Psalm 8 - One A Week Psalm Project
One A Week Psalm Project Psalm 8 1/2 Spiritual reflections This week I realized that my overwhelming feeling about this psalm is one of relief – it is ‘simply’ praise. It doesn’t ask of me to contemplate the mysteries of God and life; something I am normally happy to do and tend to fully engage in, but something that is sometimes overwhelming too. The past few psalms have felt quite ‘full’ of all these things that I need to think about, and so this beautiful psalm, and week, is one of grateful praise. It is a reminder of God’s grace without feeling undeserving of it – I just feel thankful, especially as I sit here listening to the birds and with my cat happily sitting on my lap. As well as the intensity of the past few psalms, the past week has been full of personal contemplations about life and God and has felt very fully and busy, even though there has been very little ‘extra’ activity in my life. Just extra thinking. So, my prayer is that I may praise the Lord this week.
2/2 Reflections on the process of silence Our inner thoughts are full of interesting insights into our own life, if only we will take the time and listen to ourselves. And not just learn to listen to ourselves, but learn to listen to the rest of life, even the rush and relentlessness of the everyday. It can be difficult to break through our silence to God’s silence and God’s voice in the silence. For ages in the silence I just hear my own thoughts, all the things I need to remember, all the things my brain wants to think about. So much of the silence is simply my brain being grateful for the silence in which it can remind me of all these things that are going on within me. I have to wait even longer to even be ready to hear God. I need more time. How do I do this? Spiritual reflections The glory of God is shown through, and despite, our un-glory; and yet acknowledges the ‘glory’ that God has chosen to place upon us in giving us life, his image, and the care of his magnificent creation. I consistently want to use the plural in this psalm. ‘What are mere mortals that you mind ‘us’’. For some reason, today, the singular feels more detached.