God's Idea of Man
A. Maclaren, D. D. Psalm 8:5 For you have made him a little lower than the angels, and have crowned him with glory and honor. What is the "little" which marks man's inferiority? It is mainly that the spirit, which is God's image, is confined in and limited by flesh, and subject to death. The distance from the apex of creation to the Creator must ever be infinite; but man is so far above the non-sentient, though mighty, stars and the creatures that share earth with him, by reason of his being made in the Divine image — i.e., having consciousness, will, and reason — that the distance is foreshortened. The gulf between man and matter is greater than that between man and God. The moral separation caused by sin is not in the Psalmist's mind. Thus man is invested with some reflection of God's glory, and wears this as a crown. He is king on earth....Such then is man, as God meant him to be. Such a being is a more glorious revelation of the Name than all stars and systems. Looked at in regard to his duration, his years are a hand breadth before these shining ancients of days that have seen his generations fret their little hour and sink into silence; looked at in contrast with their magnitude and numbers, numberless, he is but an atom, and his dwelling place a speck. Science increases the knowledge of his insignificance, but perhaps not the impression of it made on a quiet heart by the simple sight of the heavens. But besides the merely scientific view, and the merely poetic, and the grimly agnostic, there is the other, the religious, and it is as valid today as ever. To it the heavens are the work of God's linger, and their glories are His, set there by Him. That being so, man's littleness magnifies the Name, because it enhances the condescending love of God, which has greatened the littleness by such nearness of care, and such gifts of dignity. The reflection of His glory which blazes in the heavens is less bright than that which gleams in the crown of glory and honour on man's lowly yet lofty head. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. WEB: For you have made him a little lower than God, and crowned him with glory and honor.