A God of the big and the small

The Psalm for this Sunday is Psalm 8

1 O Lord, our Sovereign,
    how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
2 Out of the mouths of babes and infants
you have founded a bulwark because of your foes,
    to silence the enemy and the avenger.
3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
    the moon and the stars that you have established;
4 what are humans that you are mindful of them,
    mortals that you care for them?
5 Yet you have made them a little lower than God
    and crowned them with glory and honor.
6 You have given them dominion over the works of your hands;
    you have put all things under their feet,
7 all sheep and oxen,
    and also the beasts of the field,
8 the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea,
    whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
9 O Lord, our Sovereign,
    how majestic is your name in all the earth!

This Psalm begins with a very LARGE God who rules all of the heavens and the earth, and yet that is not the actual focus of this Psalm.

Hebrew poetry is often structured with a chiastic structure. Chiams are organized through repetition with the focus being in the middle of the Psalm. A typical structure will be:

A
    B
         C
    B
A

In Psalm 8, the chiastic structure can be seen with the repetition of the first and last verse setting off a chiasm focusing on verse 4. While the Psalm begins and ends with a God who is sovereign over all things, the focus of the Psalm is how a God so great and large still cares about humanity. 

I find comfort in this Psalm whenever I feel tiny or overwhelmed in such a vast world; I can take comfort in a God who still cares. While the Psalmist does declare God as Sovereign, it doesn’t take away from God still being personal. I hope that all of us can take comfort in such a God.