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Faded Glory

Places of Glory and Psalm 8

Psalm 8 reads as follows from the NIV version of the Bible:

 

O LORD, our Lord, 
how majestic is your name in all the earth! 
You have set your glory 
above the heavens.

2 From the lips of children and infants 
you have ordained praise because of your enemies, 
to silence the foe and the avenger.

3 When I consider your heavens, 
the work of your fingers, 
the moon and the stars, 
which you have set in place,

4 what is man that you are mindful of him, 
the son of man that you care for him?

5 You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings [c]
and crowned him with glory and honor.

6 You made him ruler over the works of your hands; 
you put everything under his feet:

7 all flocks and herds, 
and the beasts of the field,

8 the birds of the air, 
and the fish of the sea, 
all that swim the paths of the seas.

9 O LORD, our Lord, 
how majestic is your name in all the earth!

David is looking to the heavens and wondering aloud in the midst of all these amazements, why would the creator be mindful of men, in comparison to the vast largesse of the heavens?

David had been a solitary worker, a shepherd on his own and some of the experiences with that  would have gone onto the earlier evenings and periods of stargazing in the now darker fading blue skies of the early night.

Based on what happened subsequently, we know David must have had a private and deep communion with the Lord even then and this is probably what the writings of this psalm are drawn from. While David emerged in a way from the shadows, the depths of his thoughts must have been with him early in the relative unknown and unseen role as a shepherd. While just about nobody else saw David on the far away landscapes he was shepherding into the early nights, the Lord did, even as amidst the stars of heaven..

The question is what came first, did the Lord bring about something that clearly showed David that he was mindful of him in ways that no one else could have known, that something happened in the events of David's life early on that showed that the Lord of the universe had specific knowledge of him and his relatively anonymous activities as a shepherd?

It probably happened that way, where some gritty detail of his life was communicated upon by the Lord and David looked up with amazement in the early night sky that amidst all these great and magnificent wonders, the creator of all this was mindful of him, and how could this be?

Or it could have been that David was already speculating upon the mindful presence of the Lord to the one and later on this speculating turned towards and into moments of a mysterious reality where it was plain as the stars of night, the Lord was mindful of him as one who was seemingly hidden in the hither-lands of the shepherds walk.

David went on to great things from the early days as a Shepherd and there must have been a great contrast from the glory of his later days to the simpler early days as the shepherd.

He might have been in a comparison to whom he was then and who he was now.

It today's era, people often compare themselves to others and to standards of society and seem to classify themselves against one another and there will be winners and losers in that process.

Instead of seeing themselves as also gifted greatly by the Lord, people might see others as above them and beyond them based on positions and things like that which are championed by society.

It is no wonder then that angels would be seen as far beyond us, as people that do not possess their power, might and abilities. It would not normally be thought of that man would be just a little lower than the angels, especially when many think they are a lot lower than other people, how could they think they are a little lower than angels as this psalm is saying?

Whatever people are thinking about themselves, it doesn't cancel out that the Lord is thinking of them.

In psalm 40 verse 17 it says:

7 But I am poor and needy;
Yet the LORD thinks upon me. 
You are my help and my deliverer; 
Do not delay, O my God.

The Lord is already thinking about the psalmist and there is no delay on His thinking.

The psalmist in this verse is asking that the Lord bring forth his thinking in revelations, which will also form into help and deliverance.

The sights in the heavens are part of the Lord's thinking, unspoken revelations that can be understood as directing to an individual and revealing the thoughts of the Lord in this time and place to one individual.

In the banter between Job and his friends, his friends questioned his evaluation of their intelligence and while they said he was intelligent, they were intelligent as well. While Job was wise, there was from his friend's viewpoint an overvaluation of his wisdom in that he felt he was the only one in possession of great intelligence.

This goes to where people also do under evaluate their own gifts and wisdom but in the book of Job, his friends did not let themselves fall prey to this.

The psalm takes us back to creation and dominion. Man's position as a little lower than angels is not an achieved state, it is a state of dominion right at the beginnings of creation, it is a natural order and the Lord has been mindful of men even at the beginnings.

While David seemed to move up in glory and might in his life, he was just as much in a place of glory, relatively alone and unknown as a shepherd, as he was later on when he was the anointed King of the Lord and in the throes of a glorious earthly kingdom.

That place of glory was just as real and operative when he was alone looking at the night sky with wonder and awe that the creator of all this was mindful of him.

When it says in verse 2, that even the infants and or children praise the Lord, this is confounding to the enemies of the Lord who in some ways have usurped their rightful place and order.

The evidences of the Lord are so obvious that even infants can ponder it in praise and wonder, and those who have gone astray have masked this presence with their devices and they know it and have rebelled against it.

In seeking there own place of glory, they have lost or are losing the true place of glory.

From this psalm the place of glory is a place of knowledge. David knew that this mindfulness of him came from no other source than the Lord and he was awed by this but he also knew of it. He had knowledge of the Lord's mindfulness towards him and knew that this was from the same creative hand that woven the stars of heaven.

In Habakkuk 2.14 it says, For the earth will be filled With the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, As the waters cover the sea

A pretty awesome verse especially in the ways one can see the unending vast cover of the great oceans.

This verse shows that knowledge is an important component in that place of glory and David knew that the Lord was mindful of him and that knowledge alone was a place of glory.

2 Peter 1.3 says, " His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue,"

This verse also demonstrates the knowledge of the Lord to us for glory.

The glory is unto the eternal.

2 Timothy 2 verse 10:

Therefore I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

That place of glory is that place where the Lord has been mindful of you and that was right at the beginning of the beginning.

The whole of chapter 15 in the Gospel of John relates to this psalm in that it speaks of glory, knowledge and the beginning.

.8 This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.

27 And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.

These verses and the whole of the chapter 15 in the gospel of John touch on the points of the glory of man in bearing much fruit unto the Father, a shared knowledge and mindfulness exchanged with the Lord in that reaches the level of friendship and a call from the Lord that is from the beginning.

That place of glory is a place where the knowledge reaches into friendship with the Lord, where the effects are of much fruit for the Lord and his kingdom, and the call is an original call from the beginning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

About the Author

I bought an 8 pack of socks. One has a hole in it. Do I need to return the entire package or just that pair?

I bought an 8 pack of Faded Glory socks at Walmart. One has a major hole in it. I will return them, but I don't know when I will get to Walmart soon. I want to go ahead and use the rest of the socks. The package says "Satisfaction Guaranteed;" will they take back just the defective pair or do I need to bring back the whole 8 pack?

bring back the whole pack in their original form!!! with the receipt please:]

Faded Glory