What is man?

O Lord, our Lord,

How excellent is Your name in all the earth,

Who have set Your glory above the heavens!

Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants

You have ordained strength,

Because of Your enemies,

That You may silence the enemy and the avenger.

When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,

The moon and the stars, which You have ordained,

What is man that You are mindful of him,

And the son of man that You visit him? – Psalm 8.1-4

God’s creation was perfect. God’s name was excellent and He showed that excellence from the smallest of the small to the greatest of the great. David said that as he saw the heavens and the moon and the stars he was struck by the question – ‘what is man that God should pay him any attention?

But God is mindful of man. We are created in His image and are precious in His sight. We deserved to be overlooked when Adam and Eve sinned, but we are worth so much more to our God.

The key evidence of that is the last verse – what is the son of man that You visit him?

We don’t deserve any interaction from a holy God. But not only does He pay attention to us, He intervenes on our behalf. He, as the psalmist words it, visits us. He visits us in His care and protection and provision.

But I think there is more here. It seems like we have a hint here of an even greater visitation.

On the horizon is the promise that God is going to visit man as man Himself and bring redemption to mankind. One day Messiah will come to visit man as God veiled in human flesh.

What is man? He is God’s precious creation worthy of the death of His own Son.