For you have made him a little lower than the angels, and crowned him with glory and honor.
KJV
For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.
Commentary
Commentary
This psalm is a solemn meditation on, and admiration of, the glory and
greatness of God, of which we are all concerned to think highly and
honourably. It begins and ends with the same acknowledgment of the
transcendent excellency of God's name. It is proposed for proof
( ver. 1 )
that God's name is excellent in all the earth, and then it is repeated
as proved (with a "quod erat demonstrandum"--which was to be
demonstrated) in the last verse .
For the proof of God's glory the psalmist gives instances of his
goodness to man; for God's goodness is his glory. God is to be
glorified,
I. For making known himself and his great name to us, ver. 1 .
II. For making use of the weakest of the children of men, by them to
serve his own purposes, ver. 2 .
III. For making even the heavenly bodies useful to man, ver. 3, 4 .
IV. For making him to have dominion over the creatures in this lower
world, and thereby placing him but little lower then the angels, ver. 5-8 .
This psalm is, in the New Testament, applied to Christ and the work of
our redemption which he wrought out; the honour given by the children
of men to him
( ver. 2,
compared with Matt. xxi. 16 )
and the honour put upon the children of men by him, both in his
humiliation, when he was made a little lower then the angels, and in
his exaltation, when he was crowned with glory and honour. Compare ver. 5, 6,
with Heb. ii. 6-8; 1 Cor. xv. 27 .
When we are observing the glory of God in the kingdom of nature and
providence we should be led by that, and through that, to the
contemplation of his glory in the kingdom of grace.
To the chief musician upon Gittith. A psalm of David.
1 O L ORD 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.
The psalmist here sets himself to give to God the glory due to his
name. Dr. Hammond grounds a conjecture upon the title of this psalm
concerning the occasion of penning it. It is said to be upon Gittith, which is generally taken for the tune, or musical
instrument, with which this psalm was to be sung; but he renders it
upon the Gittite, that is, Goliath the Gittite, whom he
vanquished and slew
( 1 Sam. xvii. );
that enemy was stilled by him who was, in comparison, but a babe and a
suckling. The conjecture would be probable enough but that we find two
other psalms with the same title, Ps. lxxxi. and lxxxiv. .
Two things David here admires:--
I. How plainly God displays his glory himself, v. 1 .
He addresses himself to God with all humility and reverence, as the
Lord and his people's Lord: O Lord our Lord! If we believe that
God is the Lord, we must avouch and acknowledge him to be ours. He is
ours, for he made us, protects us, and takes special care of us. He
must be ours, for we are bound to obey him and submit to him; we must
own the relation, not only when we come to pray to God, as a plea with
him to show us mercy, but when we come to praise him, as an argument
with ourselves to give him glory: and we shall never think we can do
that with affection enough if we consider,
1. How brightly God's glory shines even in this lower world: How
excellent is his name in all the earth! The works of creation and
Providence evince and proclaim to all the world that there is an
infinite Being, the fountain of all being, power, and perfection, the
sovereign ruler, powerful protector, and bountiful benefactor of all
the creatures. How great, how illustrious, how magnificent, is his name
in all the earth! The light of it shines in men's faces every where
( Rom. i. 20 );
if they shut their eyes against it, that is their fault. There is no
speech or language but the voice of God's name either is heard in it or
may be. But this looks further, to the gospel of Christ, by which the
name of God, as it is notified by divine revelation, which before was
great in Israel only, came to be so in all the earth, the utmost ends
of which have thus been made to see God's great salvation, Mark xvi. 15, 16 .
2. How much more brightly it shines in the upper world: Thou hast
set thy glory above the heavens. (1.) God is infinitely more glorious and excellent than the noblest of
creatures and those that shine most brightly.
(2.) Whereas we, on this earth, only hear God's excellent name, and
praise that, the angels and blessed spirits above see his glory, and
praise that, and yet he is exalted far above even their blessing and
praise.
(3.) In the exaltation of the Lord Jesus to the right hand of God, who
is the brightness of his Father's glory and the express image of his
person, God set his glory above the heavens, far above all
principalities and powers.
II. How powerfully he proclaims it by the weakest of his creatures
( v. 2 ): Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained
strength, or perfected praise, the praise of thy strength, Matt. xxi. 16 .
This intimates the glory of God,
1. In the kingdom of nature. The care God takes of little children
(when they first come into the world the most helpless of all animals),
the special protection they are under, and the provision nature has
made for them, ought to be acknowledged by every one of us, to the
glory of God, as a great instance of his power and goodness, and the
more sensibly because we have all had the benefit of it, for to this we
owe it that we died not from the womb, that the knees then
prevented us, and the breasts, that we should suck. "This is
such an instance of thy goodness, as may for ever put to silence the
enemies of thy glory, who say, There is no God."
2. In the kingdom of Providence. In the government of this lower world
he makes use of the children of men, some that know him and others that
do not
( Isa. xlv. 4 ),
and these such as have been babes and sucklings; nay, sometimes he is
pleased to serve his own purposes by the ministry of such as are still,
in wisdom and strength, little better than babes and sucklings.
3. In the kingdom of grace, the kingdom of the Messiah. It is here
foretold that by the apostles, who were looked upon but as babes, unlearned and ignorant men ( Acts iv. 13 ),
mean and despicable, and by the foolishness of their preaching, the devil's kingdom should be thrown down as Jericho's walls were by
the sound of rams' horns. The gospel is called the arm of the
Lord and the rod of his strength; this was ordained to work
wonders, not out of the mouth of philosophers or orators, politicians
or statesmen, but of a company of poor fishermen, who lay under the
greatest external disadvantages; yea, we hear children crying, Hosanna to the Son of David, when the chief priests and
Pharisees owned him not, but despised and rejected him; to that
therefore our Saviour applied this
( Matt. xxi. 16 )
and by it stilled the enemy. Sometimes the grace of God appears
wonderfully in young children, and he teaches those knowledge, and makes those to understand doctrine, who
are but newly weaned from the milk and drawn from the
breasts, Isa. xxviii. 9 .
Sometimes the power of God brings to pass great things in his church by
very weak and unlikely instruments, and confounds the noble, wise, and
mighty, by the base, and weak, and foolish things of the world, that no
flesh may glory in his presence, but the excellency of the power may
the more evidently appear to be of God, and not of man, 1 Cor. i. 27, 28 .
This he does because of his enemies, because they are insolent
and haughty, that he may still them, may put them to silence, and put
them to shame, and so be justly avenged on the avengers; see Acts iv. 14; vi. 10 .
The devil is the great enemy and avenger, and by the preaching of the
gospel he was in a great measure stilled, his oracles were silenced,
the advocates of his cause were confounded, and unclean spirits
themselves were not suffered to speak.
In singing this let us give God the glory of his great name, and of the
great things he has done by the power of his gospel, in the chariot of
which the exalted Redeemer rides forth conquering and to conquer, and
ought to be attended, not only with our praises, but with our best
wishes. Praise is perfected (that is, God is in the highest degree
glorified) when strength is ordained out of the mouth of babes and
sucklings.
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 L ORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the
earth!
David here goes on to magnify the honour of God by recounting the
honours he has put upon man, especially the man Christ Jesus. The
condescensions of the divine grace call for our praises as much as the
elevations of the divine glory. How God has condescended in favour to
man the psalmist here observes with wonder and thankfulness, and
recommends it to our thoughts. See here,
I. What it is that leads him to admire the condescending favour of God
to man; it is his consideration of the lustre and influence of the
heavenly bodies, which are within the view of sense
( v. 3 ): I consider thy heavens, and there, particularly, the moon and
the stars. But why does he not take notice of the sun, which much
excels them all? Probably because it was in a night-walk, but
moon-light, that he entertained and instructed himself with this
meditation, when the sun was not within view, but only the moon and the
stars, which, though they are not altogether so serviceable to man as
the sun is, yet are no less demonstrations of the wisdom, power, and
goodness of the Creator. Observe,
1. It is our duty to consider the heavens. We see them, we cannot but
see them. By this, among other things, man is distinguished from the
beasts, that, while they are so framed as to look downwards to
the earth, man is made erect to look upwards towards heaven. Os
homini sublime dedit, coelumque tueri jussit--To man he gave an erect
countenance, and bade him gaze on the heavens, that thus he may be
directed to set his affections on things above; for what we see has not
its due influence upon us unless we consider it.
2. We must always consider the heavens as God's heavens, not only as
all the world is his, even the earth and the fulness thereof, but in a
more peculiar manner. The heavens, even the heavens, are the
Lord's ( Ps. cxv. 16 );
they are the place of the residence of his glory and we are taught to
call him Our Father in heaven. 3. They are therefore his, because they are the work of his
fingers. He made them; he made them easily. The stretching out of the
heavens needed not any outstretched arm; it was done with a word; it
was but the work of his fingers. He made them with very great
curiosity and fineness, like a nice piece of work which the artist
makes with his fingers.
4. Even the inferior lights, the moon and stars, show the glory and
power of the Father of lights, and furnish us with matter for praise.
5. The heavenly bodies are not only the creatures of the divine power,
but subject to the divine government. God not only made them, but ordained them, and the ordinances of heaven can never be
altered. But how does this come in here to magnify God's favour to man?
(1.) When we consider how the glory of God shines in the upper world we
may well wonder that he should take cognizance of such a mean creature
as man, that he who resides in that bright and blessed part of the
creation, and governs it, should humble himself to behold the things
done upon this earth; see Ps. cxiii. 5, 6 .
(2.) When we consider of what great use the heavens are to men on
earth, and how the lights of heavens are divided unto all
nations ( Deut. iv. 19, Gen. i. 15 ),
we may well say, " Lord, what is man that thou shouldst settle
the ordinances of heaven with an eye to him and to his benefit, and
that his comfort and convenience should be so consulted in the making
of the lights of heaven and directing their motions!"
II. How he expresses this admiration
( v. 4 ):
" Lord, what is man ( enosh, sinful, weak, miserable man, a
creature so forgetful of thee and his duty to thee) that thou
art thus mindful of him, that thou takest cognizance of him
and of his actions and affairs, that in the making of the world thou
hadst a respect to him! What is the son of man, that thou visitest
him, that thou not only feedest him and clothest him, protectest
him and providest for him, in common with other creatures, but visited
him as one friend visits another, art pleased to converse with him and
concern thyself for him! What is man--(so mean a creature), that he
should be thus honoured--(so sinful a creature), that he should be thus
countenanced and favoured!" Now this refers,
1. To mankind in general. Though man is a worm, and the son of man is a
worm
( Job xxv. 6 ),
yet God puts a respect upon him, and shows him abundance of kindness;
man is, above all the creatures in this lower world, the favourite and
darling of Providence. For,
(1.) He is of a very honourable rank of beings. We may be sure he takes
precedence of all the inhabitants of this lower world, for he is made
but a little lower than the angels ( v. 5 ),
lower indeed, because by his body he is allied to the earth and to the
beasts that perish, and yet by his soul, which is spiritual and
immortal, he is so near akin to the holy angels that he may be truly
said to be but a little lower than they, and is, in order, next
to them. He is but for a little while lower than the angels, while his
great soul is cooped up in a house of clay, but the children of the
resurrection shall be isangeloi -- angels' peers ( Luke xx. 36 )
and no longer lower than they.
(2.) He is endued with noble faculties and capacities: Thou hast
crowned him with glory and honour. He that gave him his being has
distinguished him, and qualified him for a dominion over the inferior
creatures; for, having made him wiser than the beasts of the earth
and the fowls of heaven ( Job xxxv. 11 ),
he has made him fit to rule them and it is fit that they should be
ruled by him. Man's reason is his crown of glory; let him not profane
that crown by disturbing the use of it nor forfeit that crown by acting
contrary to its dictates.
(3.) He is invested with a sovereign dominion over the inferior
creatures, under God, and is constituted their lord. He that made
them, and knows them, and whose own they are, has made man to have
dominion over them, v. 6 .
His charter, by which he holds this royalty, bears equal date with his
creation
( Gen. i. 28 )
and was renewed after the flood, Gen. ix. 2 .
God has put all things under man's feet, that he might serve himself,
not only of the labour, but of the productions and lives of the
inferior creatures; they are all delivered into his hand, nay, they are
all put under his feet. He specifies some of the inferior
animals
( v. 7, 8 ),
not only sheep and oxen, which man takes care of and provides
for, but the beasts of the field, as well as those of the flood,
yea, and those creatures which are most at a distance from man, as the fowl of the air, yea, and the fish of the sea, which
live in another element and pass unseen through the paths of the seas.
Man has arts to take these; though many of them are much stronger and
many of them much swifter than he, yet, one way or other, he is too
hard for them, Jam. iii. 7 . Every kind of beasts, and birds, and things in the sea, is tamed,
and has been tamed. He has likewise liberty to use them as he has
occasion. Rise, Peter, kill and eat, Acts x. 13 .
Every time we partake of fish or of fowl we realize this dominion which
man has over the works of God's hands; and this is a reason for our
subjection to God, our chief Lord, and to his dominion over us.
2. But this refers, in a particular manner, to Jesus Christ. Of him we
are taught to expound it, Heb. ii. 6-8 ,
where the apostle, to prove the sovereign dominion of Christ both in
heaven and in earth, shows that he is that man, that son of man, here
spoken of, whom God has crowned with glory and honour and made
to have dominion over the works of his hands. And it is certain
that the greatest favour that ever was shown to the human race, and the
greatest honour that ever was put upon the human nature, were
exemplified in the incarnation and exaltation of the Lord Jesus; these
far exceed the favours and honours done us by creation and providence,
though they also are great and far more than we deserve. We have reason
humbly to value ourselves by it and thankfully to admire the grace of
God in it,
(1.) That Jesus Christ assumed the nature of man, and, in that nature,
humbled himself. He became the Son of man, a partaker of flesh
and blood; being so, God visited him, which some apply to his
sufferings for us, for it is said
( Heb. ii. 9 ), For the suffering of death, a visitation in wrath, he was
crowned with glory and honour. God visited him; having laid upon
him the iniquity of us all, he reckoned with him for it, visited him
with a rod and with stripes, that we by them might be healed. He was, for a little while (so the apostle interprets it), made lower
than the angels, when he took upon him the form of a servant and made
himself of no reputation.
(2.) That, in that nature, he is exalted to be Lord of all. God the
Father exalted him, because he had humbled himself, crowned him with
glory and honour, the glory which he had with him before the worlds
were, set not only the head of the church, but head over all
things to the church, and gave all things into his hand, entrusted
him with the administration of the kingdom of providence in conjunction
with and subserviency to the kingdom of grace. All the creatures are
put under his feet; and, even in the days of his flesh, he gave some
specimens of his power over them, as when he commanded the winds and
the seas, and appointed a fish to pay his tribute. With good reason
therefore does the psalmist conclude as he began, Lord, how
excellent is thy name in all the earth, which has been honoured
with the presence of the Redeemer, and is still enlightened by his
gospel and governed by his wisdom and power!
In singing this and praying it over, though we must not forget to
acknowledge, with suitable affections, God's common favours to mankind,
particularly in the serviceableness of the inferior creatures to us,
yet we must especially set ourselves to give glory to our Lord Jesus,
by confessing that he is Lord, submitting to him as our Lord, and
waiting till we see all things put under him and all his enemies made
his footstool.
For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels,.... Than Elohim, "than God", as this word usually signifies: and could it be interpreted of man, as made by God, it might be thought to refer to the creation of him in the image and likeness of God; but as it must be understood of the human nature of Christ, it may regard the wonderful union of it to the Son of God, on account of which it is called by the same name,
Luk 1:35
; and so made but a little lower than God, being next unto him, and in so near an union with a divine Person; and which union is hypostatical or personal, the human nature being taken into a personal union with the Son of God: and so these words give an instance of God's marvellous regard to it; and contain a reason, proving that he has been mindful of it, and visited it. Though rather this clause refers to the humiliation of Christ in his human nature, as it is interpreted in
Heb 2:9
; and so it removes an objection, as it is connected with the following clause, which might be made against what had been observed in
Psa 8:4
, on account of the low estate of Christ's human nature, when here on the earth; and the sense is, that God has been mindful of it, and visited it, notwithstanding its state of humiliation for a little while, seeing he has crowned it with glory and honour, &c. Christ was made low as to nature, place, estate, reputation, and life; he who was the most high God, in the form of God, and equal to him in the divine nature, was made frail mortal flesh, and was in the form of a servant in the human nature. He who dwelt on high, and lay in the bosom of his Father, descended into the lower parts of the earth, was formed in the womb of a virgin, and when born was laid in a manager, and dwelt and conversed with sinful mortal men upon earth: he who was Lord of all, whose is the earth, and the fulness of it, had not where to lay his head: he whose glory was the glory of the only begotten of the Father, became a worm and no man in the esteem of men, was despised and rejected of men, and was of no reputation: and he who was the Lord of life and glory was crucified and killed; becoming obedient to death, even the death of the cross. Such is the nature of Christ's humiliation, expressed by being "made low"; the degree of it is, "lower than Elohim", than God: he was equal to him in the divine nature, but inferior to him in the human nature,
Joh 14:28
. As Mediator he was the servant of God, and the servant is not greater than his master; nor as such so great: and he was in his low estate in such a condition as to need the help and assistance of God, which he had in the day of salvation: and especially he was lower when he, was deserted by him,
Mat 27:46
. Agreeably to which, some render the words, as they will bear to be rendered, "thou didst make him want God", or "didst deprive", or "bereave him of God" (i); that is, of the gracious presence of God: and so Christ was made lower than God in nature, office, and condition. Sometimes the word "Elohim" is used for civil magistrates, as in
Psa 82:6
; because they are in God's stead, and represent him; and, on account of their majesty, authority, and power, bear some resemblance to him. Now Christ was made lower than they, inasmuch as he not only taught obedience to them, but obeyed them himself, was a servant of rulers, paid tribute to them, and suffered himself to be examined, tried, judged, and condemned by them; but since the word is rendered "angels" by the Chaldee paraphrase, the Septuagint interpreters, the Jewish commentators, Aben Ezra, Jarchi, Kimchi, and Ben Melech, and in the Arabic, Syriac, and Ethiopic versions, and above all by the author of the epistle to the Hebrews, it is best to interpret it of them: and Christ was made lower than they by assuming human nature, which is inferior to theirs, especially in the corporeal part of it; and more so, inasmuch as it was attended with infirmities, and subject to sorrows and griefs; and as it was sometimes reduced to great extremes, and to want the comforts of life; and sometimes was in such distress as to need the assistance and ministration of angels, which it had,
Mat 4:11
; and particularly it was lower than they when deserted by God, whose face they always behold. To which may be added, that Christ was made under, a law given by the disposition of angels, ordained by them, and is called "the word" spoken by them; some parts of which they are not subject to; but the particular instance the apostle observes is suffering of death,
Heb 2:9
; which angels are not liable to, they die not. The duration of this low estate was "a little while"; for so the Hebrew word may be rendered, as it is in
Psa 37:10
, and the Greek , used by the Septuagint, and the author of the epistle to the Hebrews, as it is in
Act 5:34
; which refers either to the time of suffering death, and lying under the power of that and the grave, which was but a little time; or at most to the days of his flesh, reaching from his incarnation to his resurrection; which was a course but of a few years, and may very well be expressed in this manner. And to this low estate was Christ brought by Jehovah the Father, who is the person spoken of throughout the psalm; he preordained him to it, prepared a body for him, sent him in the fulness of time, made of a woman, made under the law, and had a very great hand in his sufferings and death: though all was with Christ's full consent, and with his free good will;
and hast crowned him with glory and honour; by raising him from the dead, and setting him at his own right hand, committing all judgment to him; and requiring all creatures, angels and men, to give worship and adoration to him. And this being in consequence of his sufferings, after he had run the race, and endured a fight of afflictions; and because of the greatness of his glory and honour, with which he was as it were on all sides surrounded, he is said to be "crowned" with it; who a little before was crowned with thorns, and encompassed with the terrors of death and hell. This respects his mediatorial glory.
(i) "et deficere facies" ("vel facisti", Pagninus) "eum paululum a Deo", Montanus; "destitui quidem eum voluisti paululum a Deo", Michaelis; "carere eum fecisti Deo parumper", Gejerus.
Commentary
Commentary