A Psalm of David.
1 O LORD, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!
who hast set thy glory above the heavens.
2 Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings
hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies,
that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.
3 When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers,
the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;
4 What is man, that thou art mindful of him?
and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
5 For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels,
and hast crowned him with glory and honour.
6 Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands;
thou hast put all things under his feet;
7 All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field;
8 The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea,
and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.
9 O LORD, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!
JW: David extols the majesty, power, and providence of God, ver. 1, 2; and his loving-kindness to mankind, ver. 3-5; in giving him dominion over this lower world, ver. 6-9.
[On verse 1:] 'In' - Not only in Israel, but among all nations. Which shews that this Psalm speaks of the Messiah, and the times of the New Testament. 'Heavens' - where thy throne of glory is established, where the blessed angels celebrate thy praises, where Christ sitteth at thy right hand in glorious majesty, from whence he poureth down excellent gifts upon babes.
[On verse 2:] 'Babes' - weak and foolish, and contemptible persons, who are frequently called babes or children. Such are very unfit to grapple with an enemy; and therefore when such persons conquer the most powerful and malicious enemies, it must needs confound them, and advance the glory of God: as indeed it did, when such mean [i.e., average, common] persons as the apostles, and disciples of Christ, maintained and propagated the gospel, in spite of all the wit, power, and rage of their enemies. 'Ordained' - perfectly or firmly settled strength; that is, the praise of his strength or power, Matt. 21.16, it is rendered praise. 'Still' - silence and confound them. 'Avenger' - the devil, and all who are his vassals and espouse his quarrel.
[On verse 4:] 'What is man' - how mean and inconsiderable a thing is man, if compared with thy glorious majesty. 'Man' - Heb. infirm, or miserable man. By which it is apparent that he speaks of man, not according to the state of his creation, but as fallen into a state of sin and misery, and mortality. 'Mindful' - carest for him, and conferest such high favours upon him. 'The son' - Heb. the son of Adam, that great apostate from God, the sinful son of a sinful father, his son by likeness of disposition and manners, no less than by procreation. All of which tends to magnify the following mercy. 'Visitest' - not in anger, as that word is sometimes used, but with thy grace and mercy.
[On verse 5:] 'For' - Thou hast in Christ mercifully restored man to his primitive estate, wherein he was but one remove below the angels; from which he was fallen by sin. 'Crowned' - man, fallen and lost man: who is actually restored to glory and dominion in Christ his head and representative, who received this crown and dominion for man's good, and in his stead; which he will in due time communicate to his members. And so the two expositions of this place concerning mankind and concerning Christ, may be reconciled. For he speaks of that honourable estate conferred first upon Christ, and then by his hands upon mankind. But the words more literally rendered are, 'Thou hast made him a little lower than God.' And hence some have inferred, that man in his original estate was the highest of all creatures.
Upon reading Wesley's comments on verse 4, I was a little taken aback that he didn't immediately take 'son of man' to refer to Jesus even though the author of Hebrews seems to do so (see Heb. 2.5-11). But I was glad he brought Christ into the center of this Psalm in his reflections on verse 5. In the wake of the Incarnation, it is appropriate for us to see this passage as referring both to the first creation and the honor that was bestowed to humanity there, as well as to the new creation, inaugurated in the kingdom of Jesus, where our estate is being restored. In light of that, then, Wesley's reference to sin, the fall, and the misery that has befallen the world since our first parents fell, may not be that far off.
On a more personal level, who of us has not stared up into the sky at night noticing how impossible it is to count the stars in the heavens and then pondered, "Really, God? You really think about me/us? Look at how tiny I am!" And the universe is a lot bigger today than it was when David wrote this psalm. We sure do put a lot of value in size, don't we? And yet, even after all the discoveries of science that tell us just how small the earth is, we can still ponder this question that David asks. But isn't it classic Bible to deflate the big and proud and raise up the humble? And more than just being mindful of who we are and our situation, God considers us to such a degree that he decides to 'visit'. And though we are vile, God visits not in anger, as Wesley aptly notes, but in 'grace and mercy' to forgive and restore.
We have this reference to a 'crown,' which undoubtedly evokes the imagery of a kingdom. What does God crown here? Something humble and seemingly small. That's what I like about stories like the Chronicles of Narnia. You see Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy crowned kings and queens, yet they are mere children. God crowned Adam and Eve in the garden as the creatures who will bear the Divine image. It is only to humans that God has bestowed this grace. (Maybe that's why it's appropriate to say 'a little lower than God'.) Many early Church Fathers, including Irenaeus, considered that Adam and Eve were created as infants or youths. This idea helps us to see that though they were created "very good," yet this goodness was not without room for growth in obedience. Christ was born a King. God bestows glory and honor to these Representatives. God bestows glory and honor to us and wants us to steward this kingdom with righteousness.
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