When pain makes even sitting in a chair impossible, someone else’s ordinary comfort can suddenly look like the one thing that would make life right. In Exodus 20:17, God forbids coveting anything that belongs to our neighbor—but how do we distinguish a healthy desire for change from a heart dissatisfied with what God has given?
We lose focus on what God has done for us and then aren’t able to do what He really wants us to do.
We may think it’d be nice if there were a device where we could make people tell the truth. But, what about ourselves? We take credit that belongs to someone else, withhold truth when it could help, or pass along a claim we have not checked. How out of control are our own words everyday?
As we continue to explore Psalm 8, David finds himself in wonder over the glory of God being given to human beings.
We’ve all known that strange, off feeling when something of ours is stolen. That instinctive certainty it is wrong is precisely where Exodus 20:15 begins—”You shall not steal”—yet the command reaches the many ways we take from God without ever feeling the sting ourselves.
As we continue to explore Psalm 8, David reminds us that we are never too insignificant for God to stop and show care for us.
It is easy to read “You shall not commit adultery” and decide that command belongs to someone else. But in Matthew 5, Jesus carries it beyond the outward act into the hidden life of our looks, desires, and thoughts—so where does that leave any of us, and why does God care so deeply about our purity?
Psalm 8 takes us to a King who’s kingdom was inaugurated long before the United States ever existed and whose power is greater than all the nations of the world.
Most of us haven’t murdered anyone this week, so we figure we’re keeping the sixth commandment just fine—but Jesus suggests the problem runs deeper, into the anger we harbor and the contempt we broadcast, long before any blade is drawn.
God’s glory is God’s glory — there is only one God. So if we want to share God’s glory and see it spread through the world, we share the hope of Jesus.