Mark Twain has a story about a man who went to heaven from California. Arriving at the pearly gates he was asked where he'd come from. He tells them proudly, 'From California'. But nobody knows where California is. 'It's in the United States', declares the new arrival with amazement. But nobody knows where the United States is. 'It's in North America!' he exclaims. But nobody knows where North America is. 'It's a part of the earth', he continues with growing indignation. But nobody knows where the earth is. At last some of the wise scholars, after a long search, find that the earth is a little forgotten speck, flung out into space, that was once known as 'The Wart'.

Who am I? Am I important to anyone - around? out there? up there? 'What is man?' the philosophers have asked for centuries. David the Psalmist asks the same question, twice (Psalms 8 and 144). In the next four days we'll discover some answers to this question from the eighth Psalm. Humans (including yourself, by the way) are very important creatures in God's cosmos.

So, Lord, 'what are human beings?' 'Who am I?' Obviously someone worth caring about, and caring for. Thank you. Amen.

I AM SOMEONE WHO CAN PRAISE THE LORD

O Lord, our Sovereign,how majestic is your name in all the earth! Psalm 8:1,9.

This psalm opens and closes with the same words. The thoughts between are the proofs of these two praise-statements. The song-writer's first word for 'Lord' is the same as that by which God revealed himself to Moses at the burning bush. The second has the Hebrew meaning 'master', 'sovereign'. The double address emphasises the strong feeling of the speaker.

Children and babies offer perfect praise to God, says the psalmist (and Jesus - Matt 21:16), and, in a way not clear in our text, such praise is a bulwark against the evil of corrupt people. God has a way of using weak things to confound the mighty. Think of Israel's greatest emancipator - floating in an ark among the Nile bulrushes. Or David, with his boyhood sling. Or the Saviour of the world, wrapped in cloths and lying in an animal's manger.

Or you, when you are weak, and can then praise the Lord with a strength which manifests only in times of helplessness.

Servants of God, in joyful ways, Sing the Lord Jehovah's praise; his glorious name let all adore, From age to age, for evermore. Blest be that Name, supremely blest, From the sun's rising to its rest; above the heavens, his power is known, Through all the earth his goodness shown. Alleluia! Amen.

HOW GREAT YOU ARE!

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,the moon and the stars that you have established... Psalm 8:3.

Our best-known creed describes God as the Maker of heaven and earth. The Bible, a theological text-book and not a scientific one, does not tell us how or when God made everything, but that he did - and why he did. And the psalmist here is descriptive, not explanatory. When David's sheep were bedded down for the night, he'd lean back onto a rock and look up to the heavens, and think about his God.

I wonder how he'd respond if he knew there were thousands of millions of galaxies out there, with each galaxy a swarm of thousands of millions of stars? If on a moonless night he could see a cloud of pale light in the constellation Andromeda, how would he react if he were told that this cloud is one of the outer galaxies, and it's appearing to us as it was two million years ago? And what about 'quasars' - 10 billion or more light-years away, and radiating more energy than 100 galaxies!

An old New England preacher who'd caught the spirit of the eighth Psalm used to preach once a year about the latest discoveries in astronomy. When someone asked what use such a sermon could be he replied, 'None at all, but it greatly enlarges my idea of God'.

Lord God our creator, two things fill our minds with wonder and reverence: the star-lit heavens above, and the moral law within. May they lead us to worship and obedience. Amen.

GOD THINKS I'M SPECIAL!

You have made [humans] a little lower than God, And crowned them with glory and honour. Psalm 8:5.

God not only created all those glittering galaxies with a word, but he cares about every one of his human creatures and even sparrows! He is more concerned about worth than about size. The old translations tell us that God 'visits' us, which he has specially done in Jesus Christ. He is 'Emmanuel... God with us' - God beside us, among us and for us.

But there's more: I am God's highest creation! Humans are not just 'naked (or trousered) apes'. We are not merely complex biological machines, an accidental arrangement of molecules, 'a chance configuration of atoms in the slip-stream of meaningless history'.

Humans, says the Bible, are the apex - the crowning act - of God's creation. We are a little lower than the 'Elohim' the gods, divine beings, angels, God.

Thank you Lord, that being created in your image means I differ from other creatures not only in degree but in kind. I am more like God than anything else is. I have a 'spiritual personality' - with reason, intelligence, an appreciation of beauty, an ability to choose what is right, and I am granted the freedom to choose what I will become. With your help, help me to choose well. Amen.

I AM GOD'S DEPUTY OVER THE REST OF CREATION.

You have given [humans] dominion over the works of your hands;You have put all things under their feet. Psalm 8:6.

Humans are stewards, care-takers, of God's creation. We can utilise the plant and animal worlds for our survival. Some ecologists believe that the Judeo-Christian tradition is mostly responsible for human exploitation of nature. Westerners, Paul Ehrlich tells us, dominate nature rather than live in harmony with it. (Western news media told us about Hilary's 'conquering' Everest. An Indian paper's headline: 'Man befriends Everest').

But this is to misread the Bible. We are responsible to God for the way we use his good gifts. Our dominion is not absolute - it's always 'My Father's World'. A close study of the Old Testament, for example, will reveal many regulations for conserving resources. We are given the authority to use, but never to misuse, our natural environment. Further, we are accountable for our dominion over the intellectual world. All branches of knowledge are actually branches of theology. Let us be responsible stewards of these good things.

Lord, you have entrusted the human race with caring for this planet, and we have not done a very good job of it. He me to do what I can to protect the earth, and hand on to my children a better and cleaner world than the one I inherited. Amen.

SO WHAT'S THE PROBLEM?

You have set your glory above the heavens. Psalm 8:1.

God's glory is 'set above the heavens' but his glory is also 'humans fully alive'. We are God's glory, when we are not tarnishing his image in us with our sinfulness.

Our problem is that we are 'fallen', rebels against God. We are greedy, and the love of money becomes a root of all kinds of evil (1 Timothy 6:10). We are apathetic, and don't do for others what we ought to do. (The movie The China Syndrome depicts graphically what happens when these destructive forces are operative in a nuclear power plant).

'Creation', according to Simone Weil's famous dictum, 'was the moment when God ceased to be everything so we humans could become something'. But the impulse to arrogance (to do exactly as we please) or to apathy (to do absolutely nothing at all), is within all of us. The temptations are to be either too much or too little.

God has done something really wonderful about this dilemma. The God of infinity now chooses to invite himself into my life, and humbly asks for room to live and reign there.

Oh Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder, consider all the worlds your hands have made - how great you are! And when I think that God his son not sparing, sent him to die, it's hard to take it in. Thank you Lord. Amen.