As part of the final Selah/Pause in our online 2021 Conference of the Methodist Church in Ireland, in
the light of his theme "People First, Under God", our President Rev. Dr. Sahr Yambasu referred to Psalm 8, he pointed to the central question of this Psalm where the Psalmist asks God "what is humanity that you are mindful of them?" or as expressed in Eugene Peterson's version of the Psalm in the Message: "Why do you bother with us?"
the light of his theme "People First, Under God", our President Rev. Dr. Sahr Yambasu referred to Psalm 8, he pointed to the central question of this Psalm where the Psalmist asks God "what is humanity that you are mindful of them?" or as expressed in Eugene Peterson's version of the Psalm in the Message: "Why do you bother with us?"
He asked a follow up question, that being "How has this conference changed our understanding of the answer to this question?"
As we ponder that let me offer this dramatised version of that Psalm, which I have used and posted many times before, based in part on Eugene Peterson's version:
BOTH: O LORD , our God, your name is honoured in all that you have made!
Voice 1: Beyond the boundless reaches of space
Voice 2: Higher than the heavens where the angels offer you their symphony of worship;
Voice 1: While here on earth even nursing infants gurgle in adoration
Voice 2: Toddlers shout songs of praise
Voice 1: Silencing the cynical sneering of the enemy
Voice 2: Drowning out the godless chatter of the age.
Voice 1: When I stare into the heavens above, I see your fingerprints all over the sky…
Voice 2: I see jewellery of the finest of workmanship with the moon mounted in an almost infinite setting of stars…
Voice 1: And I feel so small…
Voice 2: I sense the expanse between heaven and earth,
Voice 1: Creator and creature…
Voice 2: And I wonder why you bother with me?
Voice 1: Why you would look once, never mind twice, in my direction?
Voice 2: Yet I am always on your mind
Voice 1: You care for me night and day…
Voice 2: You have made me little less than a god…
Voice 1: The crown of all creation,
Voice 2: A jewel that brings joy to your heart.
Voice 1: You charged me with looking after your handiwork
Voice 2: You laid everything at my feet:
Voice 1: All creatures great and small;
Voice 2: domesticated and wild
Voice 1: The flocking birds, and shoaling fish
Voice 2: and the whales whose songs of praise circle the seven seas.
BOTH: O LORD , our God, your name is honoured in all that you have made!
Selah
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