One Starry Night: A short story on the origin of the Nature Psalms
8:10 PM
Psalm 8:1-9 King James Version (KJV)
8 O
Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy
glory above the heavens.
2 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.
3 When
I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which
thou hast ordained;
4 What
is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest
him?
5 For
thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with
glory and honour.
6 Thou
madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all
things under his feet:
7 All
sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field;
8 The
fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the
paths of the seas.
9 O
Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!
This Chapter was the theme of my
family’s Bible Study last week. One evening shortly after our study I sat reading
through my Bible and came across the chapter once more.
It struck a cord in my heart, which inspired
me, and I turned it into a short story; a story about a special Psalm.
Below is that story.
His name was David. He had been raised
in a God-fearing home that honored the Creator of the Universe. His father was
Jesse, a kind honest man who lived in the countryside with his family. Several
boys blessed this household, all handsome and tall.
However, there was something about David
that made him special, although it couldn’t be said he was fairer than his
brothers. He was a quiet lad, a shepherd boy, who tended to his father’s sheep.
Gifted on the Kinnor (Hebrew for lyre or harp) he could be found in the fields
on a balmy summer day skillfully playing on his Kinnor, composing and singing
to the Creator of heaven and earth.
We follow him into the fields one
evening, as he tends to his sheep before darkness falls. He’s especially quiet
tonight after an eventful day, and much is on his mind.
The last few nights had been rare gems
of beauty. Each one had been perfectly clear with the starry heavens exploding
with glory and color all around. This night promised to be no different. The
soft rich hues of a fading sunset told of another glittering star-spangled
night.
As the last lamb was found, tended to,
and brought back to the flock, David sat down under a huge sycamore and lifted
his harp from where he had left it at the base of the ancient tree.
As he did so, he lifted his head towards
the heavens. Wispy soft clouds drifted by, as the moon shone down on earth amid
the glittering stars bathing the whole scene with a heavenly light.
A sense of wonder swept over David’s
heart and the words seemed to pour from it. All his worry of the future fades
in comparison to this splendor. A psalm,
or a song, formed in his mind and he began to sing. “O Lord, our Lord” “Yes”, he thought, “Our God, our Master!”
All the nations round about Israel in
those days were known for their many gods, but it was only Israel’s one God who
was God, Master, Lord, Maker, and Savior.
“How excelled is thy name in all the
earth” – above all gods, above all idols, the Lord’s name, Elohim, was above
all.
“Who hast set thy glory above the
Heavens” continued David.
He looked up at the stars and moon, and
even as he did so a shooting star went by. God’s glory was all around!
“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.”
David was no doubt contemplating his
day. Samuel had come, on a mission from the Lord. David had been away in the
fields, but his older brothers and father had all been there.
Samuel asked for each son, looked him
over, and said, “Nay, he is not the chosen one”. When the last of David’s
brothers had gone before Samuel, the old prophet turned to Jesse with a
questioning glance. “Have you no other sons?”
So David was brought and to his utter
astonishment had been anointed as future King of Israel. The quiet, unassuming,
shepherd boy had been chosen by God himself.
He no doubt was thinking of this and
many other instances in his life where God had chosen “babes and sucklings” to
overcome and fulfill His perfect plan. God had used the young, the
inexperienced, and the innocent to work His mighty works!
Years later, Jesus Himself would quote
this verse from David’s psalm saying, “Yea, have ye not read, ‘Out of the mouth
of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?’
This was when Jesus had just finished
cleansing the temple and the small children had come with palm branches to
praise Him.
“When I consider thy heavens, the work
of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;”
David had plenty of time to contemplate
and consider God’s works in the hills, the valleys, by the streams, by day, or
by night. Thus he must have considered many time the works of God’s fingers.
“What is man, that thou art mindful of
him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?”
In light of his day, David was amazed
and baffled that God would want anything to do with so small creatures as the
human race. That God would take the time to commune with man was something
infinitely higher than he could comprehend. David’s own ancestors had talked
with God – Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – all mere humans and yet the Creator of
Universes was mindful and talked with them.
“For thou hast made him a little lower
than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to
have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his
feet:”
Each and every day David saw how the
sheep were trained and followed him wherever he went. He knew of ruling animals
and how having dominion over them was a gift from God.
“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.”
This was a continuation of David’s
previous part of the psalm. He envisioned far, far back to the Garden of Eden
when Adam named the animals and became caregiver, not dictator, of all
creatures. He was in-trusted with a special charge and David could relate to
this as a shepherd.
“O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy
name in all the earth!”
David ended with the same astonished and
glorified exclamation.
A cool chilly wind blew through the
valley, and David wrapped his outer robe around his shoulders.
As he set down his Kinnor, David pulled
out a parchment scroll and carefully wrote the sentences that had been given to
him as a gift from God.
Finally, after penning the last line
David rolled up the scroll and slipped it into the leather pouch at his side.
And so began the writing of the NATURE PSALMS.
Psalms which would be passed down through the ages to our own time - to be read, to inspire, and to instil into the heart a sense of grandeur of Creation and the infinite power and love of the one true God.
THE END
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