1 O Lord, our Sovereign,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
2Out of the mouths of babes and infants
you have founded a bulwark because of your foes,
to silence the enemy and the avenger.
3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars that you have established;
4 what are human beings that you are mindful of them,
mortals that you care for them?
5 Yet you have made them a little lower than God,
and crowned them with glory and honor.
6 You have given them dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under their feet,
7all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field,
8the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
9 O Lord, our Sovereign,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
-Psalm 8
During our recent trip to Alaska, I was provided with the opportunity to reflect theologically on God’s beautiful creation because my brain never actually takes a vacation. I was in awe of the sights. I have had the opportunity to see the pastoral lands of southern France and the warm scenes of the Caribbean. But nothing can compare to the awe and majesty of snow-capped mountains. All throughout our trip I was able to see and experience the natural world and meet people I would not ordinarily see or interact with. Psalm 8 is the passage of scripture that kept coming to my head as I looked around.
One of the common fallacies about this passage is that we mortal humans read it as some sort of ode to us. But if we read it closely we realize that the psalmist is speaking less about humans than about the world around us. Instead, the author wants us to realize our place in the created order. There are only five references to humans in the nine verses of this short psalm. The natural world is spoken about in eight different places. While the numbers are quite similar, it’s distinct to me that the heavens and the animals are mentioned more than we are. Some have argued that because the references to human life are found in nearly the center of the passage that he (and it most likely was a he) is saying we’re central to the earth. I think differently. I think we’re placed in the center of the verses to remind us that we’re surrounded on all sides by the world that God has made and placed us into as caretakers.
Being among the towering mountains of Alaska reminded me that I am just a small speck. Seeing whales break the surface and slap their large tails reminded me that I am puny compared to them. Seeing the curiosity of sea lions and sea otters gave me the sense of the wonder and interrelated relationship we have with our animal brethren.
This was all reinforced by our tour guide in Hoonah, Alaska. Hoonah is a native settlement existing in the foothills of mountains, the Pacific, rivers and lakes. It is surrounded on all sides by trees older than any of us and teems with life that is far from human. Bears, birds, fish and any number of other things fill the place and give it life. Our guide was the leader of the Eagle clan and he offered us a greeting which I thought was especially poignant. In it, he said, “Greetings all of you treasured people, children of the earth.”
We so often forget that. We’re all children of this earth. We are at its mercies and not its master (as I learned when I had food poisoning and was stopped dead in my tracks by a living creature that is 0.4-3 microns big. That’s about 23 times smaller than a human hair). We are called to tame it and utilize it for our good. And yet, we cannot destroy it. We rely on it and it on us. His words reminded me deeply of the symbiotic relationship we all have and set to my mind words of Pope Francis in his encyclical Laudato Si,:
“Laudato si’, mi’ Signore” – “Praise be to you, my Lord”. In the words of this beautiful canticle, Saint Francis of Assisi reminds us that our common home is like a sister with whom we share our life and a beautiful mother who opens her arms to embrace us. “Praise be to you, my Lord, through our Sister, Mother Earth, who sustains and governs us, and who produces various fruit with colored flowers and herbs”. This sister now cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed her. We have come to see ourselves as her lords and masters, entitled to plunder her at will. The violence present in our hearts, wounded by sin, is also reflected in the symptoms of sickness evident in the soil, in the water, in the air and in all forms of life. This is why the earth herself, burdened and laid waste, is among the most abandoned and maltreated of our poor; she “groans in travail” (Rom 8:22). We have forgotten that we ourselves are dust of the earth (cf. Gen 2:7); our very bodies are made up.”
When we went up a nearly 1,900-foot slope via tram in Juneau, I saw a bald eagle perched in a tree looking down. While that eagle is much smaller than me, I knew its awesome power and beauty. I stared through binoculars as it sat perched and was amazed.
We enjoyed a tour of a bear sanctuary in Sitka where the residents (three black bears and six brown bears) lived their days. These bears had been orphaned as cubs by either hunters or others who took their mothers. By Alaska law, any cub orphaned before its second birthday had to be euthanized or placed in a protected sanctuary. Luckily these were spared. The absolute size of the creatures was astounding. Several stood and even walked on their hind legs, curious about all the humans looking in on them. Some of their paws were nearly the size of my head. All I could repeat to myself was “Wow.”
I see the natural world every single day but never seem to pay it much mind. We have deer in our backyard and various other creatures that live around us. It wasn’t until I saw the awesome sights of Alaska that I really felt differently about that world. And I have to admit: I’m not an “outdoorsy” kind of guy. Camping for me is a nice hotel that is nature adjacent. Being out in the forests and trees just doesn’t excite me terribly, but this was a wonderful trip to see the beautiful sights.