What is man, that God is mindful of him?
David looks up at a night sky he did not make, and the size of it presses a question out of him: why should the God who set those lights in place take any notice of a creature so small? Scripture does not leave the question hanging, and the answer it gives is not a description of humanity in general but a Person.
The question the night sky raises
The same comparison shows up elsewhere in the Bible. One writer, commenting on Bildad's words to Job, notes that the night sky was chosen deliberately — moonlight and starlight say something about God that daylight does not.
Samuel RidoutLook at the moon; its light is dim in His holy presence. The sparkling stars are not clean in His sight. How much less is sinful man — a worm of the dust! Bildad picks the heavens at night rather than the sun by day for this noble comparison. "When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him?" (Ps. 8:3-4). The moon and stars speak of God in a special way, and by contrast bring home to man his nothingness.
Two different words for "man"
English hides something the Hebrew makes plain: the verse uses one word in the first line and a different one in the second.
A. J. PollockWhat made the psalmist choose two distinct names for man? The English version does not make this distinction plain; but the Hebrew does. Adam simply means man, man as God created him out of the dust of the earth, man unfallen, man "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 shift of vocabulary carries the whole argument, and one writer puts the two halves side by side as a question of value.
F. B. HoleHe 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 be said 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.
The answer is not a verdict but a Person
There is an obvious reply to David's question, and it happens to be true — yet it is not the reply the psalm itself gives.
H. J. VineIt is sometimes said in answer to that question — man is a sinner; he has dishonoured God, degraded His holy Name, and dragged His glory in the dust; showing up the awful state into which he had got. Now, while that is true, it is not the answer of Psalm 8, neither is it the answer of Hebrews 2. Jesus crowned with glory and honour, and set over the works of God's hands is the answer.
Read that way, the psalm is not flattering the human race. It is describing one Man in whom manhood reaches what God intended.
Frederick W. GrantBut of whom is he speaking? As the apostle in the second of Hebrews assures us, not of the first, but of the Second Man. "We see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death." It is Christ in whom the true ideal of man is realized, and of whom the first Adam was only the passing image, and in many ways the contrast.
The dominion that slipped from man's hand
The psalm speaks of all things under man's feet. Honest observation says otherwise, and commentators trace that gap back to the fall.
Samuel RidoutEverything was put under man's hand. He was head of God's creation according to His purpose. But if that were true according to creation, we are again reminded that the fall has come in, and from man's hand has dropped the sceptre which he should have swayed over all creation. Fallen man is not lord and master of this creation at all. He can see his lowliness, he can own his degradation, he can confess that he is lower than the angels; but when it comes to his being crowned with glory and honour over the works of God's hands, if he is honest he has to confess that such lordship is only in name, is only partial.
Half fulfilled, and therefore certain
If the psalm is about Christ, only part of it has visibly come true so far — and that part guarantees the rest.
J. N. DarbyThe prophecy is not yet accomplished, but the church has, in the partial accomplishment of what is still to come, the pledge of its final completion. All things are not yet put in subjection to Jesus; but, in the meantime, Jesus is already crowned with glory and honour — certain proof that what remains will be fulfilled in due time.
That coming display is not for angels. It draws redeemed people in with the Man at the centre of it.
J. G. BellettIt is man that has been anointed this way, and man that is to be exalted this way. The ranks of angels, which have so far surrounded the throne, must open, as it were, to let the Church of redeemed sinners in, so that man may be displayed as the appointed vessel of the glory in the ages before us.
Summary
- Question. The night sky reduces man to nothing, and that sense of smallness is what forces the question out of David in the first place.
- Word. The verse uses two words: enosh, frail and dying man, and Adam — the shift from the first to the second is where the answer starts.
- Person. "Man is a sinner" is true, but it is not this psalm's answer; the answer is Jesus, crowned with glory and honour.
- Sceptre. The dominion described here dropped from fallen man's hand; whatever lordship he still claims is partial and in name only.
- Pledge. All things are not yet under Him, but the crowning already done is the proof that the rest will follow — and redeemed people share that glory with Him.