WHAT IS MAN?

“It has been testified somewhere, ‘What is man, that you are mindful of him, or the son of man, that you care for him?’ ” (Hebrews 2:6), taken from Psalm 8:4.

In the psalm the writer of Hebrews references, this exclamation comes after a contemplation of the starry heavens, which had impressed the psalmist’s mind with a sense of God’s transcendent glory. In contrast with this glory, man’s insignificance and unworthiness occur to him, as they have similarly occurred to many; but, at the same time, he thought of the high position assigned to man in the account of the creation, on which position he next enlarges. He asks how it can be that man, being what he is now, can be of such high estate. Thus the Epistle of Hebrews carries out truly the idea of the psalm, which is that man’s appointed position in the scale of things is beyond what he seems now to realize.

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, ESV © 2016 by Crossway Bibles.
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