Friday, September 22, 2006

Boundless!

Oh LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth,
joH'a', maj joH, chay' majestic ghaH lIj pong Daq Hoch the tera' psalm 8:1

(click for podcast version)

Tera'ngan - earther - is the Klingon summation of the residents of the third rock from the Sun. That is, tera'ngan, those from Terra or Earth. However this is NOT what David is thinking about in Psalm 8 when he says:


Oh LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth,
joH'a', maj joH, chay' majestic ghaH lIj pong Daq Hoch the tera'


When a Klingon calls you a tera'ngan, it isn't a compliment - you are merely a Human from a distant corner of the galaxy. Your identity is confined to the borders, the limits of your home planet.

Exactly the opposite of David's use of eretz - earth, in this psalm, what has been rendered with the Klingon word tera'. David declares that God's name - his self, fills the whole world, all of visible creation. God's name - everything one might know or say about the creator, is BOUNDLESS.

I've noted before that space travellers have said "Earth has no lines" - that is, seen from space earth doesn't really divide up the way our maps and politics show it. In the stirring introduction to Psalm 8, David says the same thing - about GOD. We so often divide his presence up in parochial, limiting ways. Our prejudices happily lead us to imagine "no, God isn't in that place, among those people." But that's not true.

Peter learned how false such thinking is, when in a vision God showed him that God truly is completly impartial - would that we would remember Peter's words:

Peter opened his mouth and said, "Truly I perceive that God doesn't show favoritism;
but in every nation he who fears him and works righteousness is acceptable to him. Acts 10:34-35

The Life Application Bible notes, concerning Peter's confession:

In every nation there are hearts restless for God, ready to receive the Good News—but someone must take it to them. Seeking God is not enough—people must find him. How then shall seekers find God without someone to point the way? Is God asking you to show someone the way to him?


God fills every corner. As we capture David's vision of a God whose name is majestic across every corner of this globe, as we recall Peter's discovery that God is indeed for EVERYONE, let us find ways to share his boundless love!

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