4 what is man that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou dost care for him?
Perhaps the greatest of the first order questions in life is, “Who am I”? If we can get the answer to that one right, all other questions about life become much easier to answer. So, let’s ask the question as we pray through Psalm 8 – “Who am I”?
According to the Psalm, man is one who was made by God a little lower than the angels. He was made to have dominion over the earth and all that fills it (Vv. 4-8). But, if we fail to read the Psalm through a Christological lens, we will think that this is referring to you and me. After all, Humanity is the highest form of creation. We were made in God’s image, not the animals. We have the ability to reason (I know that seems questionable the way humanity acts sometimes).
However, there are two who are mentioned in verse 4, “man”, and the “son of man”. Here we must look the the original language, Hebrew. In it we see that man is the word ‘enosh’, and son of man is ‘adam’. Adam is the word we usually associate with humanity. Enosh, is the name of only one man in all of scripture, and it is rendered in English as Enoch. Enoch is recognized in biblical genealogy as a descendent of Christ. He is also one who was so close to God that he was translated into Heaven with out dying (Gen 5).
Hebrews 2 serves as the oldest existing commentary on Psalm 8 and according to the writer the ‘man’ of the psalm is Jesus Christ. If Christ is “man” in the psalm, then you and I are the “son of man”. It’s important to notice that the psalmist is giving glory to how wondrous and majestic the Lord is. Jesus is the original man from whose image humanity was created.
It’s so important for us to see that Jesus, (God made flesh) as the Son of God, eternally existent as the Creed reminds us, is the model for all that God wants us to be. The world is a wonderful and majestic place that shouts glory to God in every sunrise, every sunset, indeed every moment. But, the most majestic thing of all is that you and I are created to be like Jesus.
So, who are we? We are to be ‘Christians’, a word which when literally translated means, “little Christs”. How often do you think of yourself as a little Christ to world around you? Hopefully, through our journey in the Psalms, we will discover what life is all about – being by grace, what Jesus is by nature. Glory to God for his amazing grace.
Shalom,
Pastor Brad
image credit: http://jonathannathanielhayes.com/2012/12/04/psalm-8-the-reign-of-tyrannyenvironmental-theology/