What role do children play in overcoming evil? That question may seem strange, even a little uncomfortable. I think we too often view children as "cute and sweet" at the expense of some significant scriptural teachings about their power and potential. These are really just "out loud" thoughts; I don’t intend to be dogmatic about these points. Still, it is worth pondering.
Let's consider the 8th Psalm, a psalm of David. This psalm opens and closes with the declaration, "O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!" We can easily get that this is a psalm about the majesty of the Lord, but focusing in on verse 2, it reads: "From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise...". This is usually the only part of the sentence that you hear recited, and if left there, again we reach that "cute and sweet" reaction most of us have to God and children. However, the verse does not stop there in reality. It actually continues: "...because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger." Whoa! Would it be an overstatement to say that God has ordained praise from babies not just to be cute and give us a warm fuzzy, but as an act of war? An aggressive battle move? A strategy to overcome those that would come against his holiness?
I don't want to exaggerate the claims here, but I do want to pause and reflect on what could be something very powerful in the spiritual realm. Maybe, we human adults, don't understand the praises that an infant can make and express, but perhaps the enemies of God understand it full well. I can't be sure, but I wonder.
After looking up the Hebrew behind some of these words that have been translated into English in this verse, my paraphrase would read something like this: The God that is full of majesty and glory in all the earth and the heavens finds it fitting to have children and infants praise him to shut up his enemies, to put out of commission those that would try to take him on.
Let's consider the 8th Psalm, a psalm of David. This psalm opens and closes with the declaration, "O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!" We can easily get that this is a psalm about the majesty of the Lord, but focusing in on verse 2, it reads: "From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise...". This is usually the only part of the sentence that you hear recited, and if left there, again we reach that "cute and sweet" reaction most of us have to God and children. However, the verse does not stop there in reality. It actually continues: "...because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger." Whoa! Would it be an overstatement to say that God has ordained praise from babies not just to be cute and give us a warm fuzzy, but as an act of war? An aggressive battle move? A strategy to overcome those that would come against his holiness?
I don't want to exaggerate the claims here, but I do want to pause and reflect on what could be something very powerful in the spiritual realm. Maybe, we human adults, don't understand the praises that an infant can make and express, but perhaps the enemies of God understand it full well. I can't be sure, but I wonder.
After looking up the Hebrew behind some of these words that have been translated into English in this verse, my paraphrase would read something like this: The God that is full of majesty and glory in all the earth and the heavens finds it fitting to have children and infants praise him to shut up his enemies, to put out of commission those that would try to take him on.
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