‘When I consider the heavens, the work of your fingers,
The moon and the stars which you have ordained,
What is man ('enosh) that you are mindful of him?
And the son of man (ben adam) that you visit him?
For you have made him but little lower than God,
And you crown him with glory and honour.
As the psalmist considers the glories of the universe, the beauty of the heavens as seen in the night sky, the glorious lights in that sky, it makes him ask, what is weak man in comparison with these? We today with our knowledge of the vastness of the universe have even more reason to ask that question.
‘The work of your fingers.' God has shaped and moulded them and given them their glory, not literally but by His word (Genesis 1). They are His deft workmanship.
The words used for man stress his frailty and humanness. 'Enosh stresses his impotence and mortality (Psalms 103:15; Job 4:17 and often in Job). Ben 'adam stresses his earthly origin (compare Job 14:1). And yet God is mindful of him in his frailty, and visits him. The words denote His care for man, and His exaltation of him, once he is responsive through faith (in contrast with the enemies and the avenger).
But his answer to the question of ‘what is man?' is clear and unequivocal. At his best man is ‘over all'. That is why in Daniel the true people of God are represented as ‘like a son of man' while the nations are likened to wild beasts. The heavens have no dominion, but God has made man, when in his right mind, to be His regent, to stand on earth in relation to living creatures as little less than God. Man is a rational thinking and authoritative being, with a conscious relationship with God. He is a ‘king', crowned with glory and honour. He is thus superior to the night skies. But not in himself, it is God's appointment of him that has made him great. Man as he should be, restored to innocence, is great because God has destined him to greatness.
‘Little lower than God (or the elohim - the angelic spirits)'. He is below the spiritual heavens but above all else. Made in the same image as God and the elohim (Genesis 1:27), he is the contact between the spiritual heaven and earth. Note therefore that the ‘gods' whom others worshipped, connected with the skies, are hereby dismissed. Man is greater than the gods.
‘And you crown him with glory and honour.' The honour and glory with which he is crowned is described in the next verses. It is revealed in his domination under God of all living creatures. The psalmist sees believing man, and possibly especially as epitomised in the Davidic king, as the crown of earthly creation, (it is not likely that he had in view the enemy and the avenger), through whom will come blessing to the whole world, even peace and plenty and fulfilment (Isaiah 11:1-10).
But in the letter to the Hebrews this crowning is seen as finally being achieved through Jesus. Until Jesus came all things had not been put under man. The vision was not fulfilled. But Jesus coming as Representative man, was the only One perfect enough and innocent enough to deserve the crown. And taking on Himself the form of frail man, and coming here on our behalf, He did triumph and was crowned through triumphant suffering, so that He was made the perfect Saviour and true Representative of man through that suffering (Hebrews 2:9-10 compare Job 7:17-21), followed by His resurrection to glory and honour. This rather idealistic simple picture painted by the psalmist in its bare outline is there defined in terms of a fuller realism of suffering for sin, to be followed by a crowning and a glory that is all the greater. The psalmist was limited by the fact that this world was all he knew. The reality is of a far greater world yet to come.