1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,160
Day 153, or June 2nd.

2
00:00:04,160 --> 00:00:07,360
Magnify the Lord.

3
00:00:07,360 --> 00:00:11,800
Our thoughts today are taken from Psalm 8, verse 1.

4
00:00:11,800 --> 00:00:18,560
Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth.

5
00:00:18,560 --> 00:00:22,060
And now the big picture surrounding this verse.

6
00:00:22,060 --> 00:00:26,940
Throughout history, the Psalms have been used to help people of all nations get in tune

7
00:00:26,940 --> 00:00:28,720
with God.

8
00:00:28,720 --> 00:00:35,880
Even a song can sum up our innermost thought, and the Psalms do this over and over again.

9
00:00:35,880 --> 00:00:41,280
In the eighth Psalm, the opening refrain is repeated at the very end.

10
00:00:41,280 --> 00:00:48,720
David begins by challenging us to consider how majestic God's name is, and then he concludes

11
00:00:48,720 --> 00:00:50,640
with the same thought.

12
00:00:50,640 --> 00:00:54,400
How majestic is your name.

13
00:00:54,400 --> 00:00:57,800
And now our action step for today.

14
00:00:57,800 --> 00:01:00,920
Is your image of God large enough?

15
00:01:00,920 --> 00:01:06,060
When we think of magnifying something in the 21st century, we think of making it larger

16
00:01:06,060 --> 00:01:08,040
than it actually is.

17
00:01:08,040 --> 00:01:13,960
In ancient times, however, when the Bible talks about magnifying God, it means to raise

18
00:01:13,960 --> 00:01:18,920
him up in our mind to a position closer to reality.

19
00:01:18,920 --> 00:01:25,200
We cannot think of God as bigger than he really is, but we certainly can have a falsely small

20
00:01:25,200 --> 00:01:27,440
image of him.

21
00:01:27,440 --> 00:01:32,480
When we get but a glimpse of God, we never see him for what he is because we couldn't

22
00:01:32,480 --> 00:01:34,160
cope with that.

23
00:01:34,160 --> 00:01:39,880
But that doesn't give us permission to reduce him in size, power, or authority.

24
00:01:39,880 --> 00:01:46,760
Remember, when Moses asked to see God, he was protected by God's hand, as he took refuge

25
00:01:46,760 --> 00:01:51,360
in a rock crevice as God's glory passed by.

26
00:01:51,360 --> 00:01:57,960
God is so much bigger in every way than we can ever imagine, even when we magnify him

27
00:01:57,960 --> 00:01:59,720
in our minds.

28
00:01:59,720 --> 00:02:06,960
A modern hymn, which begins with David's words from Psalm 8, hits this point home beautifully,

29
00:02:06,960 --> 00:02:21,960
and is worth recalling many times today.