Monday Morning – June 8
Good Morning, Lord!
I Am Baptized
For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. (Gal. 3:27 ESV)
Make the sign of the cross as you say, “In the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.”
A Morning Prayer
O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the
earth! You teach us to call upon your name, to pray, praise, and give thanks.
So we pray this morning that you would be present with us today to bless and
defend us, that you would make us mindful of your creation, your blessings and
benefits, and that you would help us to live in a right relationship with our
fellow creatures. We praise your name this morning for you have made us. Not
only that, but in the midst of our sin you looked upon us and loved us, you
gave your only begotten Son to die and rise for us, and now you dwell in and with
us by you Holy Spirit. We praise you because you are not far off, but you draw
near to us so that we can be with you! And we give you thanks for all your
blessings, but this morning we thank you for teaching us your name so that we
can take that name upon our lips to call out to you and make you known. We pray
in Jesus’ name. Amen.
I Believe …
I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and
earth.
And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was
conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the
virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified,
died and was buried. He
descended into hell. The third day He rose again from the
dead. He ascended into heaven
and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From
thence He will come to judge
the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian Church, the
communion of saints, the
forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the
life everlasting. Amen.
Bible Reading – Psalm 8
To
the choirmaster: according to The Gittith.[a] A Psalm
of David.
O Lord,
our Lord,
how
majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
2 Out of
the mouth of babies and infants,
you have established strength because of your foes,
to
still the enemy and the avenger.
3 When I look at 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,
and the
son of man that you care for him?
5 Yet you have made him a little lower
than the heavenly beings[b]
and
crowned him with glory and honor.
6 You
have given him dominion over the works of your hands;
you
have put all things under his feet,
7 all
sheep and oxen,
and
also the beasts of the field,
8 the
birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,
whatever
passes along the paths of the seas.
9 O Lord,
our Lord,
how
majestic is your name in all the earth![1]
Psalm 8 is a different kind of psalm than we have read so far. When the others have spoken to God, they have done so in requests. They have been filled with admonishments to obedience and living in righteousness. There have been confessions and praise for God’s salvation. This psalm is rooted in awe and wonder and it focuses our attention on God’s relationship with us.
Have you ever paused to consider God, and what it means to be almighty? Have you ever looked at something he created and suddenly felt very small and insignificant? A couple summers ago we visited the Grand Canyon and as I saw its immensity and beauty and considered that God made this place, even as he made me, and I wondered why he would even take note of me in all this vastness. Have you ever experienced anything like that?
Theologians used to speak of God’s Two Books. The first book is Holy Scripture where God speaks to us and reveals the great story of his love, our sin, the sacrifice of Jesus, his glorious resurrection, and the salvation he has won for us. This is our primary book to really know God. But his other book also helps us know about him. That book is Creation. It is a book of power and complexity, order and chaos, design and decay, life and death. It is a book that leaves us in awe at our Creator.
When we bring both of God’s books together, one of the things that we learn is that even our existence is a gift of God’s grace. To be his creature is to be loved and wanted. The love that moved God to create us is the same love that moved him to redeem us in Christ.
Now, to be sure, Creation does not give us a full and accurate picture of who God is. As it says in Romans, the creation has been subjected to our sin and it groans to be restored – remade. But the hints of glory, the marks of the Creator’s brilliance are still there – even traces of his love. Look for them. Pray for God to open your eyes to them. And then in your wonder, you can pray, “O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!”
Questions for Meditation
What does this reading teach you about Jesus, what He said
and did, or what He wants His followers to believe? What does it teach you
about God’s love and forgiveness?
What does this reading lead you to be thankful for?
What behavior, thought, or attitude does this reading
challenge? What sin does it lead you to confess?
How might you pray for God to have a richer impact on your
life through this reading?
Petitions of the Lord’s Prayer
The Second
Petition: “Thy kingdom come”
O God, everlasting Father, Your kingdom comes even without
our prayer, but, please, let it come to us, too! Please give us Your Holy
Spirit, so that by His grace we may believe Your Word, and live godly lives
here in time and there in eternity. Amen.
Prayer
Pray for God to
help you to understand and believe His Word.
Pray for
increased faith, hope, and love.
Benediction
Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all
that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory
in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever.
Amen. (Eph. 3:20-21 ESV)
[1] English
Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version.
ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good
News Publishers.
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