What is Man?

Psalm 8

1. Man is made (Psalm 8:5a).
2. Man is the crown of creation (Psalm 8:5).

Western society has lost sight of God. It no longer sees man as a creature made in God’s image, whose chief end is “to glorify God and enjoy him forever.” It has eliminated God from its collective conscience. But then, because it no longer looks to God to derive its sense of identity and worth from him, it looks in the only other direction it can look. It looks downward to the beasts and derives its identity from the animal kingdom.

James Montgomery Boice, Psalms 1–41: An Expositional Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2005), 72.

3. Man is given dominion (Psalm 8:6-8).
4. Man has failed and fallen (Hebrews 2:8).
5. Man can be restored through Jesus (Hebrews 2:9).

Man as created reflects God’s glory. But the Son of man, in whom the original pattern is more fully realized, reflects this same glory far more perfectly.

H.C. Leupold, Exposition of the Psalms. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1977), 101.