Psalm 8 What is man?

[Steve L]

This morning I am reading Psalm 8. It begins with a song of praise to the majesty of God and the creative power of his presence. The awe and majesty are played forth in swells of feeling that leave one stepping back to catch their breath. God is the all powerful one that made all and set its purposes in place. When you consider the creation of his hands and see how huge and all embracing it is, from the minute to the huge, from the baby to the universe, there is a deep sense of quiet and contemplation that sets in on the one hand but on the other hand David takes us to the big question - what is man that God is mindful and should care for him. In light of the bigness and majesty of God who are we? What is it about us that commands any attention from God. The creation reflects his glory and we are just work! What is it about us that makes him take notice at all?

Depending on the day, I will give a different answer to that question. Some days the answer is, "we are nothing, not worth his time." Those are days when I become absorbed in the hugeness of my struggles and problems (have you noticed that they always look huge when we look out through our eyes?). God seems distant and uninvolved. Yet other days that is not true he is close and moving things ahead in my life in amazing ways. David answers the question with something somewhat unexpected for me. He says, "You (God) have made man a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honour." In essence David says that God has shared his glory with us. We are like him and given reflective glory and honour by the God of the universe. This is not a humble estate, a low place. It means that we bear his name. Then David goes on to talk about the dominion, the rule over creation that God has given us. We not only share his glory we share his lordship. What marvelous things this means.

Think for a moment - you are a child of the king. He cares about you because you are his. You share his glory and his rule. There is nothing small and useless about you or me. We are amazingly important to God - How majestic is he for making us so valuable to himself!!