How Excellent is Thy Name in all the Earth: A Meditation on Psalm 8, for New Year's Day Sunday

O LORD, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! 

Who hast set thy glory above the heavens.  

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.  

When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers,

 the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; 

What is man, that thou art mindful of him? 

and the son of man, that thou visitest him?  

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: 

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. 

O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!

At the turning of the year, it is customary for people to take stock of where they have been, so that they might consider more thoughtfully where they might next go.  TV programs, social media, and periodicals will be full of discussions regarding lists of what was best and worst in 2016, colored by all manner of prejudice and assumption.  There will retrospectives of lives of celebrities, politicians, and those who left their mark upon their communities.  There will be consideration of movements and wars, weather and climate, business and trade.  In all the analysis of researchers and scholars, the pontification of experts and ignoramuses, people will try to understand their lives in the year that has passed, so that they might better peer into the mists of the year on their doorstep, and the future years yet to come.

It is tempting for Christians to fall into this chaos, and thereby be driven like fallen leaves before the shifting winds of fashion and fad.  There is certainly no sin in trying to understand the dynamics of our times-- to reflect upon where we have been, what we have done, and what we have left undone, so that we might better live out our lives in the time left before us with appropriate faith and repentance before our God.  But as we do, we must not fall victim to the vanity which pretends that the course of history lies in the hands of people rather than our Creator.  We were not there when the Lord called forth the universe out of nothing, nor were we there to counsel Him on how His creation should be ordered.  Rather, it was out of His own unsearchable wisdom and love that He brought forth our cosmos, our ancestors, and ourselves, and of His great compassion spoke to us His Eternal Word of Law and Gospel that we might know Him, ourselves, and the world in which He has placed us.  It is God who has ordained both the beginning and the end of all things, and guides the history of His creation toward its future.  It is God the Father who called us forth by His Spirit working through His Word and Sacraments to a living faith in His only begotten Son, that all who believe in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.  It is our God, the only true God, who is the ultimate font and foundation of all reality, who seeks and saves the lost, who works out our salvation through the sacrifice of His Cross, and who by His lavish grace gives the free gift of forgiveness, eternal life, and salvation to all who would heed His call.

Remembering this, we should maintain a certain balance and perspective at the turning of the years. We have been given to know the One whose Name is most excellent in all the earth, who has considered our lowly estate and yet made us a little lower than the Holy Angels, and who has given mankind charge to steward His good creation.  We know from whom has come all things, and to whom all things shall return.  We know to whom we are accountable for every idle word and action of our lives, and from whom we receive grace, mercy, and victory over sin, death, hell, and the power of the devil.  We are blessed to know what really matters and what endures for eternity, so as not to be distracted or discouraged by temporary and transient things.  We are people with an eternal destiny, who have been given the Keys of Christ's Kingdom by Jesus Himself, to proclaim the Good News of God's love and salvation for the whole world-- and the freedom of lives restored to communion with Him, which spring forth in His love and compassion for everyone around us.

Has the darkness and confusion of our fallen world left you frightened or despairing, or the endless trails of human speculation left you bewildered and unsure of who you are, and to whom you belong?  In the cacophony of the world's frantic worry and unbelief, turn your eyes once again to Him who calls you by His Word of life and redemption.  Let His love and mercy wash over you once again, that you might see both your history and your future more clearly.  It is you whom He loves, you whom He seeks, and you whom He saves through the life, death, and resurrection of His Son-- you whom He pursues by His grace, that you might be raised up to always pursue Him, and through Him to love your neighbor as He has loved you.  Let the darkness and confusion of the world pass from you sight, as the light of Christ dawns once more upon you.  Hear Him.  Believe, and live.  Amen.