“When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers…What is man that You are mindful of him?” (Ps 8:3-4).
Knowing long before it was written that “every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father” (Jas 1:17), Ezra declared: “Blessed be the Lord God of our fathers, who has put such a thing as this in the king’s heart” (Ezra 7:27). And more than that, Ezra knew it was the Lord who “extended mercy to me before the king and his counselors, and before all the king’s mighty princes” (v 28). So he writes, “I was encouraged, as the hand of the Lord my God was upon me.” That the king’s heart was for him was a miracle, but what thrilled him even more was that the Lord’s hand was on him. They’re interconnected, of course. “The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord” (Prov 21:1). Inspired by this, he writes, “I gathered leading men of Israel to go up with me.” Ezra 8 then records the group that returned home from the land of their captivity. Another list—another reminder that God notices us all, that every one is important to Him. In recounting one reason to praise the Lord, the psalmist links three seemingly unrelated ideas. First, “The Lord builds up Jerusalem; He gathers together the outcasts of Israel.” That’s what He’s doing here, the covenant-keeping God. Then, “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” He’s also the care-giving God. Then with a change in thought that takes our breath away, he adds, “He counts the number of the stars; He calls them all by name” (Ps 147:2-4). Here’s the cataloging-stars God! Another day in the life of our Lord: gathering the outcasts, healing the wounded—and calling each star by name. Say, that’s just what He does with us! “The sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name” (Jn 10:3). Strays. Sufferers. Stars. He’ll not lose track of even one today.