What is man that you are mindful of him?

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?

These verses from Psalm 8, written by King David, capture what I have come to find is very important for any person to truly be spiritually healthy. I can just see David high up in his palace one night, on some outdoor balcony, taking it all in. He has succeeded in basically everything he set his mind to accomplish, Israel is secure and continuously winning all battles, and the people are very favorable of him as their King. In that moment he has a choice to make: should he dwell on the immense power he has on earth, or should he dwell on the immense greatness of God who made heaven and earth as the work of a skilled artist? It’s the kind of either/or scenario many of us face throughout our days. Something will go well, we will succeed or win or get a promotion of some kind, and we have a minute to dwell on something… will we dwell on our own awesome abilities to secure that job, our skill in closing the deal and winning another client, our own sharp mind to problem solve and impress our boss? Or will we marvel at God’s good gifts given to us, be humbled at the position we are in and be grateful for opportunities we find ourselves in?

David chooses to dwell on the immensity of God and his own smallness. He takes the route we all need to take, whether it’s during successful days or days of loss, struggle, or frustration. Who am I that I should be considered by God? Some would say God indeed does not concern himself with us – that he at best has a mild interest in mankind, more to see what we will do with ourselves and the world he gave us than anything else. But this leads to mass despondency and a remarkable indifference towards the world and our own lives. Others act as if God is basically man-centered, that the center of God’s universe is the human race, and that we essentially have him wrapped around his cosmic finger. The truth is that David, and the Bible as a whole, does not allow us to in either direction.

David takes an interesting road in Psalm 8:5-8. Right after he indicates how small he feels and truly insignificant mankind is, he declares that we were made a little lower than angels. This is not a position of lowliness but of great honor! And David further declares we’ve been “crowned” as royalty with glory and honor from God, having dominion over the works of God’s hands. Aren’t these tremendous blessings and this high position too much for us to handle?!

Indeed it is too much for us to handle. For we have all strayed from our high position, and have ruined it in sin. We have taken God’s good gift in putting so much power in our hands, and we’ve twisted it and tried to take the very place of God over our lives. This rebellion against our Creator is now both in our nature and in our choices. It permeates everything we do, so much so that without God intervening we are hopeless in the world to have anything change us. We rightly deserve for the true King to send us away, to crush us for our prideful arrogance against him.

But the story does not end with our fall. The LORD has come, in the person of Jesus Christ. God saw fit, by his grace and according to his plan, to come and rescue sinners from their sin and from his righteous judgement. Jesus died in our place so that the payment required for our sin he paid himself, and he rose for our salvation. He comes in our helplessness and redeems us, and in so doing as we trust in him by faith, we receive new life. Our brokenness becomes restoration. Our alienation turns into reconciliation. Our pride becomes humility before the God of the universe, and our wickedness gets covered by the righteousness of Jesus so that when God sees us, he sees the perfection that only Jesus achieved.

If you’ve come to that place of trusting in Jesus Christ, then you know you can also say with David, “O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” When the weight of your sin is cast off by the power of God through the good news of Jesus, the response of your heart will be one of praise.

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