Sadly I can’t see the moon from my current position, without straining to look around.

I think the night sky can unite many of us, throughout the ages and across the world people have looked up, out and encountered something far bigger and outside of themselves

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Work ceases in the dark. Tending of fields and growing of crops can’t be done at night. This is animportant fact, if you are living in the ancient near east, where crop growing is one of the central activities of your countries economy.

Funnily enough, not a lot has changed. Most work still occurs in the daytime, when the sun rules the sky and its brightness and warmth permits life to carry on.

One of the great kings of the ancient near east, called David, wrote on the night sky. His words carry weight for me tonight.

3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
4 what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?

The eighth Psalm is a wonderful one. The night sky, for this song writer, reminds him that God’s concern for his people extends into the night time. When working ceases and we must surrender our bodies to sleep, God has set the moon and stars in the sky to watch over us. When we are busy resting, God is still at work.

What grace! What astonishing love and care! God who is above and outside of our world still cares for it, when we surrender our control and our activity.

This was the perplexity of the king. It’s amazing to think that God would hold man in his hands

5 Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor.
6 You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under his feet,

Whilst we have been given great responsibility over creation, there comes a point where we must surrender that control, as we rest and sleep.

I want to remember this year, a new school year, that God is mindful of me, even when I am mindful of… well nothing at all. I don’t need to be strong, wise or great for God to be mindful of me. What a relief!

O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
God I seek the peace that comes from knowing where I stand
That comes from knowing that I am a limited being, that I don’t have all the power
Or all the wisdom
Or all the glory
For these are yours, and they are gifts bestowed upon fragile human frames
God remember me, be mindful of me when I cease to be mindful of anything at all
For your name is majestic in all the earth
Amen

Tags: old classics, prayer, Psalm 8, Psalms