Psalm 8: Day 1

Psalm 8: Day 1 of our 10-day devotional journey through the Psalms, you'll gain fresh insights and spiritual strength each morning.  This series encourages you to offer your shortcomings to God, trusting in His ability to turn them into sources of strength and glory. Whether you're a morning go-getter or a lover of the snooze button, these reflections aim to imbue your day with peace and purpose found in His Word. Join us for an enriching experience that promises to renew your spirit and ignite your faith.

Chapters

• 0:19 Strength Through Psalms
• 7:30 Embracing Weakness, Exalting God

Transcript

Julie: 0:19

Kia ora, and welcome to Whispers of Grace, a place for women to be encouraged by God's holy word. I'm your host, julie Colbeth, and I am overjoyed to dig into the Bible with you today. Kia ora, friends, and welcome to our brand new series Through the Psalms. When I first launched Whispers of Grace podcast, the story that kept running through my head was about Elijah. Everyone remembers his big showdown with the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel from 1 Kings 18. But what sticks out to me is chapter 19, when Elijah is utterly spent and spiritually exhausted from his triumph, he slumps into this deep depression and then he literally asks God to take his life. We don't tend to focus on this moment as much, but I believe it's these moments that connect us to these spiritual giants. These weaknesses connect Elijah to me more than anything else, because I see myself in his exhaustion and confusion. I feel his hopelessness and his distraction, and I am guilty of the same incorrect assessment of my situations and fear. I understand stress and feeling overwhelmed. My life sometimes feels like it's just too much for me to handle. We are weak and we can only go so far on what little strength we can muster. We need the Holy Spirit to breathe life into our moods and our plans and our decisions and actions and our reactions. We need Jesus every single hour, so I have designed this 31-day devotional to help us start the year and the day in the strength of the Lord. Whether you are a snooze button girl or a perky morning person, these encouragements are something that you can put on while you're brushing your teeth or even before you get out of bed to start your day with Jesus. I'm going to walk through 31 different Psalms with you and look for those bright truths that help to set our feet on the right path for the day. God was so patient and kind to Elijah when he was struggling. God fed him and gave him water, and then he let him sleep, and my prayer is that these little devotions would be like a spiritual snack and a nap for your soul, and that you would be able to start your day off meditating on the goodness of God.

Julie: 2:49

The very first Psalm that we're going to start with is Psalm 8. It is a Psalm of David, and it starts and ends with the very same conclusion O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is your name in all of the earth? Who have set your glory above the heavens, out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants. You have ordained strength because of your enemies, that you may silence the enemy and the avenger. When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you've ordained, what is man that you are mindful of him? And the son of man that you would visit him For? You've made him a little lower than the angels and yet you've crowned him with glory and honor. You've made him to have dominion over the works of your hands. You've put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, even the beasts of the field, the birds of the field, the birds of the air and the fish of the sea that pass through the paths of the ocean. O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is your name in all of the earth.

Julie: 3:57

When David says, oh Lord, it's capitalized in all big letters, l-o-r-d in your Bible. When it's recorded as that it is the covenant name of God, which is Yahweh, it means the becoming one. And then he says, oh Lord, our Lord. Now, when he calls him Lord, there, that's Adonai, which means our master and our ruler and our judge. So David is realizing that God is Yahweh, the creator, the becoming one, and because of that he is also our master and our ruler and our judge. Then he moves on to talk about God's excellent name and the glory that exceeds even the heavens. And yet the beauty is that the weakest among us can reflect his glory and find strength in the power of God.

Julie: 4:52

1 Corinthians 1.27 says but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise. God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the wise. God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the mighty. And isn't that the way of our God? It's the constant drip that can wear away the stone, or the tiny, tiny seed that becomes a tree. It's the pollen in the air that causes your hay fever. It's the five loaves and the two fish that God can make enough to feed thousands. It's the cry of a tiny baby in Bethlehem, born to poor teenagers, that saved the world. God is powerful enough to use even the small things, the small victories, the small sacrifices, the small amounts of energy that we have to give glory to his name. This reminded me of the story from Matthew 21,.

Julie: 5:53

Jesus in the temple. In verse 12, it says Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. And he said to them it is written my house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves. Then, after this, after Jesus drives out the money changers with whips, it says then the blind and the lame came to him in the temple and he healed them. So the weak people felt safe enough to approach Jesus even after this. But in contrast, it says in verse 15 but when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did and the children crying out in the temple saying Hosanna to the son of David, they were indignant and said to him do you hear what these are saying? And Jesus said to them yes, have you never read out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants? You have perfected praise. So in this story, jesus does this incredible thing. He gets rid of all, all the people that were taking advantage of others in the temple. He heals a bunch of people that are incredibly vulnerable and children are crying out in the streets Hosanna to the son of David, but the professional religious leaders? They completely missed the Messiah. But who was still there praising him? The children, it says out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants you have perfected praise.

Julie: 7:30

God absolutely loves to use the small, insignificant things in life to put to shame the wise, because it silences the enemy. To be outdone and beaten by the best and the brightest gives lots of room to hope for a future victory. But to be beaten by a nursing infant that can't even hold its head up, that is absolutely devastating. Now, thinking about the author of this psalm, david, he absolutely knew the value of weakness because he was the young boy that stepped out onto the battlefield when all of these grown, armored men were quaking. He's the one that stepped out and fought Goliath and killed him.

Julie: 8:14

David knew that the small things that we give to God are enough, because it's not about us, it's about him. And then, back in the psalm, he goes and considers creation, all the things that God's fingers have made, the sun and the moon and the stars, considering how vast this creation is and how big our God is and how powerful he is. And yet he still cares for us and he's put that creation under our feet. It's kind of like he painted a Picasso and he left it in the playroom, because God is not fragile. He makes beauty from the mess and he is excellent. Oh Lord, our Lord, how excellent is your name in all of the earth, lord, how excellent is your name in all of the earth? So today, my friends, as you start out your day, give him your flaws and your mistakes and watch him redeem and create and glorify his name. Thank you.