"Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas."
Psalm 8:6-8
Part 5 – verses 6-8.
Yesterday: The Lord’s Creation (8:5),
God Created Man with Power and Dignity.
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?”
8:5 “For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honor.”
Today: The Lord’s Creation (8:6-8),
God Gave Man Dominion over the Creation
“You have made him ruler over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet; All sheep and oxen, and all the beasts of the field; The birds of the air and the fish of the sea, and whatever goes through the deep waters of the seas.” (Psalm 8:6-8, BBE[1]).
“Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands.”
Was man indeed crowned with glory and honor (verse 5)? Oh yes! Think of it, the sovereign Creator of the universe, the one who made all, and owns all, has given man “dominion over the works of His hands” here on the earth. God gave the decree to Adam and his descendants at creation.
“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created he Him; male and female created He them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.” (Genesis 1:26-28).
And even after God destroyed the earth with the great flood, He repeated the same mandate to Noah and his sons.
“And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered” (Genesis 9:1-2).
Of all the creatures we find upon God’s earth, none has any ability that would make them superior to human beings. Indeed, God has given unto Adam and his children sole dominion over the other creatures and the raw materials of our world. Does this mean that humans can do anything they want with what they find here on the earth? Or does this mandate give humanity the responsible supervision of this planet? Guzik states it well.
“As part of this authority, mankind has the responsibility to wisely manage the creatures and resources of this earth in a way that gives God glory and is good for man. It means that it is wrong to see man as merely part of the ecosystem (thus denying his God-ordained dominion). It is also wrong for man to abuse the ecosystem, thus making him a bad manager of that which ultimately belongs to God…. The mandate of dominion asks man to use the creatures and resources of the earth, but to use them wisely and responsibly”[2] (Guzik).
“The earth is the LORD’S, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. For He hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods” (Psalm 24:1-2).
Man does not own this planet where he lives; he is the steward of it. In fact, verse 6 continues with this,
“Thou hast put all things under his feet.”
Here David helps us understand that man’s dominion extends to “all things” on the earth. As fallen men, we do not now have the same authority we will when ruling with Christ. But for the Lord Jesus Christ, certainly, the Father has put all things under His feet because Jesus Christ is the Creator of all things (Colossians 1:16-17).
“For ‘God has put all things in subjection under his feet.’ But when it says, ‘all things are put in subjection,’ it is plain that He is excepted who put all things in subjection under Him” (1 Corinthians 15:27, ESV[3]).
And the writer of Hebrews helps us understand that Psalm 8 is not just applying to man but to Jesus Christ as well. Speaking of Jesus, he wrote,
“For unto the angels hath He not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak. But one in a certain place, 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 honor, and didst set him over the works of thy hands: Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him” (Hebrews 2:5-8).
“All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea.”
David mentions the animal kingdom as being under our dominion. But unquestionably, not just the animals. Man’s dominion extends to the earth’s resources, minerals, plant life, water, and even the air we breathe fall under our purview. We all ought to be conservationists of what God has given to us.
“And whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.”
“The paths of the seas” might be a confusing statement until you talk to an old Pacific Islander. They will tell you that the currents of the oceans are the paths that the sailors use. When the early sailors discovered the ocean currents, it saved ocean travelers much time and effort in their journey. David knew what he was talking about those eons ago when he wrote about “the paths of the seas.”
Please join us again tomorrow when once again we think of “our Lord’s excellent name.”
Quote: Man’s dominion over the earth. “In light of all this, it is a great tragedy when a man is captured and held in bondage by the things of this world. We were born to have dominion over such material things, instead of being in bondage to them”[4] (Guzik).
[1] BBE is the Bible in Basic English.
[2] Guzik’s quote comes from the Enduring Word Commentary, the electronic version in eSword. Psalm 8:6-9. The emphasis is his.
[3] ESV is the English Standard Version.
[4] Guzik’s quote comes from the Enduring Word Commentary, the electronic version in eSword. Psalm 8:6-9. The emphasis is his.