Why does the psalmist ask, "What is man that you are mindful of him" (Psalm 8:4)?

Our second passage is Psalm 8:3-6: "When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars which Thou hast ordained; what is man, that Thou art mindful of him? And the son of man, that Thou visitest him? For Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour; Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of Thy hands; Thou hast put all things under his feet." This, as 4, seems to be one of David's night psalms. It was, perhaps, written on one of those nights when he was watching his father's sheep in the fields of Bethlehem. As the pious shepherd looked above, and contemplated the heavens and their glorious host, he was so overwhelmed with the majesty of Him who made them all that he burst out with the words we have just transcribed. Why should One who has such marvellous things before Him as the moon and the stars give such a large place in His mind to man, and the son of man? It is undeniable all Scripture being witness, that man has a place in the Divine thoughts that even angels have not, with all their superior glory and might. How is this to be explained? What is the answer to the Psalmist's query? The Spirit of God gives us the answer in Hebrews 2:5-10. There He quotes the words of this psalm and applies them to Christ. He is the man who fills the mind of God; He is the ideal Son of man for whom all dominion is purposed. He having become man in His grace explains in the fullest way God's tender interest in our poor race. Having been made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, in resurrection He has brought man (i.e. believers) into a higher place and a nearer relationship to God than angels have ever known, or ever will know.

Well might the gazer, one of those babes and sucklings, as he took his place here in insignificance and gazed up into that infinity of glory, say, When I think of all the might and the wisdom displayed in that, what am I? "What is man," — any man, great or small, — "that Thou art mindful of him? or the son of man," — man in the abstract, the ideal man, — "that Thou visitest him?" We might well say that of man as the creature of God. In one sense he is one of the least of God's creatures, so far as certain standards are concerned. As we contemplate the heavens, knowing something of the immensity of space, reaching out beyond the uttermost bounds of vision, where the time in which light, traveling with lightning speed, passes from star to star is measured by years; when we realize the number and magnitude of those heavenly bodies, their interdependence and grouping into systems; when we observe the perfect harmony and order of them all, — we begin to have some faint conception of the greatness and glory of that Being whose fingers fashioned them all, and who maintains them.

(Vv. 6-9). To bring out this great glory of Christ, the writer quotes from Psalm 8, where the question is raised by David, “What is man, that Thou art mindful of him?” The question brings out the littleness of man: the answer the greatness of Christ, the Son of Man. David, when contemplating the moon and the stars, feels his own insignificance in comparison with their immensity, and exclaims, “What is man?” Looking at man fallen, he is indeed very small; looking at man according to the counsels of God as set forth in Christ, the Son of Man, he is very great. Led by the Spirit of God, the writer of Hebrews sees Christ in the Son of Man of Psalm 8, and can say, “We see Jesus.”

A wonderful inquiry this is, which is quoted from Psalm 8: "What is man that thou art mindful of him?" It is an inquiry founded upon his nothingness in himself, but bringing out, in God's answer to it, all His own counsels in Christ. "What is man that thou art mindful of him?" Such is his littleness; yet, when it comes to be answered not according to what man is but in the counsels of God, we find him to be the one in whom all the wisdom of God is displayed. Nor is it the display of power merely - creation shews that - but all those qualities in God where His nature comes out, which are more than attributes. Power can say a word, and the thing is done: very wonderful, of course; but there is a great deal more than this. Man is the one in whom angels have to learn what God is in His ways and counsels, for the simple reason that the Word of God was in those counsels to become a man - that He who created angels does not take up angels, but takes up man.

A wonderful inquiry is this which is quoted from Psalm 8, "What is man, that thou art mindful of him?" - an inquiry founded on the nothingness of man in himself, but bringing out, as God's answer to it, all His counsels in Christ. "What is man, that thou art mindful of him?" Such is his littleness. And then the answer comes, not according to what man is, but according to the counsels of God, in which we find Christ is the Man in whom the wisdom of God is to be displayed. I speak not merely of the display of power - creation shews us that - but also of the display of all those qualities in God in which His nature comes out; and these are more than His attributes.

The question was asked of old in a certain place: "What is man?" As we think of the infinity of creation above us and about us, how small, how puny, how feeble we are! 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. Faith says, "We see not yet all things put under him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor: that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man." 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.

An infidel measures the earth, contrasts its puny measurement with the grandeur of the heavens, and argues that God could never have given His Son to save the puny inhabitants of an orb like this. Scripture only argues therefrom the wondrous love of Him who could do this. The Psalmist too beholds the heavens, the work of God's fingers, the moon and the stars which He has ordained, and he too asks, "What is man that Thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that Thou visitest him?" But for him Christ is not a stumbling-block, but the sufficient answer. "Thou hast made Him a little lower than the angels; Thou hast crowned Him with glory and honor; Thou hast set Him over the works of Thy hands; Thou hast put all things in subjection under His feet." "In that He put all in subjection under Him," argues the apostle, "He left nothing that is not put under Him." Thus he sees man in Jesus elevated to the throne of the universe — of those very heavens which had made him ask the question, and he has nothing but adoration for Him who has done this.

But in truth we cannot follow this out as we should do until we see why God has taken up feeble man to put him in such a place of power and dignity. The Psalmist sees this connected not only with the excellency of His name declared in all the earth, but also with His glory being set above the heavens. God in setting man so high is indeed setting His own glory there, whence it may shine upon the whole universe. In that condescending grace of His at which man scoffs, He is actually putting a candle upon a candlestick, that all His creatures may be gladdened with the light. Because Christ taketh not hold of angels but of the seed of Abraham, — because His blood was shed for men alone, — we must not imagine that there is no significance for angels in the wondrous union of manhood with Deity in Him. There is a deep significance the very deepest. The love that reaches down to the lowest link of creation, and fastens it irrevocably to the eternal throne, has thereby linked indissolubly all creaturehood to God. He, gone up on high, is Himself "the beginning of the creation of God" — all that is to abide in relation to God as His. Thus all has taken a new start with Him, and in Him the angels themselves have a new and abiding link with God. If man is brought near, they surely are not more distant thus, but nearer; indeed, how much nearer for that wondrous Presence in a creature form, of the God of all creatures — the Creator-God!

But now we are to witness a far greater marvel. David considers the tremendous contrast between the awe-inspiring works of God in creation — the moon and the stars, etc., and man in his insignificance. Here are huge heavenly bodies circling in space in marvelously orderly arrangement, while in comparison man is hardly a speck on a small planet. Indeed, "what is man?" (v. 4. Why should God take interest in a creature so small? But this manifests the wisdom and grace of God in a marvelous way. He is interested in the smallest details of His creation.

What is man, if you look at him under the light of the glory of the heavens? what is he, this creature of earth, enosh, "frail man" or the "son of man," ordained to come into his inheritance by a way so characterized by weakness, and which so perfectly marks God's estimate of him? Ah, you must take in Christ to find the answer. He too is Man, — yea, the Son of man: come down to manhood in this significant weakness which in Him united to Deity itself is the manifestation of the moral glory of God, so that it is set above the heavens, those created heavens whose glory had just now made man look so poor and contemptible! What are they now to Man in Jesus? to the Son of man?

Now he takes the other side, saying, "Unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come." Whatever may have been God's employment of angels about the law, the world to come was never destined to be subjected to them. It is the good pleasure of God to use an angel where it is a question of providence, or law, or power; but where it comes to be the manifestation of His glory in Christ, He must have other instruments more suitable for His nature, and according to His affections. "For one has somewhere testified, saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou visitest him? Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of thy hands." Thus we see the first question raised is one as to the littleness of man in comparison with that which God has made; but the question is no sooner raised than answered, and this by one who looks at the Second Man and not at the first. Behold then man in Christ, and then talk, if you can, about His littleness. Behold man in Christ, and then be amazed at the wonders of the heavens. Let creation be as great as it may be, He that made all things is above them. The Son of man has a glory that completely eclipses the brightness of the highest objects. But also He shows that the humiliation of the Saviour, in which He was made a little lower than the angels, was for an end that led up to this heavenly glory. Grant that He was made a little lower than the angels, what was it for? "We see not yet all things put under him. But we behold Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; so that by the grace of God he should taste death for everything." Nor was this the only object; He was "crowned with glory and honour" as fruit of His sufferings unto death; but it had a gracious object as well as a glorious end; "so that by the grace of God he should taste death for everything;" for thus was the only door of deliverance for what was ruined by the fall, and this because it was the only means of morally vindicating God, who yearned in love over every work of His hands. There can be otherwise no efficacious because no righteous deliverance. It may be infinitely more, but righteous footing it must have; and this the death of Christ has given. Flowing from God's grace, Christ's death is the ground of reconciliation for the universe. It has also made it a part of His righteousness to bring man thus out of that ruin, misery, and subjection to death in which he lay. It has put into the hands of God that infinite fund of blessing in which He now loves to admit us reconciled to Himself.