Frank Lloyd Wright, my favorite architect, once said, “Nature is all the body of G-d we mortals will ever see.” Of course, he was being (untypically) modest, because if nature is the body, his extraordinary buildings are the skeleton.

That small correction notwithstanding, Wright was hardly alone in seeing evidence of G-d in the majesty of the natural world. From Emerson to Mother Teresa, from Anne Frank to Aristotle, an endless array of famous thinkers sees the divine in nature. Even the Grateful Dead talk about discovering “the wonders of nature…” (“Sugar Magnolia”).

So when our siddur, near the beginning of pesukei d’zimra, declares, “Acclaim the power of G-d…whose majesty is in the heavens,” it hardly comes as a surprise. As we do our “warm up” to be ready to pray to Hashem with the Sh’ma and the Amidah, relying on the tried and true “wonder of nature” to awaken our angel-senses seems like a perfectly reasonable thing to do.

What is stunning, though, is the middle phrase of that declaration. It reads “Acclaim the power of G-d, whose pride is in the people of Israel, whose majesty is in the heavens.” Absolutely remarkable! Think about it. What does it say to us that the people of Israel is supposed to be as inspiring, as stimulating of holy thoughts, as a beautiful sunset over the Grand Canyon?

Is that your experience of the Jewish people? Probably not, at least not routinely. And why is that? Well, part of it is that we lack appreciation for exactly how miraculous the Jewish people is. On any given day, Jews are saving the world: curing disease, helping the poor, rescuing captives, nurturing the environment, and on and on. Our contribution to the world is breathtaking, and too often goes unnoticed.

But the other side of that coin is that all too often we ourselves do not live up to our divinely assigned responsibilities. So every day, this prayer reminds us that we are supposed to be the source of divine pride. All our actions—“with all our heart and all our soul and all our might”—are intended to be a concrete witness to the Divine.

And that, my friends, is no easy task. And so therefore, we pray…