A Thought For The Week Of May 23, 2016

"Through the praise of children and infants you have established a stronghold against your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger." (Psalm 8:2) I was reading through Psalm 8 a few days ago and I found myself wondering, how, exactly, does God establish a stronghold against his enemies "through the praise of children and infants"? That seems like a strange statement, and I struggled with it for a while. First I wondered how it was possible for an infant or young child to be able to offer praise to God? Does praise not imply an understanding of something? In what way is it that God is "praised" by infants and children? And how, exactly, does that praise establish a stronghold against God's enemies? Is this perhaps another celebration of the innocent and wondrous praise of little children? They praise God just by being who they are - by not rejecting God but by being fascinated by the world God has created. Even infants are inherently curious. It is, after all, how we learn - by observing and being fascinated. Perhaps it's that innocent wonder that is itself a spiritual force that counters the influence and power of that which opposes God. And I also found myself wondering if this was meant literally. Or is this an Old Testament version of Jesus saying to his disciples "you shall become like little children." Perhaps this is nothing more than a celebration of an innocent and trusting faith - and perhaps it's that very kind of faith that allows God to work through us to establish strongholds against those forces that oppose God. Perhaps even we - ideally at least - are the "strongholds" - in that we stand against the world and for Christ. Through our praise as children of God - mere infants with so much more to learn about and experience of God - we stand against those spiritual forces opposed to God.