What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
David looks up at the moon and stars, feels how small he is, and asks a question that the rest of the Bible answers. The question has two halves: man, and the son of man. Commentators agree that the second half points beyond David to Christ.
Man is one of the least of God's creatures. One writer puts the question in the psalmist's own voice:
When I think of all the might and the wisdom on display in the heavens, what am I? "What is man" — any man, great or small — "that You are mindful of him? or the son of man" — man in the abstract, the ideal man — "that You visit him?" We might well say that of man as the creature of God. In one sense, by certain measures, he is one of the least of God's creatures.
English hides a distinction the Hebrew makes plain. The first "man" and the "son of man" are not the same term:
What made the psalmist choose two distinct names for man? The English version does not make this distinction plain; but the Hebrew does. Adam means simply man — man as God created him out of the dust of the earth, man before the fall. He is the one "who is the figure of Him who was to come" (Rom. 5:14). Enosh means man as well, but man as frail, fallen, dying, passing away.
The change of word changes the answer. One writer weighs each name in turn:
He used a Hebrew word which has the sense of "frail man" or "mortal man." Well, what is he worth? Clearly he is worth nothing. What then shall we say of the Son of Man? Ah! now we have a very different story. Even in the psalm David changed the word for man, and wrote "the Son of Adam"; and this we know our Lord was, as seen in Luke 3:38. He is worth everything. Though He was once made a little lower than the angels, He is to be crowned with splendour and given complete rule, with all things under His feet.
Scripture puts this question on human lips more than once, and the spirit behind it changes each time. Of Job's version, one writer says it is spoken in a complaining, resentful mood — why does God not leave me alone? The other two are different again:
Then, in Psalm 8, "What is man," that God is going to make His own Son a man, and set Him over everything? … And here, in Psalm 144, it is, "What is man," that God should be so careful over this wicked people?
Where you look decides the answer you get:
The question brings out the littleness of man: the answer the greatness of Christ, the Son of Man. When David looks at the moon and the stars, he feels how small he is beside their vastness, and cries out, "What is man?" Look at man fallen, and he is very small. Look at man as God purposed him, set out in Christ, the Son of Man, and he is very great.
Where the ESV says God cares for man, older translations read that He visits him. One writer asks why man, and not the angels, holds that place in God's thoughts:
How is it that God takes knowledge of us, that He actually visits us? Why is it that the angels do not occupy a place in the thoughts and purposes of God such as man occupies? We ask again, Why? and we find the answer in the blessed Son of God, in Jesus… Man is lower than the angels in the order of creation, so Jesus has taken His place lower than they. And when we ask, Why did He take that place? — in the answer we read our salvation.
The psalm goes on to speak of all things under His feet — a rule the first man was given and threw away:
The Son of man there spoken of is not Adam, but Christ. The divine purpose is there declared to set Him over all the works of God's hand. The first man had this grant of power from God (Gen. 1:26-28), but failed to act for His glory. He sold himself into the hand of the enemy, and became his tool and slave. In God's own time the Second Man will take up the government of the whole world. He will glorify God fully, and bring full blessing to everyone under His rule.
- Question. Under the stars, David asks what a frail, dying creature is worth. By any ordinary measure, nothing.
- Word. David uses two Hebrew words: Enosh, man as frail and passing away, and Adam, man as God made him — a figure of the One who was to come.
- Answer. The question shows the littleness of man; the answer shows the greatness of Christ. Look at man fallen, and he is small. Look at man in God's purpose, seen in Christ, and he is very great.
- Visit. God does not watch man from a distance. Jesus took a place lower than the angels, and in the reason why, we read our salvation.
- Crown. The rule the first man threw away passes to the Second Man. He is to be crowned with splendour, with all things under His feet, and full blessing for everyone He governs.
Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and splendour.
The verse turns from the vastness of the night sky to a single question about man's worth, and answers it with a crown. But the New Testament points to one particular Man as the one crowned here. That changes how we read every word.
The psalm asks who man is that God should think of him. It then describes someone raised to rule over everything. Writers ask who that description is really about.
The title used in the previous line is part of the evidence. It also widens the horizon well beyond one nation.
Its opening sentence, "O Lord our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth!" gives the key to its meaning. This is no longer a question of Israel or of the Messiah. The whole earth is in view, and God puts all things under the feet of the SON OF MAN. Since Adam was not the Son of Man, it would be plain, even if we had no further light on the subject, that someone greater than Adam is set before us here.
The Hebrew word behind "angels" is Elohim. That is why some translations read "a little lower than God," and the ESV reads "heavenly beings." One writer weighs the options, leaning on the Septuagint — the early Greek version of the Old Testament — and then shows what the ranking means.
The Revised Version (following the Geneva Bible of 1560) translates Ps. 8:5 "a little lower than God." But "Elohim" (or "God") is often used for "gods," or "mighty ones," and here, as in Ps. 97:7, it clearly means angels. The Septuagint translates it that way, and Heb. 2:7 confirms it… Angels have no Redeemer… We learn from this that angels stand on a higher scale than man, but He passed them by twice. He passed them coming down, when He was made a little lower than the angels; and He passed them again going up.
The psalm sets the lowering and the crowning side by side. Hebrews explains the link between them.
He was made a little lower than the angels so that He could suffer death, and He is crowned with glory and honour. He has suffered death, and He is crowned as the reward for His work. In that work He fully glorified God in the very place where God had been dishonoured, and He saved man — those who believe in Him — where man was lost.
The first man really was given this place. One writer asks what is left of it now.
God put everything under man's hand. Man was the head of God's creation, according to His purpose. But if that was true at creation, we are reminded again that the fall has come in. The sceptre man should have held over all creation has dropped from his hand… He can confess that he is lower than the angels. But when it comes to being crowned with glory and honor over the works of God's hands, if he is honest he has to admit that such lordship is in name only, and is partial.
The picture of rule in the psalm looks earthly. One writer says the gift reaches much further than that.
The first man could not keep the gift of dominion, because he himself became the defeated slave of sin and death. That gift has passed, with a heavenly addition, into the hands of the second Man. In general the language of Psalm 8 describes the rule given in paradise, but it reaches much further than that… God's gift to Him takes in things in heaven as well as things on earth.
Nothing in the world today looks like this verse fulfilled. Writers answer that one half of it is already true, and that half secures the rest.
According to Hebrews 2:6, the prophecy is not yet fulfilled. But in the partial fulfilment of what is still to come, the church holds the pledge of its final completion. Not all things are under Jesus yet. Meanwhile Jesus is already crowned with glory and honour — certain proof that what remains will be fulfilled at the right time.
- Down — He was made lower than the angels for one purpose: to suffer death.
- Crowned — The glory and honour are His reward for that finished work.
- Lost — At the fall this rule slipped from the first man's hand. What he still holds is partial, and in name only.
- Wider — The rule regained reaches things in heaven as well as things on earth.
- Pledge — We do not yet see all things under Him. We do see Him crowned, and that is certain proof of the rest.