Philosophers have wrestled for centuries with the question, “What is man?” It’s not a new question. And it’s a topic that has been on my mind a lot recently, with a new role in life as a lead minister, the size of my family growing, and the fact that I’ve reached the mid-point of my life.
A few weeks ago, I took my son to Oklahoma and we went fossil hunting. We stayed with a friend of the family, and went with him to teach an astronomy lesson to a group of people that Friday night. My son and I were able to view several planets, various stars and star formations, a binary system, and even the Ring Nebula!
It was pretty cool. But my son made a comment in passing, that he felt small and insignificant because of the vast grandeur of the universe.
I know how he feels. It’s slightly overwhelming. Several years ago, I met a man who severely struggled with his faith because of the same reasons. He had watched one of Louie Giglio’s videos that examined God’s creation of the stars. This man’s question was, if God could create such a colossal universe and fill it with so many incredible things, then who was he to think that he held any significance at all in God’s mind?
It’s a common question. And it’s been asked for centuries.
In fact, David asked the same thing in Psalm 8:
What is man that You take thought of him, and the son of man that You care for him?
In this Psalm, David begins with the stars and the universe, and grapples with the seeming insignificance of man. But unlike my friend, David comes to the proper conclusion, one that I tried to explain to my son when he asked the same questions.
This brief piece of beautiful poetry gives us some insight into God’s mind as he inspired David to write about our purpose. As with many of the Psalms, this one uses contrasting ideas to make a point. David looks at our thoughts of insignificance, and God’s view of our significance. David reaches back and references the creation, but still gives a glimpse of the future, pointing to the cross.
In the New Testament, the book of Psalms is quoted more than any other Old Testament book, and this particular psalm is quoted more than any other. Here are some of the things that Psalm 8 gives us about our place in the mind of God.
Our Place
From our thoughts of our own insignificance in the first few verses, to the place of honor man holds in all of God’s creation, David examines just where we fit into the scheme of things. Even though God created so many incredible aspects to our universe, David points out that we still hold the place of prominence in everything. We are the masterpiece, the pinnacle of God’s creation. Everything else here is for our benefit.
Look at verses 5 and 6:
Yet You have made him a little lower than God, and You crown him with glory and majesty! You make him to rule over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet…
And even more significant than our position as God’s masterpiece, this passage gives us a hint of the coming of Christ, and his place as well as our own.
Our Purpose
When faced with thoughts of our insignificance, we ask questions like, “Why am I here?” According to David’s words here, we have a twofold purpose. First we are to give praise to God. The first two verses establish his glory from the stars to the wonders of a newborn. And the first and last sentences of the psalm state the exact same phrase:
O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth!
But second, verses 6-8 restate the command that God gave in Genesis 1:27-29 and 9:1-10, to subdue and rule over the earth. This is often called the Dominion Mandate, and is in effect even today. In order to subdue the earth, we must first understand it. This led to the establishment of the sciences, and even further into the humanities and fine arts. The dominion mandate really comes down to a stewardship mentality.
Our Promise
The first aspect of the promise is that God can and will use you and I do accomplish his will and his work. You don’t have to be great to be used by God. You just have to be willing.
But the deeper aspect of this promise is the glimpse of the perfect promise, fulfilled completely in Christ. After the triumphal entry, Matthew records Jesus as quoting this psalm (Matthew 21:14-16). Hebrews 2 quotes a significant portion of this passage as well. Both of these point out that Jesus is the fulfillment of this passage. Both of these passages point out that the answer to who we are lies in who he is.
Just like Psalm 1, this psalm is also a worldview description. We cannot understand our role properly outside of God’s plan and work in our lives and in all of creation. Without understanding his purpose in sending his son to redeem us, we can’t understand our own significance. In able to comprehend the point behind our very existence, we have to be able to grasp the point of his.
In addition, this psalm is also a Messianic Psalm, pointing us directly to the life of Christ, and foreshadowing his coming, his purpose and his work of redemption.
I encourage you to grab your Bible and read through this brief passage sometime today. Take the time to ponder the point of your own significance, and then view that in life of Christ’s work.
Question: Do you ever struggle with feelings of your own insignificance? What do you do to counter this? You can leave a comment by clicking here.