Wednesday Worship: Artemis II - "I Declare Your Majesty"

The far side of the moon is not just a destination, it is a mirror that shows us how small we are and how hungry we are for meaning. Wednesday Worship host Ken Mercer takes one worship song, “I Declare Your Majesty,” and dedicates it to the Artemis II astronauts who traveled farther than any humans before and came home trying to describe what their eyes could barely hold.

We talk through the crew’s stories and why the words declare, proclaim, and exclaim matter when life gets too big for casual language. Artemis II pilot Victor Glover shares a perspective shaped by Christian faith, Scripture, and a sense of studying God’s creation from orbit. Reed Wiseman offers a different starting point, calling himself non-religious, yet describing an overwhelming experience of wonder and emotion, including the crater named for his late wife and the tenderness of a crew that chose to honor her.

From the first “eclipse of the Earth” to the fireball of reentry, the orange parachutes, and the splashdown recovery on a U.S. Navy ship, we follow the arc from astonishment to worship. Wiseman’s request to see the ship’s chaplain and his tears at the sight of the cross become a moment many of us recognize: when awe and grief collide, we reach for something holy, even if we do not have all the labels sorted out.

If you’re looking for a faith and science reflection, a Christian podcast moment grounded in real-world space exploration, or a worship song that gives you words when you have none, press play. Subscribe, share this with a friend who loves space or worship music, and leave a review with the line that stayed with you most.

• Introducing the worship song “I Declare Your Majesty” and naming the writer Malcolm Duplessis
• Inviting listeners to find the Maranatha Singers version online
• Dedicating the song to Artemis II astronauts Reed Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen
• Unpacking declare, proclaim, and exclaim as powerful worship words
• Victor Glover on faith, Scripture, and studying God’s creation from orbit
• Reed Wiseman on grief, the crater named for his late wife, and the kindness of his crew
• Crew’s unique views of Earth, the far side of the moon, and an eclipse of the Earth
• Reentry, splashdown, and the emotional moment with a Navy chaplain
 

Transcript

Welcome And Song Introduction

SPEAKER_01 0:00

This is Ken Mercer of Wednesday Worship. Today's program is very special. First, the song is I Declare Your Majesty. I declare your majesty, written by Malcolm Duplessis. And I invite you to go online and YouTube or podcast and pull down the version from the Marinatha singers, You Will Be Blessed.

Dedicating Worship To Artemis II

SPEAKER_01 0:23

Today's Wednesday worship, we're going to dedicate our song, I declare your majesty, to the four members of the Artemis II space mission. That was an historic voyage. We went back around the moon for the first time in 50 years, and they literally saw what no man or woman had ever ever seen before. When it came back to Earth, when they landed on that Navy ship, they began to declare, to proclaim, to exclaim the majesty of God. Today's an awesome program. I promise you will be blessed. Today's Wednesday worship song, I declare your majesty, again dedicated to those four astronauts of Artemis II, the 2026 space program.

The Power Of Declare And Proclaim

SPEAKER_01 1:16

There's words that we don't use very often, like declare, proclaim, exclaim. Those are powerful, powerful words. There were four brave astronauts on this historic mission. Reed Wiseman, Victor Glover, the mission's pilot, the first black astronaut deployed by NASA on a lunar mission, Christina Koch, the first female on a lunar mission, and a Canadian astronaut, Jeremy Hansen. Again, Wiseman, Glover, Cork, and Hansen. But I want to specifically point out the two different expressions from Glover, again, the pilot of Artemis II, and Reed Wiseman. Their testimonies had so much in common. Glover was asked about how do you feel about the first black astronaut and the first female astronaut on our lunar mission? And Glover said it's about human history. It's a story of humanity, not black history, not woman's history, but it becomes human history. Glover is a very religious man. He spoke about studying God's creation from orbit, studying

Victor Glover On Faith In Orbit

SPEAKER_01 2:33

the Word of God. He actually brought his own personal copy of the Holy Bible with him on the journey. Reed Wiseman says, I'm not a religious person. But the explanation for what he saw was so just incredible. You may have heard Reed Wiseman was the astronaut whose wife recently passed away, and he found out that they discovered a new crater on the moon, on the far side of the moon, where no man had ever seen before. This huge crater. And his fellow astronauts named the crater after Wiseman's late wife. And Wiseman said, I thought it was the most beautiful thing I've heard in my entire life. She was an amazing human being, and she's the mother of my two daughters. And he went on to say, To have your crew be so thoughtful and do something so caring and so deep and so meaningful. Again, the crew decided to name that crater after his late wife. And as you know, they went further on that mission, Artemis II, than any human being had ever been before. The Artemis space crew saw things that no human being had ever seen before. They saw the far side of the moon and took incredible pictures of moon in space that they shared, just awesome photos. We've all seen a solar eclipse, an eclipse of the sun, a lunar eclipse, an eclipse of the moon. They saw the first eclipse of the earth. And obviously no human being could ever see that unless you're at the other side

Reed Wiseman On Loss And Wonder

SPEAKER_01 4:05

of the moon. Incredible time. And again, when they came back, they began expressing the awesomeness. And we all watched it, we all prayed together when it re-entered the Earth's atmosphere and it became this huge ball of fire. And the prayer was that those heat shields would withstand and protect the astronauts from that fire. Then suddenly we saw the big orange parachutes, we saw the splashdown in the Pacific Ocean, the Navy divers go in there and bring them out, put them on the lifeboats and then on the helicopters and bring them back to the naval ship. Reed Wiseman revealed that after the splashdown, when they brought him to the new U.S. Navy ship, he asked to see the ship's chaplain, the chaplain. Now I gotta tell you, I've got a program called the Four Chaplains that you would love. The fact that our nation is unique, for 250 years, we've always had chaplains for our members of the armed services. And Wiseman said, I am not really a religious person, but there is just no other avenue for me to explain anything or to experience anything. I saw the cross on his collar and I just broke down in tears. Again, a man who considers himself to be non-religious, when he came back after he'd seen the majesty of God, became an eyewitness and seen literally what no man or woman had seen before. He wanted to see a chaplain. When he saw the cross, he broke down in tears. In fact, there's a quote from Space when he was declaring some of the majesty of God, he said, humanity, quote, has not evolved to the point of being able to comprehend what we are looking at right now. They had a view, those four astronauts of our world, of Earth, of our solar system, that no human being had ever seen before. Now, in contrast, Victor Glover, he's the pilot of the Artemis II mission to the moon, a committed Christian. He agreed, he said, quote, the only thing I

Reentry Fears And Awe At Splashdown

SPEAKER_01 6:18

would add is I am a religious person. But everything else is the same. So here you have two testimonies, two different viewpoints. One astronaut, Wiseman, considers himself to be non-religious. The other astronaut, Glover, considers himself to be a committed Christian. But they each had the same testimony. They each declared the majesty. They each proclaimed the majesty of God. That's why today's Wednesday worship song, I declare your majesty. It's dedicated to the crew members of the Artemis II, that famous historic 2026 lunar mission further than any man or woman had ever been before. Eyewitnesses to things that no man or woman had ever seen before. My friends, I hope you're blessed today by I declare your majesty.

I Declare Your Majesty Performance

SPEAKER_00 7:30

I declare your majesty. I proclaim that your name is exalted, for you reign magnificently rule victoriously, and your power is shown throughout all the earth. And I exclaim: My God is mighty, I lift up your name, for you are holy. Sing it again. All honor and glory. In adoration, I bow before your throne, and I exclaim, My God, you're almighty! I lift up your name. For you are holy, I sing it again. All honor and glory. In adoration, I bow before your throne. I declare your majesty. And I proclaim that your name is exalted. For you reign magnificently roared, victoriously, your power is shone throughout all the earth. And I exclaim, My God is mighty, I lift up your name, for you are holy singing again. All honor and glory in adoration. I bow before your throne, and I exclaim, My God, you're almighty! I lift up your name, Lord, for you are holy, I sing it again. All honor and glory in adoration, Lord, I bow before your throne. In adoration, Lord, I bow, I bow before your throne. I declare your magic stehen, Amen, Hallelujah, Amen.