Psalm 8 - Unsayable, Stillness, Wonder, Awe, Art

Back in the day the college ministry I was a part of would often use a really up-tempo song based on Psalm 8. It started out, “O Lord, o Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth.” We’d repeat that a few times and then move to a few other lines pulled from other parts of the Bible and eventually return to the opening line based on the first verse of Psalm 8. I think it was first composed by Sandi Patty.

But listen to this. This is how Fischer puts it...(his capitals, not mine)

YOUR UNSAYABLE NAME: it covers all the earth
And your presence extends ever outward
From the furthest conceivable point

If the traditional language brings about a sense of upbeat joy, this gives me a sense of quiet awe and wonder. The feeling one gets when they walk into a holy space, or before something utterly beautiful, or the quiet whispers that are often spoken in art galleries before centuries-old paintings. As I typed that, I just reflexively let out a long breath from pursed lips...

The rest of Fischer’s translation continues this sense of a more reverent and still awe and wonder rather than exhuberant praise. He ends it this way:

O you whom I am ever addressing
Your unsayable name covers heaven and earth

This sense speaks to me so much more today than exhuberant praise. Honestly, right now, I’m not feeling much of the exhuberant praise but I need to find stillness, I need to feel a sense of the One who is bigger than everything else. Today, there’s been a lot that has reflected a sense of powerlessness, frustration, what-can-I-do types of things. I need to be reminded of this deep deep truth of the One whose unsayable name does cover all the earth from infintity to infinity and that One I am calling out to right now asking for love to cover heaven, but especially earth today.

And into that, I am grateful for what one of my children sent me today. He is doing a semester study-abroad in Spain and has been sending photos of the beautiful street art that is all over the town where he is living. Much of it is done by a local street artist who doesn’t accept pay for his work except for in meals and wine. But here is the one he sent today:

That speaks to how I feel right now. I am before the One who is bigger than all of this lifting up hands…

Here are some other pieces that my son has seen around the city. This first one especially speaks as well.

Grace, Peace, Love, and Joy,
Ed

PS - Because we always need a doggo photo...Scout after some labyrinth time we had this morning in downtown Cincinnati

---