Psalms 8:4-8 What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?  For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field;  The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.

Know God As Savior

David looks at himself in the light of God’s incredible creation. After considering the vastness of the heavens, the glory of God seen in them, he then asks God, "Why do you bother with man? Why do you care about me? What is this insignificant man when compared to the greatness of the God who created the universe?

He not only asks what is man, but also, who am I? I am just a lowly, son of man? He asks, “God why would you visit me? Why did you reveal yourself to me?”

This question is the consequence of David seeing himself through the perspective of God’s creation. What is man in comparison to all that? Why did You care enough to reach down through the vastness of the universe and touch him?
David’s answer is the most amazing part of Psalms 8.

David says, “You have made man a little lower than the angels.” The Hebrew word here is actually, Elohim, the word for those who dwell in heaven, both angels and God. David is saying that in the order of ranking all of God’s creation, man is second only to God himself. We have been made as the highest creature in all of creation.

David says, “We have been crowned with honor and glory.” We have been made in the image of God. He breathed into us the breath of Life. He made us like Himself, having free will, having in our being both intellect and eternity, through that same image of Himself. That likeness has been terrible marred by sin, corrupted almost to the point that the image of God can no longer be seen, but praise God, it can be fully and beautifully restored through the gift of God, His own Son Jesus Christ.

David goes on and says, “All things have been placed under man's control. Thou made him to have dominion over the works of thy hands, you put all things under his feet, under his authority.”

And so here is the answer to David’s question, “What is man?” Man is God’s highest creation, made in God’s own image, to rule over all of God’s creation. But this truth, can only be fully understood by David or by us when we see ourselves in the light of God’s creation and in the light of a relationship with God though Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.

Finishing The Quest

To finish this quest. We must answer for ourselves the question, Who am I? Are you only an insignificant bit of nothing in a vast, empty universe? Are you only a cosmic random chance or an accident of blind, unguided evolution?
Many hopeless people are seeking as the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates counseled, To "Know Thyself." But many on this quest, don't like what they the person they find. So, they attempt to forget or change who they are. They use mindless activity, drugs, promiscuous sex, or catastrophic surgeries to try and change the person they are.
Or if those things don’t work then they turn to violence, rage, or they stop caring about anyone or anything, including themselves. In the end many turn to suicide, thinking that will stop the questions, but that only reinforced for eternity the answer they did not want to hear while alive
And yet, the right question will bring fulfillment, joy and a life worth living to its fullest. When we know God as God, when we know God as Creator, when we know God as Savior, then we understand who we were meant to be.

We understand that in God, we have a purpose, we have power and we have the promise of eternity. Yes, man without God is hopeless, helpless and homeless, but when I realize who God is, when I realize who I am in light of God’s Word, when I see myself as so loved by God that He sent Jesus as my Redeemer to save me, then my life, my existence, my being has purpose.

I know who I am, through God and His love for me. I am not an insignificant speck in the fabric of time and space.  I am a beloved child of the King of the Universe.

This is what Psalms 8 says, we are God's greatest creation, second only to the Trinity. All of God’s creation has been given to our care, but this can only be understood in the truth of God’s Word and the love in the right relationship with God’s Son, Jesus Christ.

The final fulfillment of God’s design for man - Matthew 25:21 Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.

That is what we were created for. That is our eternal purpose!