’Tis nature’s system of divinity,
And every student of the night inspires.
’Tis elder Scripture, writ by God’s own hand:
Scripture authentic! uncorrupt by man.
_Edward Young._
_Verse 3.—“The stars.”_ When I gazed into these stars, have they not
looked down on me as if with pity from their serene spaces, like eyes
glistening with heavenly tears over the little lot of man!—_Thomas
Carlyle._
_Verses 3, 4.—“When I consider thy heavens,”_ etc. Draw spiritual
inferences from occasional objects. David did but wisely consider the
heavens, and he breaks out into self-abasement and humble admirations of
God. Glean matter of instruction to yourselves, and praise to your Maker
from everything you see; it will be a degree of restoration to a state
of innocency, since this was Adam’s task in paradise. Dwell not upon any
created object only as a _virtuoso_, to gratify your rational curiosity,
but as a Christian, call religion to the feast, and make a spiritual
improvement. No creature can meet our eyes but affords us lessons worthy
of our thoughts, besides the general notices of the power and wisdom of
the Creator. Thus may the sheep read us a lesson of patience, the dove
of innocence, the ant and bee raise blushes in us for our sluggishness,
and the stupid ox and dull ass correct and shame our ungrateful
ignorance.... He whose eyes are open cannot want an instructor, unless
he wants a heart.—_Stephen Charnock._
_Verse 4.—“What is man, that thou art mindful of him?”_ etc. My readers
must be careful to mark the design of the Psalmist, which is to enhance,
by this comparison, the infinite goodness of God; for it is, indeed, a
wonderful thing that the Creator of heaven, whose glory is so
surpassingly great as to ravish us with the highest admiration,
condescends so far as graciously to take upon him the care of the human
race. That the Psalmist makes this contrast may be inferred from the
Hebrew word אֱנוֹשׁ, _enosh_, which we have rendered _man_, and which
expresses the frailty of man rather than any strength or power which he
possesses.... Almost all interpreters render פָּקַד, _pakad_, the last
word of this verse, _to visit_; and I am unwilling to differ from them,
since this sense suits the passage very well. But as it sometimes
signifies _to remember_, and as we will often find in the Psalms the
repetition of the same thought in different words, it may here be very
properly translated _to remember_; as if David had said, “This is a
marvellous thing, that God thinks upon men, and remembers them
continually.”—_John Calvin, 1509-1564._
_Verse 4.—“What is man?”_ But, O God, what a little lord hast thou made
over this great world! The least corn of sand is not so small to the
whole earth, as man is to the heaven. When I see the heavens, the sun,
the moon, and stars, O God, what is man? Who would think thou shouldst
make all these creatures for one, and that one well-near the least of
all? Yet none but he can see what thou hast done; none but he can admire
and adore thee in what he seeth: how had he need to do nothing but this,
since he alone must do it! Certainly the price and value of things
consist not in the quantity; one diamond is worth more than many
quarries of stone; one loadstone hath more virtue than mountains of
earth. It is lawful for us to praise thee in ourselves. All thy creation
hath not more wonder in it than one of us: other creatures thou madest
by a simple command; MAN, not without a divine consultation: others at
once; man thou didst form, then inspire: others in several shapes, like
to none but themselves; man, after thine own image: others with
qualities fit for service; man, for dominion. Man had his name from
thee; they had their names from man. How should we be consecrated to
thee above all others, since thou hast bestowed more cost on us than
other!—_Joseph Hall, D.D., Bishop of Norwich, 1574-1656._
_Verse 4.—“What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man,
that thou shouldst visit him?”_ And (Job vii. 17, 18) “What is man, that
thou shouldst magnify him? and that thou shouldst set thy heart upon
him? and that thou shouldst visit him every morning?” Man, in the pride
of his heart, seeth no such great matter in it; but a humble soul is
filled with astonishment. “Thus saith the high and lofty One that
inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy
place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive
the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.”
Isaiah lvii. 15. Oh, saith the humble soul, will the Lord have respect
unto such a vile worm as I am? Will the Lord acquaint himself with such
a sinful wretch as I am? Will the Lord open his arms, his bosom, his
heart to me? Shall such a loathsome creature as I find favour in his
eyes? In Ezek. xvi. 1-5, we have a relation of the wonderful
condescension of God to man, who is there resembled to a wretched infant
cast out in the day of its birth, in its blood and filthiness, no eye
pitying it; such loathsome creatures are we before God; and yet when he
passed by, and saw us polluted in our blood, he said unto us, “Live.” It
is doubled because of the strength of its nature; it was “the time of
love” (verse 8). This was love indeed, that God should take a filthy,
wretched thing, and spread his skirts over it, and cover its nakedness,
and swear unto it, and enter into a covenant with it, and make it his;
that is, that he should espouse this loathsome thing to himself, that he
would be a husband to it; this love unfathomable, love inconceivable,
self-principle love; this is the love of God to man, for God is love.
Oh, the depth of the riches of the bounty and goodness of God! How is
his love wonderful, and his grace past finding out! How do you find and
feel your hearts affected upon the report of these things? Do you not
see matter of admiration and cause of wonder? Are you not as it were
launched forth into an ocean of goodness, where you can see no shore,
nor feel no bottom? Ye may make a judgment of yourselves by the motions
and affections that ye feel in yourselves at the mention of this. For
thus Christ judged of the faith of the centurion that said unto him,
“Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldst come under my roof. When Jesus
heard this, he marvelled, and said to them that followed him, I say unto
you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel,” Matthew viii.
8-10. If, then, you feel not your souls mightily affected with the
condescension of God, say thus unto your souls, What aileth thee, O my
soul, that thou art no more affected with the goodness of God? Art thou
dead, that thou canst not feel? Or art thou blind that thou canst not
see thyself compassed about with astonishing goodness? Behold the King
of glory descending from the habitation of his majesty, and coming to
visit thee! Hearest not thou his voice, saying, “Open to me, my sister:
behold, I stand at the door and knock. Lift up yourselves, O ye gates,
and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors, that the King of glory may
come in?” Behold, O my soul, how he waits still while thou hast refused
to open to him! Oh, the wonder of his goodness! Oh, the condescension of
his love, to visit me, to sue unto me, to wait upon me, to be acquainted
with me! Thus work up your souls into an astonishment at the
condescension of God.—_James Janeway, 1674._
_Verse 4._—_Man_, in Hebrew—infirm or miserable man—by which it is
apparent that he speaks of man not according to the state of his
creation, but as fallen into a state of sin, and misery, and mortality.
_Art mindful of him_, _i.e._, carest for him, and conferrest such high
favours upon him. _The son of man_, Heb., _the son of Adam_ that great
apostate from and rebel against God; the sinful son of a sinful
father—his son by likeness of disposition and manners, no less than by
procreation; all which tends to magnify the divine mercy. _That thou
visitest him_—not in anger, as that word is sometimes used, but with thy
grace and mercy, as it is taken in Gen. xxi. 1; Ex. iv. 31; Psalm lxv.
9; cvi. 4; cxliv. 3.
_Verse 4.—“What is man?”_ The Scripture gives many answers to this
question. Ask the prophet Isaiah, “_What is man?_” and he answers (xl.
6), man is “grass”—“All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof
is as the flower of the field.” Ask David, “_What is man?_” He answers
(Psalm lxii. 9), man is “_a lie_,” not a liar only, or a deceiver, but
“_a lie_,” and a deceit. All the answers the Holy Ghost gives concerning
man, are to humble man: man is ready to flatter himself, and one man to
flatter another, but God tells us plainly what we are.... It is a wonder
that God should vouchsafe a gracious look upon such a creature as man;
it is wonderful, considering the distance between God and man, as man is
a creature and God the creator. “_What is man_,” that God should take
notice of him? Is he not a clod of earth, a piece of clay? But consider
him as a sinful and an unclean creature, and we may wonder to amazement:
what is an unclean creature that God should magnify him? Will the Lord
indeed put value upon filthiness, and fix his approving eye upon an
impure thing? One step further; what is rebellious man, man an enemy to
God, that God should magnify him! what admiration can answer this
question? Will God prefer his enemies, and magnify those who would cast
him down? Will a prince exalt a traitor, or give him honour who attempts
to take away his life? The sinful nature of man is an enemy to the
nature of God, and would pull God out of heaven; yet God even at that
time is raising man to heaven: sin would lessen the great God, and yet
God greatens sinful man.—_Joseph Caryl._
_Verse 4.—“What is man?”_ Oh, the grandeur and littleness, the
excellence and the corruption, the majesty and meanness of man!—_Pascal,
1623-1662._
_Verse 4.—“Thou visitest him.”_ To visit is, first, to afflict, to
chasten, yea, to punish; the highest judgments in Scripture come under
the notions of visitations. “Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon
the children” (Ex. xxxiv. 7), that is, punishing them.... And it is a
common speech with us when a house hath the plague, which is one of the
highest strokes of temporal affliction, we use to say, “Such a house is
visited.” Observe then, afflictions are visitations.... Secondly, to
visit, in a good sense, signifies to show mercy, and to refresh, to
deliver and to bless; “Naomi heard how that the Lord had visited his
people in giving them bread.” Ruth i. 6. “The Lord visited Sarah,” etc.
Gen. xxi. 1, 2. That greatest mercy and deliverance that ever the
children of men had, is thus expressed, “The Lord hath visited and
redeemed his people.” Luke i. 68. Mercies are visitations; when God
comes in kindness and love to do us good, he visiteth us. And these
mercies are called visitations in two respects: 1. Because _God comes
near to us_ when he doth us good; mercy is a drawing near to a soul, a
drawing near to a place. As when God sends a judgment, or afflicts, he
is said to depart and go away from that place; so when he doth us good,
he comes near, and as it were applies himself in favour to our persons
and habitations. 2. They are called a visitation because of _the
freeness of them_. A visit is one of the freest things in the world;
there is no obligation but that of love to make a visit; because such a
man is my friend and I love him, therefore I visit him. Hence, that
greatest act of free grace in redeeming the world is called a
visitation, because it was as freely done as ever any friend made a
visit to see his friend, and with infinite more freedom. There was no
obligation on man’s side at all, many unkindnesses and neglects there
were; God in love came to redeem man. Thirdly, to visit imports an act
of care and inspection, of tutorage and direction. The pastor’s office
over the flock is expressed by this act (Zech. x. 3; Acts xv. 36); and
the care we ought to have of the fatherless and widows is expressed by
visiting them. “Pure religion,” saith the apostle James, “is this, To
visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction” (chap. i. 27); and
in Matt. xxv. 34, Christ pronounceth the blessing on them who, when he
was in prison, visited him, which was not a bare seeing, or asking ‘how
do you,’ but it was care of Christ in his imprisonment, and helpfulness
and provision for him in his afflicted members. That sense also agrees
well with this place, Job vii. 17, 18, “_What is man, that thou shouldst
visit him?_”—_Joseph Caryl._
_Verse 4.—“What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man,
that thou visitest him?”_
Lord, what is man that thou
So mindful art of him? Or what’s the son
Of man, that thou the highest heaven didst bow,
And to his aide didst runne?
Man’s but a piece of clay
That’s animated by thy heavenly breath,
And when that breath thou tak’st away,
He’s clay again by death.
He is not worthy of the least
Of all thy mercies at the best.
Baser than clay is he,
For sin hath made him like the beasts that perish,
Though next the angels he was in degree;
Yet this beast thou dost cherish.
He is not worthy of the least,
Of all thy mercies, he’s a beast.
Worse than a beast is man,
Who after thine own image made at first,
Became the divel’s sonne by sin. And can
A thing be more accurst?
Yet thou thy greatest mercy hast
On this accursed creature cast.
Thou didst thyself abase,
And put off all thy robes of majesty,
Taking his nature to give him thy grace,
To save his life didst dye.
He is not worthy of the least
Of all thy mercies; one’s a feast.
Lo! man is made now even
With the blest angels, yea, superior farre.
Since Christ sat down at God’s right hand in heaven,
And God and man one are.
Thus all thy mercies man inherits
Though not the least of them he merits.
_Thomas Washbourne, D.D., 1654._
_Verse 4.—“What is man?”_—
How poor, how rich, how abject, how august,
How complicate, how wonderful is man!
How passing wonder HE who made him such!
Who centred in our make such strange extremes!
From different natures marvellously mix’d,
Connexion exquisite of distant worlds!
Distinguish’d link in being’s endless chain!
Midway from nothing to the Deity!
A beam ethereal, sullied and absorb’d,
Though sullied and dishonour’d, still divine!
Dim miniature of greatness absolute!
An heir of glory! a frail child of dust!
_Helpless_, immortal! insect _infinite_!
A worm! a god! I tremble at myself,
And in myself am lost.
_Edward Young, 1681-1775._
_Verses 4-8.—“What is man,”_ etc.
——Man is ev’ry thing,
And more: he is a tree, yet bears no fruit;
A beast, yet is, or should be more:
Reason and speech we onely bring.
Parrats may thank us, if they are not mute,
They go upon the score.
Man is all symmetrie,
Full of proportions, one limbe to another,
And all to all the world besides:
Each part may call the farthest, brother.
For head with foot hath private amitie,
And both with moons and tides.
Nothing hath got so farre,
But man hath caught and kept it, as his prey.
His eyes dismount the highest starre:
He is in little all the sphere.
Herbs gladly cure our flesh, because that they
Finde their acquaintance there.
For us the windes do blow;
The earth doth rest, heav’n move, and fountains flow.
Nothing we see, but means our good,
As our _delight_, or as our _treasure_:
The whole is, either our cupboard of _food_,
Or cabinet of _pleasure_.
The starres have us to bed;
Night draws the curtain, which the sun withdraws:
Musick and light attend our head.
All things unto our _flesh_ are kinde
In their _descent_ and _being_; to our _minde_
In their _ascent_ and _cause_.
Each thing is full of dutie:
Waters united are our navigation;
Distinguished, our habitation;
Below, our drink; above, our meat:
Both are our cleanlinesse. Hath one such beautie?
Then how are all things neat!
More servants wait on man,
Than he’l notice of: in ev’ry path
He treads down that which doth befriend him,
When sicknesse makes him pale and wan,
Oh, mightie love! Man is one world, and hath
Another to attend him.
_George Herbert, 1593._
_Verse 5.—“Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels.”_
Perhaps it was not so much in nature as in position that man, as first
formed, was inferior to the angels. At all events, we can be sure that
nothing higher could be affirmed of the angels, than that they were
made in the image of God. If, then, they had originally superiority
over man, it must have been in the degree of resemblance. The angel
was made immortal, intellectual, holy, powerful, glorious, and in
these properties lay their likeness to the Creator. But were not these
properties given also to man? Was not man made immortal, intellectual,
holy, powerful, glorious? And if the angel excelled the man, it was
not, we may believe, in the possession of properties which had no
counterpart in the man; both bore God’s image, and both therefore had
lineaments of the attributes which centre in Deity. Whether or not
these lineaments were more strongly marked in the angel than in the
man, it were presumptuous to attempt to decide; but it is sufficient
for our present purposes that the same properties must have been
common to both, since both were modelled after the same divine image;
and whatever originally the relative positions of the angel and the
man, we cannot question that since the fall man has been fearfully
inferior to the angels. The effect of transgression has been to debase
all his powers, and so bring him down from his high rank in the scale
of creation; but, however degraded and sunken, he still retains the
capacities of his original formation, and since these capacities could
have differed in nothing but degree from the capacities of the angel,
it must be clear that they may be so purged and enlarged as to
produce, if we may not say to restore, the equality.... Oh! it may be,
we again say, that an erroneous estimate is formed, when we separate
by an immense space the angel and the man, and bring down the human
race to a low station in the scale of creation. If I search through
the records of science, I may indeed find that, for the furtherance of
magnificent purposes, God hath made man “a little lower than the
angels;” and I cannot close my eyes to the melancholy fact, that as a
consequence upon apostasy there has been a weakening and a rifling of
those splendid endowments which Adam might have transmitted unimpaired
to his children. And yet the Bible teems with notices, that so far
from being by nature higher than men, angels even now possess not an
importance which belongs to our race. It is a mysterious thing, and
one to which we scarcely dare allude, that there has arisen a Redeemer
of fallen men, but not of fallen angels. We would build no theory on
so awful and inscrutable a truth; but is it too much to say, that the
interference on the behalf of man and the noninterference on the
behalf of angels, gives ground for the persuasion, that men occupy at
least not a lower place than angels in the love and the solicitude of
their Maker? Besides, are not angels represented as “ministering
spirits, sent forth to minister to the heirs of salvation?” And what
is the idea conveyed by such a representation, if it be not that
believers, being attended and waited on by angels, are as children of
God marching forwards to a splendid throne, and so elevated amongst
creatures, that those who have the wind in their wings, and are
brilliant as a flame of fire, delight to do them honour? And,
moreover, does not the repentance of a single sinner minister gladness
to a whole throng of angels? And who shall say that this sending of a
new wave of rapture throughout the hierarchy of heaven does not
betoken such immense sympathy with men as goes far towards proving him
the occupant of an immense space in the scale of existence? We may add
also, that angels learn of men; inasmuch as Paul declares to the
Ephesians, that “now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly
places is made known by the church, the manifold wisdom of God.” And
when we further remember, that in one of those august visions with
which the Evangelist John was favoured, he beheld the representatives
of the church placed immediately before the eternal throne, whilst
angels, standing at a greater distance, thronged the outer circle, we
seem to have accumulated proof that men are not to be considered as
naturally inferior to angels—that however they may have cast
themselves down from eminence, and sullied the lustre and sapped the
strength of their first estate, they are still capable of the very
loftiest elevation, and require nothing but the being restored to
their forfeited position, and the obtaining room for the development
of their powers, in order to their shining forth as the illustrious
ones of the creation, the breathing, burning images of the Godhead....
The Redeemer is represented as submitting to be humbled—“made a little
lower than the angels,” for the sake or with a view to the glory that
was to be the recompense of his sufferings. This is a very important
representation—one that should be most attentively considered; and
from it may be drawn, we think, a strong and clear argument for the
divinity of Christ.
We could never see how it could be humility in any creature, whatever
the dignity of his condition, to assume the office of a Mediator and to
work out our reconciliation. We do not forget to how extreme degradation
a Mediator must consent to be reduced, and through what suffering and
ignominy he could alone achieve our redemption; but neither do we forget
the unmeasured exaltation which was to be the Mediator’s reward, and
which, if Scripture be true, was to make him far higher than the highest
of principalities and powers; and we know not where would have been the
amazing humility, where the unparalleled condescension, had any mere
creature consented to take the office on the prospect of such a
recompense. A being who knew that he should be immeasurably elevated if
he did a certain thing, can hardly be commended for the greatness of his
humility in doing that thing. The nobleman who should become a slave,
knowing that in consequence he should be made a king, does not seem to
us to afford any pattern of condescension. He must be the king already,
incapable of obtaining any accession to his greatness, ere his entering
the state of slavery can furnish an example of humility. And, in like
manner, we can never perceive that any being but a divine Being can
justly be said to have given a model of condescension in becoming our
Redeemer.... If he could not lay aside the perfections, he could lay
aside the glories of Deity; without ceasing to be God he could appear to
be man; and herein we believe was the humiliation—herein that
self-emptying which Scripture identifies with our Lord’s having been
“made a little lower than the angels.” In place of manifesting himself
in the form of God, and thereby centering on himself the delighted and
reverential regards of all unfallen orders of intelligences, he must
conceal himself in the form of a servant, and no longer gathering that
rich tribute of homage, which had flowed from every quarter of his
unlimited empire, produced by his power, sustained by his providence, he
had the same essential glory, the same real dignity, which he had ever
had. These belonged necessarily to his nature, and could no more be
parted with, even for a time, than could that nature itself. But every
outward mark of majesty and of greatness might be laid aside; and Deity,
in place of coming down with such dazzling manifestations of supremacy
as would have compelled the world he visited to fall prostrate and
adore, might so veil his splendours, and so hide himself in an ignoble
form, that when men saw him there should be no “beauty that they should
desire him.” And this was what Christ did, in consenting to be “made a
little lower than the angels;” and in doing this he emptied himself, or
“made himself of no reputation.” The very being who in the form of God
had given its light and magnificence to heaven, appeared upon earth in
the form of a servant; and not merely so—for every creature is God’s
servant, and therefore the form of a servant would have been assumed,
had he appeared as an angel or an archangel—but in the form of the
lowest of these servants, being “made in the likeness of men”—of men the
degraded, the apostate, the perishing.—_Henry Melvill, B.D., 1854._