Ordained Praise

...out of the mouths of babes, Thou hast ordained praise...

I had a job once. For hours, I would pat babes, crying, screaming infants.
Alone in a room filled with cribs and babies, I would pat.
...out of the mouths of babes, Thou hast ordained praise...
This beautiful 'sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God' helped get me through and turned me into an instrument of praise.

Pat, pat, pat, they gave nothing back but cries and then finally sleep. Then another would need me. Pat, pat, pat, it was a noisy then silent, loud then quiet monastery for me.

The baby house on the kibbutz filled with creatures 6 weeks to a few months old, yet they had already been taught to praise.
Ordained praise.

Ah Lord,
You made me, as much as any flower.
I embody Praise.
My mind, my body, my soul-Spirit;
I embody Praise.
My frets and keys are crowned with glory and honor,
My life, Your stringed instrument silences darkness.
The moon, the stars, Your little daughter;
We are set in place by Your fingers.
The music rises
We embody Praise.

Psalm 8

1 O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! 2 From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger.
3 When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, 4 what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? 5 You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. 6 You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet: 7 all flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field, 8 the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas. 9 O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!