I'm am taking the scenic route with Psalm 8 and I began with answering this question (according to scripture):
"What is man that you are mindful of Him?"When I read this short psalm, the awe for what YHWH has done leaps off the page.
And this is what it says to me:
In creation, which you can find in detail in Genesis 1. He ordains, appoints, intends and approves of man's authority over creation without vetting or testing them first. He gives them the gift and responsibility first and then He gives them a test. That's how much He believed in what He said, "It is very good."" It's like He is saying, "I trust in my own words" and in fact He made up His mind before He created man kind at all. Genesis 1:26 Let us make man in our own image and likeness. And back to Psalm 8, Psalm 8:5 says, "He made humans a little lower than the angels." My belief is, we are only lower than the angels in authority because of the place where we have authority. Heavenly beings have authorities in heavenly places. Earth is lower, but the scriptures never tell us that the angels are made in His image and likeness, although they are the ones who are always in the presence of God. My point is that David's awe is warranted. Why would He, an all-knowing God, entrust us with such beauty, such splendor, such weight, such–responsibility.
I can resonate with David. In my mind, it's like giving a $13,000 watch to a 5 year old and trusting that it will be ok in the end, that it would not be lost. Now, logically, most would never do that because we know the state of man, especially currently. We vet and test man way before we would ever give them access to the things we hold dear, but sometimes a child is born that has an extraordinary sense of responsibility. People may say of that child, they must have been here before, there's something so profoundly different and trustworthy.
Let's go back to the beginning again. God intends and appoints- He creates the job position criteria, then He creates the qualified. He created the heavens and earth and then He created the man.
If He knows what He wants it to fulfill, how would He then make the creation? Inadequate to be able to fulfill the function it was created for? Or would He make it exactly able to carry out what He wants?
After He makes them He says, It is very good.
Genesis 2 recounts deeper details of the creation, starting from verse 2. If you pay attention you can see that it backtracks to before the creation of animals or of Eve. He says it is not good for the man to be alone and then He created animals, where a suitable companion was not found.
So, YHWH takes part of Adam. He pinches the clay, so to speak, and makes the same kind. So no, dog is not man's best friend as they say.
In Hebrews 2, Psalm 8 is referenced by its author. He quotes, "7 What is mankind that you are mindful of them, a son of man that you care for him? You made them a little lower than the angels;
you crowned them with glory and honor
8 and put everything under their feet.”
Then he says
9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.
10 In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered. 11 Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. 12 He says,
“I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters;
in the assembly I will sing your praises.”
13 And again,
“I will put my trust in him.”
And again he says,
“Here am I, and the children God has given me.”
14 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. 16 For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. 17 For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. 18 Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
Jesus is pinched from our clay so He could genuinely, with all the risk of what it means to be a human, fulfill the requirements perfectly, just to hand that $13,000 watch, that He worked all those years to acquire, to us mere children. Wear it. Use it. It's fully paid for. But how will we treat it?
signed,
Aleeza A Chery