Hints of Transcendence

Psalm 8 offers this prayer, “O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth. When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon, and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?”

The Hebrew words “mindful” and “care” could also be translated as “remember” and “visit.” “What are human beings that you remember us, mortals that you visit us?”

This Psalm is a hymn of praise, born out of a moment of wonder and awe. And it invites us to share in that wonder and awe.

Sometimes, when I’m sitting on the ocean, I’m awed by how small and insignificant we are in the grand scheme of things. Or, when looking up at the stars, it’s hard to grasp how far away they are… If you could travel at the speed of light, it would take more than four years to reach the nearest star. Thinking about how vast it all is makes me realize that the God we worship is far bigger than we can ever imagine. God created all of this and continues to create. Stars continue to be born; life continues to thrive.

I think about other moments I’ve had, and I know you’ve had them too. Eugene Peterson put it this way: moments “…when ‘Life’ spills over the containers of mere survival or utility.” Moments when we realize there is something more going on in the world than just getting by.

Maybe you’ve experienced this sitting far out on the ocean in a sailboat, or on a mountaintop, or at the birth of a child, or even at the loss of a loved one, or during a stirring piece of music. We catch glimpses of the connections between everything we see and everything we cannot see. We sense transcendence, perceptions that there is more going on here than we can account for.

This Psalm, among many others, calls us—compels us—to stop and sit in awe and wonder; to marvel at the beauty of the gifts God has given us; to notice the holy and sacred in the everyday, and to respond with open hearts and our deepest praise.

Let us pray: Awesome God, we thank you for those holy moments, moments that are often few and far between. Today, we ask you to help us notice the beauty of your handiwork in creation, to catch glimpses of your Spirit at work in our lives, and to stand in amazement and wonder. We praise you for the gift of life, and for your love that binds us together, in Jesus’ name. Amen.