Psalm 8 is one of the crown jewels of the Hebrew Psalter. It is full of awe and wonderment at the beauty of the natural world and the lofty purpose of our humanity.

The poem begins and ends with an exclamation of wonder at God whose majesty permeates the world. And at the very center of the poem that same astonishment that we mere mortals should be the focus of God’s extraordinary love and care.

This psalm asserts that God created us in his image and crowned us with dignity above all other creatures, assigning us as God’s stewards to reflect God’s wise and caring love into the world, bringing order and fruitfulness to the garden.

This does not make us masters of creation with domineering rights and privileges, but rather, servants, developing and protecting God’s world on God’s behalf. This is the vocation that defines our humanity, to beautify and enhance the Creation of which we are a part.

And with the world gone wrong, degraded in so many ways, the highest, most redemptive expression of our humanity is to reflect God’s self-giving love in caring for the people and creation around us, to restore the broken places and display the majesty of God through the cosmos.

Earth Day is an annual invitation every April 22 to participate in local activities to improve our neighborhood. A few years ago I wrote Four Words for Earth Day. (In case you’re wondering, they are “O”, Thanks, Sorry and Yes!).

Around the world there are many organizations engaged in caring for creation in conservation, recovery and development in a thousand ways. Some that I support include A Rocha, … Eden Vigil and Care of Creation.

But all of us in our daily work — farmers, teachers, and artists, parents and nurses, bankers and carpenters, lobster fishermen and climatologists all play their part, for better or worse, to enhance or degrade the world in which we live.

We either bring glory to God and joy to our neighbors through our work, or we squander our energies on lesser pursuits.

Nothing could be more relevant during this Corona-virus crisis.  Covid-19 is an expression of nature gone amuck.  This is not the way our Creator designed things.

And who has the responsibility to subdue the rogue virus that is wreaking havoc with the human family around the world?  You and me!

We’ve been equipped with the gifts and calling to take up this challenge – and if any of us step aside and leave it to others, we are shirking our God-given and life-giving role to steward the world for God’s sake.

As a retiree, while I stay at home, I pray for the farmers who are growing  my food, the truckers bringing it to my city, the nurses caring for the sick and attendants working in seniors’ homes.

I pray, too, for that army of immunologists around the world working to find a vaccine for us all. As we applaud for these people and pray for them, we add our little bit to restoring God’s glory in the world.

There is so much more in this exquisite psalm, but the best way to appreciate it is to read it here without comment.

Or check out my visual commentary on YouTube.