Psalm 8

Dave Linde   -  

February 23, 2025 Heavenly Father, we praise your name – all that your name

stands for, all that you are. We joyfully acclaim you for the majesty of your rule and

for its extent. There is no part of this planet, no realm of earthly existence, where

you do not reign.

We are amazed that, though your glory exceeds the heavens, you have chosen to display it

throughout the earth in the representative rule that you have bestowed upon us humans. How

remarkable that you should exalt us in this way and give us the privilege of reflecting your rule

over all the earth – even over wild animals, which we cannot control, the birds, which we

cannot reach, and the creatures of the sea, which we cannot observe. All this you originally

placed under our feet.

But we confess, Father, we humans lost the rule. We corrupted your design. In Adam we

overreached and demanded independent rule. And we became slaves – to sin, to death, and to

that great rebel Satan. We feel the effects of that fall daily. We often don’t feel like rulers. The

world, the flesh, and the devil often seem to have the upper hand. We feel ruled and overruled

by painful circumstances, struggles of soul, infirmities of body, and sins like anger, pride, lust,

retaliation, apathy, anxiety, insensitivity, materialism, racism, laziness, self-righteousness—and

the list goes on. We confess our trading of your rule, and the display of your rule, for various

expressions of enslavement.

But we praise you that you made Jesus, your Son, the Son of Man, a little lower than the angels,

that he might taste death for everyone—that he might suffer the penalty for our rebellion, that

he might gain back, in our behalf, the rule we forfeited. You raised him from the dead. You

seated him at your right hand, putting all things under his feet. Your crowned him with glory

and honor. You joined us to him, seating us in the heavenly realms where all things are under

our feet as well. In union with him, we get to experience anew the realities of this psalm.

So here we are today, Father—believers in the Son of Man, Jesus the Messiah, fulfiller of this

psalm. In our weaknesses and vulnerabilities, our great needs and dependence, we are like

babies and infants. Yet as such we raise our hearts and our voices in praise to you for making

us rulers in Christ, for setting us on a path of ultimate victory, not defeat, in him. What enemy

can ultimately stand against us? By our praising we silence our accusing and lying demonic

foes, our clamoring and campaigning indwelling sin, our contemptuous and intimidating

society. Our rule shows your rule. There is no rule like yours, no name like yours, no realm

greater than you!

May we grow in our praise of you, and may we pass this good news along to others, through

our lives aligned with it and our words speaking it.

In our journey as a church through the book of Daniel, presently pondering the incident of the

fiery furnace and the faith and faithfulness of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, our thoughts

turn to the persecuted church throughout the world. Protect and uphold and encourage these

brothers and sisters of ours who are suffering because of Christ. May their faith be refined and

strengthened. May their witness be clear and fruitful. May they display the worth of Jesus as

they endure hardship for his sake.

As we think of present circumstances in our own church fellowship, we thank you for the babies

who are preparing to be born. We pray this morning for Abbie and David and little baby

Nelson. Bless them all at this threshold of childbirth. We ask for your protecting and sustaining

grace upon them, and for great joy for David and Abbie as they welcome their first child.

We pray in the name of the risen Christ. And all God’s people said, “Amen.”