March 29
:
The Majesty & Glory of Christ's Name

♫ Music:

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Day 28 - Tuesday, March 29
Title: THE MAJESTY & GLORY OF CHRIST’S NAME
Scripture: Psalm 8
O Lord, our Lord,
How excellent is Your name in all the earth,
Who have set Your glory above the heavens!

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.

When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
The moon and the stars, which You have ordained,
What is man that You are mindful of him,
And the son of man that You visit him?
For You have made him a little lower than the angels,
And You have crowned him with glory and honor.

You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands;
You have put all things under his feet,
All sheep and oxen—
Even the beasts of the field,
The birds of the air,
And the fish of the sea
That pass through the paths of the seas.

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

Poetry: 
Everything Rushes 

by Jessica Powers

The brisk blue morning whisked in with a thought:
everything in creation rushes, rushes
toward God—tall trees, small bushes,
quick birds and fish, the beetles, round as naught,

eels in the water, deer on forest floor,
what sits in trees, what burrows underground,
what wriggles to declare life must abound,
and we, the spearhead that run on before,

and lesser things to which life cannot come:
our work, our words that move toward the
 Unmoved,
whatever can be touched, used, handled, loved—
all, all are rushing on ad terminum.

So I, with eager voice and news-flushed face,
cry to those caught in comas, stupors, sleeping:
come, everything is running
flying,
    leaping,
hurtling through time!
    And we are in this race.

AND WHAT IS MAN?

Today’s musical meditation on Psalm 8 by Tom Fettke opens with a sense of mystery: two woodwinds suspend between them a wide-open space, methodically descending together. They are joined by a horn, who voices a simple cascading melody that also then passes through several different instruments, until the women’s voices in unison set the scene: it is a starlit night, and I am gazing into the depths of the heavens. What I see there in all its immensity and beauty is not the vagaries of chance and physics, but art majestic. And once I see the heavens as art, as something intricately worked and ordered, I cannot look at them without seeing they belong to an Artist far greater than they, One whose great eternal glory is set far above these visible glories.

Who has not looked up to the stars and felt wonder? Astronauts, who are even more exposed to the visible heavens than we, bear witness to their feelings of overwhelming awe and grandeur at the heavens’ beauty. They speak of the earth as a jewel, a paradise, even something holy. And they speak also of the way it makes them feel humble, for who has not gazed at such a visible glory without also asking the question that Fettke’s music asks after setting the scene: since this be so, what is man that You are mindful of him?

David’s psalm draws us into this question as a cry of the heart. What is man, that the true Majesty of the universe has us in mind at all? What is man, that we matter to the Lord of the heavens, though even just the sight of the heavens makes us feel so small, so humble? What is man, that the Lord cares for him, visits him, gives him dominion over earth and sea and sky, and crowns him too with glory and honor? All these things—the Lord’s care, His visitation, His gifts of dominion and glory to man—are all perfected in Jesus, God’s most surprising and wondrous answer to the question, “And what is man?”

The greatest crown man has ever been given is to the Word made flesh: the Son of God made Son of Man, Jesus Christ. Christina DeMichelle’s Christ Enthroned in His Creation makes visible His lordship over the creatures, many of whom give metaphorical reminders of Christ’s work on earth. But the crowning of the Son of Man is not quite what you would expect if you looked merely at the visible glory of those we tend to crown as kings of the world. The Caesars, the Alexanders, the Khans crowned by the world are known by their power to compel. But David’s psalm in verse 2—before he tells of his gaze upon the night sky—pointed to weak and helpless infants as the ones who proclaim the strength of this Lord of the heavens. Babies’ cries are the way in which this Lord silences enemies!

Jesus Himself quotes this same verse when the Pharisees criticized the blind, the lame, and the children for crying “Hosanna to the Son of David” to Jesus in the temple. “Don’t you hear what they’re saying?” they indignantly objected to Jesus, who replies “Yes! Haven’t you read David?” Why don’t the Pharisees recognize what the poor and weak can see: that the glory and honor of the Messiah over his enemies are not found in the force of arms, but in His submitting to weakness and His exalting the lowly?  And when the book of Hebrews speaks of Jesus in the words of Psalm 2, it tells us of His power in terms that no Caesar could recognize: “Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone” (2:9).

If we restlessly strive to attain the crowns offered by the world or if we are already crowned in our own eyes like the Pharisees, we will struggle to see the true glory being offered to us in Christ, the glory proclaimed by David and reached through weakness. The greatest of majesties is proclaimed in all the earth twice over: through the immensity of His divine artistry that humbles those who attend to it and through the surprising humility He Himself embraced in being made man. Only the humble can see that, and thereby finally see themselves truly.

Prayer:
Majestic Lord, whose glory is far above the heavens You created,
Guard our hearts from longing for the world’s glittering but brittle crowns.
Make us humble enough to see the true glory of man
In the humility Your beloved Son, Jesus Christ.
Amen.

Dr. Diane Vincent
Associate Professor of Medieval Literature
Torrey Honors College
Biola University

For more information about the artwork, music, and poetry selected for this day, we have provided resources under the “About” tab located next to the “Devotional” tab. 

 

 

 

 

About the Artwork: 
Christ Enthroned in His Creation
Christina DeMichelle
2009
Acrylic on canvas 
10' x 12' 
Commission for St. Andrew’s Orthodox Church 
Riverside, California

This large canvas adorns St. Andrew’s Orthodox Church in Riverside, California. In her work entitled Christ Enthroned in His Creation, artist Christina DeMichelle paints the Lord—who brought order to the universe in the beginning—seated in the heavens as he oversees the beauty and immense diversity of his creation. In every small detail of the universe, the imprint of Christ as Creator can be seen and serves as a reminder of his lordship over the natural world, “For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible…all things were created through him and for him” (Colossians 1:16). 

About the Artist:
Christina DeMichelle
is a professional artist. She graduated with a B.F.A. from Biola University and then received her M.F.A. from Claremont Graduate School in Claremont, California, with an emphasis in painting, drawing, and sculpture. She is currently a substitute teacher, freelance artist, and iconographer in the Sonoma County area of California. In the past few years, DeMichelle’s primary commissions of religious icons in egg tempera have been for churches and individuals.
http://christinademichele.com/creation_mural

About the Music: 
“The Majesty & Glory of Your Name (Psalm 8)” from the album Majesty, Glory & Power

Lyrics:
When I gaze into the night skies
and see the work of your fingers;
The moon and stars suspended in space.

Oh, what is man that you are mindful of him?
You have given man a crown of glory and honor,
And have made him a little lower than the angels.
You have put him in charge of all creation:
beasts of the field, The birds of the air,
The fish of the sea.
Oh, what is man?
Oh, what is man that you are mindful of him?

O Lord, our God the majesty and glory of your name
Transcends the earth and fills the heavens.
O Lord, our God; little children praise You perfectly,
And so would we.
And so would we.

Alleluia! Alleluia!
The majesty and glory of Your name.

Alleluia! Alleluia!
The majesty and glory of Your name.

Alleluia! Alleluia! (4x)

About the Performers: 
The Azusa Pacific University Chorale & Orchestra
conducted by Al Clifft

The Azusa Pacific University Chorale, a premier choral ensemble in APU’s School of Music, is composed of top student musicians from the School of Music and throughout the university. Open to all students who read music and have choral experience, they perform the very best of choral literature from throughout the Western canon, specializing in music written for large choirs from historical periods as well as the latest compositions of today.
https://www.apu.edu/music/ensembles/vocal/

Al Clifft (1942–2014) was a musician, instructor of music theory, and conductor of music at Azusa Pacific University for forty-two years. During that time he was the director of the University Choir, the University Orchestra, the Bel Canto Women's Choir, the Wind Ensemble, and the Jazz Ensemble.
https://zunews.com/2014/10/ceremony-honors-late-alvin-clifft/

About the Composer: 
Tom Fettke (b. 1941) is a composer, arranger, and producer of music and recordings for church and schools. His published works and recordings number in the hundreds. His classic choral work “The Majesty and Glory of Your Name” is sung by thousands of church and school choirs around the world. Fettke holds degrees from Oakland City College and California State University at Hayward. For a number of years he taught vocal music in California’s public school system and was a church choir director and minister of music in churches large and small for over thirty years. Fettke was the creator and senior editor of The Hymnal for Worship and Celebration. Since its release in 1986, over three million copies have been placed in the pews of today’s church. He was also the senior editor of The Celebration Hymnal, which has been heralded as one of the most innovative “tools” for ministry in the history of the church.   
https://www.halleonard.com/biography/131/tom-fettke

About the Poet: 
Jessica Powers
(1905–1988) was an American poet and Carmelite nun. After attending Marquette University’s College of Journalism (1922–1923), she worked as a secretary in Chicago before moving back home to care for her younger brothers following their mother’s death. During this time Powers published over a hundred poems, many reflecting her background growing up in rural Wisconsin. She moved to New York in 1937, where she shared a home with the philosopher Anton Pegis and his wife Jessica, a writer, and helped care for their children. Powers grew intellectually and spiritually through her contacts with other writers who were part of the Catholic Revival, and her poems began to take on a contemplative, mystical quality that characterized her work in later years. Her first book, The Lantern Burns, appeared in 1939. Drawn to a cloistered religious vocation, Powers returned to Wisconsin in 1941 and entered the religious community the Carmel of the Mother of God, where she was given the name Sister Miriam of the Holy Spirit. 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessica_Powers
https://www.marquette.edu/library/archives/Mss/JP/JP-sc.php

About the Devotion Author:  
Dr. Diane Vincent
Associate Professor of Medieval Literature
Torrey Honors College
Biola University

Diane Vincent is an associate professor of medieval literature at the Torrey Honors College. Her interests range widely across the liberal arts, including theological anthropology, the history and pedagogy of university "great books programs,” Greek tragedy, Plato, dance, choral music, Shakespeare, and the Bible.

 

 

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