Psalm 8

Taking a quick audit on a Wednesday, the middle of this first full week of July.

I’ve been sleeping pretty well for the past days. Coffee’s down to one mug a day, in the morning. 10k steps daily, consistent. Getting at least 30 minutes of exercise daily too, all of it shadow boxing or taking it out on the heavy bag.

I took a deeper look into the pills that were prescribed for me. One was for reducing ‘bad’ cholesterol, one was for anti-vertigo (which I was to take when needed), one was a heart supplement, and one was a brain stimulant (it literally indicated ‘nootropic’ in the foil). So that’s why I’ve been feeling better (‘better’ meaning less dizzy and less lightheaded), and I’ve also been feeling more decisive and motivated.

And I suppose here we are, taking advantage of it by getting back into the rhythm, not only with my steps and exercise, but here, also, in writing – in fact, we’ve gotten back so hard that we actually got into a series.

But about that, well, it’s been timely. It’s an anticipated shift. Because truth be told, I was feeling demotivated – You’ve probably read about it in the weeks approaching July – to the point that I wasn’t feeling too enthusiastic about working out and writing, preferring to stay in bed the entire morning watching brainrot and eating whatever I wanted to, whenever I wanted to.

What I’m saying is, it’s not just the pills that are getting me back into it. I’m giving God the credit.

Thank You, Father, for the reading of Your Word.

The Glory of the LORD in Creation

To the Chief Musician. On the instrument of Gath. A Psalm of David.

Observation of context: David isn’t writing this as a reaction to something negative. I feel as if this was more inspired; More responsive, than reactive – or, well, just something David composed after seeing the skies, the trees, the mountains, and so on.

1 O LORD, our Lord, How excellent is Your name in all the earth, Who have set Your glory above the heavens!

2 Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have ordained strength, Because of Your enemies, That You may silence the enemy and the avenger.

The word for ‘ordained‘ can also be translated as ‘established‘, as in, out of the mouth of those as young as babes and infants; That is, out of their cries the Lord has established strength.

And for the rest of verse 2, if we take a look at other translations of the Word, some read ‘out of the praises‘, while what is established isn’t just ‘strength’ but עוֹז or ‛ôz with the context of force, security (as a stronghold or fortress), majesty and praise.

3 When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained,

4 What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him?

5 For You have made him a little lower than the angels, And You have crowned him with glory and honor.

6 You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet,

7 All sheep and oxen— Even the beasts of the field,

8 The birds of the air, And the fish of the sea That pass through the paths of the seas.

Through all of this, I believe David writes from a heart amazed by the glory of the Lord seen in all creation. In this Psalm, he proclaims:

The praises of babes and nursing infants silences the enemy and the avenger.

The glory of the Lord set in the heavens brings man and all of creation in awe.

Who among us would not be amazed? For all our failures and stumbling, for all our hopelessness and our being liabilities against ourselves and against the rest of creation, the Lord remains faithfully mindful of us…

…And not in a sense that we are merely remembered, but look – we are also entrusted with glory and honor, with dominion over the rest of creation.

We are in awe, twofold – first, in the glory of the Creator’s creation, and second, in His faithfulness and favor upon us.

That being said, there’s much more weight to when David chooses to end this song the way it started:

9 O LORD, our Lord, How excellent is Your name in all the earth!

I would do well to meditate on the Word, and to be brought to praise – joining the mouths of babes and newborn infants in establishing praise and power. The gaming and the doomscrolling may be nice, but I pray to flow into being more consistent in meditation, or what really compounds towards the better.

Speaking about that, I’ve also started working on my gargantuan, 600-item long YouTube Watch Later playlist (561 items long now, as of my last count), not by watching them at a faster speed, but by having AI summarize certain videos. The end goal is to consolidate data, and to build knowledge.

And speaking of knowledge, my watching, reading and re-reading of Nippon Sangoku has recently reminded me of what is apparently a Neo-Confucian concept: The unity of knowledge and action.

Taking this from the explanation of Gemini:

The concept (of the unity of knowledge and action) challenges the idea that people know what is right but fail to do it. According to this philosophy, if an individual fails to act, they do not yet truly possess the knowledge of its true value.

Theoretical understanding without practice is empty. If you know what is right, apply it. Putting knowledge into practice is the genuine completion of that knowledge.

I have a mind right now to get back into photography, to take in the glory of Creation and the favor of our Creator, that we would all be brought to join the mouths of babes and newborn infants in establishing praise and power.

That, among a bunch of other things. For now, though, I’ll let these thoughts marinade my brain (along with the pills)…

O LORD, our Lord, How excellent is Your name in all the earth.

232945/365000