"For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honor."
Psalm 8:5
Part 4 – verse 5.
Yesterday: The Lord’s Creation (8:3-4),
“God’s Finger Work” and Man’s Insignificance.
8:1 “O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens.
8:2 “Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.”
8:3-4 “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?”
Today: The Lord’s Creation (8:5),
God Created Man with Power and Dignity
“Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor” (Psalm 8:5, HSB[1]).
“For thou hast made him.”
Make no mistake about it; we human beings are not “cosmic accidents” that have somehow climbed up out of the primordial ooze onto dry land! Both David and Moses tell us that we are the intentional creation of the Almighty and wise Creator. And not only are we made by Him, but the creation of Adam and Eve was different from everything else that He made. I love the poetic account of man’s creation by James Weldon Johnson in his “sermon in verse,” “The Creation.”
Then God sat down —
On the side of a hill where he could think;
By a deep, wide river, he sat down;
With his head in his hands,
God thought and thought,
Till he thought: I’ll make me a man!
Up from the bed of the river
God scooped the clay;
And by the bank of the river
He kneeled him down;
And there the great God Almighty
Who lit the sun and fixed it in the sky,
Who flung the stars to the most far corner of the night,
Who rounded the earth in the middle of his hand;
This Great God,
Like a mammy bending over her baby,
Kneeled down in the dust
Toiling over a lump of clay
Till he shaped it in his own image;
Then into it, he blew the breath of life,
And man became a living soul.
Amen. Amen.[2]
God has made man special from the rest of His creation. Humans were given the task of conserving and using everything God has placed on this planet (Genesis 1:27-31). God located the man and his wife in an exceptional environment, Eden, where they could thrive. Adam was created to communicate with God and glorify the Almighty by his very being, thoughts, and actions.
“Even man in the strict biological sense is infinitely more complex than the stars, of course. It is absurd to belittle man simply because of his size. Although a star is big, it is very simple, composed mostly of hydrogen and helium. The measure of significance in the universe is not size but order and complexity, and the human brain is by far the most complex aggregation of matter in the universe, so far as science can determine. In the strictly physical sense, the earth is the most complex aggregation of inanimate matter about which we know in the universe, and it is uniquely designed as man’s home”[3] (Morris).
“A little lower than the angels.”
This word angels in the Hebrew text is from the word Elohim. Most often in the Scriptures, this word is used for God himself, but,
“the ancient translators of the Bible from Hebrew to Greek understood elohim here to speak of angelic beings; more importantly, that was how the writer to the Hebrews understood it. ‘The Hebrew for [angels] is simply ‘God’ or ‘gods’ (‘Elohim’). It may refer to angelic beings’ (VanGemeren)”[4] (Guzik).
David rightly understood man’s place in God’s creation. It was plain to him that angels were “higher” than humans in the sense of power and position. Compared with angels, man is a relative weakling who is confined to a mortal body. Humans must live in a specific environment, or their bodies will die. Angels, being spirits “who excel in strength,” presently live in the very presence and glory of God in heaven (Psalm 103:20-21). Human beings share God’s unique habitat for them, the earth. We should note here that angels also are “ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be the heirs of salvation” (Hebrews 1:14).
“In amplifying the question, ‘What is man?’ the psalmist notes that he has been made ‘lower than the angels.’ Evolutionists believe man is merely an animal that has evolved ‘higher than the apes,’ but such a notion is absurd. Never has any creature been found or any fossil been found of any animal which is partially man and partially ape (or part man and part anything else), although many fossils of both apes and men have been discovered. There is no scientific evidence whatever that man was not created as man, in the image of God, exactly as the Bible says (Genesis 1:27)”[5] (Morris).
David wrote that man is “a little lower than the angels.” He did not say that man is “a little higher than the animals!” David’s words in this Psalm have us in our human position, looking up at God in the heavens and not looking down at the animals.
This verse is also applied to the Lord Jesus Christ.
“This very passage is quoted in Hebrews 2:5-9 to reinforce and build upon this exact point. In it, he notes that man’s low estate relates only to this world and not the world to come (Hebrews 2:5). More pointedly, the writer of Hebrews used this passage from Psalms 8 to show that Jesus really did add a genuinely human nature to His divine nature and thus also became a little lower than the angels”[6] (Guzik).
“And hast crowned him with glory and honor.”
Only now in time, and here on this earth is man’s position “a little lower than the angels,” for soon he will be “crowned with glory and honor.” Man’s order in creation will change when we see Christ. God’s Word tells us that we redeemed humans will be given the task of judging the angels in the future. And we are waiting for that day when we will forever be with Christ. We will rule and reign with Him in the millennium and beyond.
“Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?” (1 Corinthians 6:3).
“And from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to His God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen” (Revelation 1:5-6, ESV[7]).
“And have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they are ruling on the earth” (Revelation 5:10, BBE[8]).
To God be the glory!
Please come back tomorrow as we look at man’s, God-given dominion over the animal kingdom.
Quote: “Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands. Serve the LORD with gladness: come before His presence with singing. Know ye that the LORD He is God: it is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture” (Psalm 100:1-3).
[1] HSB is the Harvest Study Bible from Harvest Ministries, Guam.
[2] These words are from James Weldon Johnson’s sermon, “The Creation,” from his work God’s Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse. Copyright, 1927, by The Viking Press, Inc. Printed in the U.S.A. First Published in April 1927. Second Printing, July 1927. Third Printing, March 1928. Fourth Printing, January 1929. Fifth Printing, July 1930. Composition and presswork by Abbott press & Mortimer-Walling, Inc. New York. Downloaded: Friday, September 3, 2021. From: https://docsouth.unc.edu/southlit/johnson/johnson.html.
[3] Morris’s quote is from his book Sampling the Psalms… p. 27. Institute for Creation Research. ICR, 2716 Madison Avenue, San Diego, California, 92116. September 2, 2021.
[4] Guzik’s quote is borrowed from the Enduring Word Commentary, the electronic version in eSword. Downloaded: September 2, 2021.
[5] Morris, ibid.
[6] The Enduring Word Commentary, ibid.
[7] ESV is the English Standard Version.
[8] BBE is the Bible in Basic English.