O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!1 You have set your glory above the heavens. When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?2
As we get to observe our environment, the natural elements and its intricacies we cannot deny that there is a Creator. His attention to details is mindboggling, from the minutest of creatures to the vastness of the universe. Yet he is mindful of us.
For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I would count them, they are more than the sand. I awake, and I am still with you.3
And those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek you.4
Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands, . . .5 Thank you, Lord, that you have written a new name in stone for me.6 The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O LORD, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands.7
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.8 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ . . .9
The LORD has done great things for us; we are glad.10 “Fear not for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. . . . Because you are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you. . . . everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.”11
Notes:
1. Psalm 8:1,9
2. Psalm 8:3-4
3. Psalm 139:13-18
4. Psalm 9:10
5. Isaiah 49:15-16
6. Revelations 2:17
7. Psalm 138:8
8. Ephesians 1:3-6
9. Romans 8:16-17
10. Psalm 126:3
11. Isaiah 43:1-7
