sung, they may be read in their proper place before the impromptu petition and the Lord’s Prayer.
** According to Matthew 21, 16; Hebrews 2, 6-9 and 1 Corinthians 15, 27 this Psalm treats first of our Lord Jesus Christ.