Devotional Portion: Psalm 8:3-5
When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained, What is the man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him? What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him? For You have made him a little lower than the angels, And You have crowned him with glory and honor.
As David praised with wonder the glory and the excellence of God’s greatness and might in the previous verses, he was amazed at the unending love and mercy of God towards mankind. “Notwithstanding the amazing magnitude of the sun, we have abundant reason to believe that some of the fixed stars are much larger: and yet we are told they are the work of GOD’S FINGERS! What a hand, to move, form, and launch these globes!” (Clarke) David was curious in inquiring about the reason why God is so concerned about humankind.
The God who created the whole universe with the fingers came down, sat down in the soil, and made us in His image and likeness by His hands. We have no other merits- He created us for a purpose. That is the only reason by which He is mindful of us and why He visited us.
“For You have made him a little lower than the angels,”
The word translated angels is Elohim, and most often refers to God Himself. There are some (such as Boice) who believe that David meant to say that man is a little lower than God, stressing the idea that man is made in God’s image. Hebrews 2:5-9 explains the same though emphatically. The author notes that man’s low estate is subjected only to this world, and not to the world to come. John also writes as “Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” 1 John 3:2. And in Philippians 3:21, Paul writes about the status of our eternal body as, “who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.”
“You have crowned him with glory and honor.”
“A little lower in nature, since they are immortal, and but a little, because time is short; and when that is over, saints are no longer lower than the angels.” (Spurgeon)
David is speaking about the honor and the glory awaiting the saints when Jesus Christ appears. Though we are made little lower than the angels for a little while, Paul in 1 Corinthians 6:3 says “Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life?” Yes, we will be lifted above the angels.
The New Testament saints saw these in their inner eyes and lived in holiness and have set an example for us to follow!
“Satan is no doubt filled with scorn of man when he looks at him and measures him with himself. ‘Is this the creature that is to be set over all the works of God’s hands, made of earth and water, phosphates and metals? I am nobler far than he. Can I not flash like lightning, while he must creep about the world to find himself a grave?’” (Spurgeon)
Reflection: Cleanse our hearts and live in holiness as our Lord is at hand.
