“A little” less than God

¹ LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!

You have set your glory
in the heavens.
² Through the praise of children and infants
you have established a stronghold against your enemies,
to silence the foe and the avenger.
³ When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
⁴ what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
human beings that you care for them?

⁵ You have made them a little lower than the angels
and crowned them with glory and honor.
⁶ You made them rulers over the works of your hands;
you put everything under their feet:
⁷ all flocks and herds,
and the animals of the wild,
⁸ the birds in the sky,
and the fish in the sea,
all that swim the paths of the seas.

⁹ LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Psalms 8, simply put, is written to praise God for creating the heavens.  The Psalmist wrote on behalf of all of Israel. As the writer begins the Psalm we see God called by the name which He revealed to the people.  The name came from a word that meant “to be” and the writer uses it in the terms as “one who will always be”.  The second time he uses the name “Lord” to show God as Ruler of all.  This allowed the people to see that the one whom the people had a relationship with had the power to be ruler of every area of their life.

Verse 2 changes tone but the message remains the same.  Here we see that God chose even the most feeble humans to be His champions.  Verse 3, we see the writer studying the stars and moon and declare that they are the work of Gods fingers not mere human effort.  In verse 4, the psalmist turns his attention from the heavens to look at the earth and its people.  He is amazed that such an awesome God would choose to pay attention to creations so weak and full of fault.

Verses 5 and 6, show the worth and dignity of a man is nothing unless God provides it.  He is exalted and through that he exalts us.  We are exalted and God’s highest creation because it is God’s will.

Verses 7 and 8 review the things that are subject to the people.  Even in our messed up, screwed up state, human are allowed to be the most dominate creatures on earth.  Finally in verse 9, the Psalmist looks back over what he has written and closes the psalm the way he opened it.  However this time as we read the words again they have a fuller significance because of our meditation on the previous verses.

Humans are an amazing creation, but we are less than God and we must never forget that.  It is when we do, that we stop relying on God and we put ourselves on the throne of our lives.  That is when we begin to try to control something we were never meant to have to worry about…. Our lives!