Reflections on Ps 8 (Br David Arulanatham)

God saw all that he had made and indeed it was very good

Each time I am confronted with this psalm especially verses 4 & 5; I feel an awesome feeling of the surging of goodness within me. For me as I perceive what seems to be ‘Glory and honour’ in the psalm simply as the goodness that God claimed when he had completed his creation on the sixth day;

God saw all that he had made an indeed it was very good

Genesis 1:31

It is indeed this goodness that we were created in and created for. However, we somehow are not able to embrace and live this goodness to the fullest. It seems a struggle for us for we seem to be attracted to the world around us, and its attraction as goodness. We join in the rat race to the illusive and deceptive goodness of idolatry which eventually lead us away from our ever loving and merciful God.

A few years ago when I visited a BEC [Basic Ecclesial Communities – Malaysia; Small Christian Communities -Singapore] for their word sharing meeting as part of my pastoral work, I found that the people in this group started their reflection hurling criticism, hurtful feelings, resentment, anger and frustrations. I was taken aback and was wondering what was happening there and made up my mind that I had to take control of the situation and turn things around for them that evening.

I suggested that maybe for a change instead of pointing fingers and feeling miserable why don’t we look into ourselves and speak of the goodness within us. Everyone became very silent and occasionally nudging the other to speak up. After some moments I added if that is difficult maybe we could try affirming each other in this group of their goodness for I am sure you all know each other quite well and have been engaged in some form of relationship for a while. Well, this turned out to be very successful, there were beautiful stories, experiences shared, joy being expressed, a display of emotions and even tears streaming down on their faces. It was simply a wonderful time. God’s immanent presence among us was felt. He was mentioned, acknowledged, praised and glorified.

At this point I decided to make them feel guilty for the disposition they were in at the beginning of the evening by asking them which was a better time. Here I took the opportunity to infuse some teaching that I share with you readers of the ‘Blog.’

Each time we look into ourselves and sense the goodness within us, in the persons around us, in the world around us we truly experience the presence of God and we allow the goodness of God to grow a hundred fold or even more. The God that we experience in these moments is not one who is silent but one who speaks to us in the silence of our heart.


Take a moment now, become very silent and still while reflecting your life remembering the goodness that you have lived and expressed to people around you. How do you feel?
If you feel good then give praise to God and allow the goodness of God within you to surge out of you even more freely and unconditionally.

How great is your name,
O Lord our God , through all the earth!

Psalm 8:9

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Stay tuned for the next post by Br Joseph Zhang on 01st Nov 2010.