About Man

“What We Believe…” About Man Psalms 8

Have you ever stopped and asked yourself just who you are? What is my place in this world? What do I matter? The answer to that is not always an easy one, is it?

Today we continue our series “What We Believe…” –and today it is what we believe, and what the bible teaches us concerning ourselves… mankind, humans.

Most people do not have a healthy perspective of themselves in relation to God…

Some people think to little of themselves – that is self-loathing.

Then some people think to highly of themselves – that is called narcisism– an over inflated ego.

But when you stop to truly think about who we are as humans it can be staggering. In all of creation we seem to be little tiny specks in the great expanse of the awe inspiring cosmos. Many of us have stared into space, or been on a mountain top and asked the question, “In all of this – what am I…”

In Psalms 8 that is what David is doing, he asks the question of “who are we” but then he gives the God perspective answer to it. Listen to what David asks - (READ PSALMS 8:3-6a)

We, like David, need to understand who we are in God’s eyes. We need to consider our standing, our position before God and what He created us for… first -

We are created in God’s image –

We need to look at where we started. Turn in your Bibles to Genesis 1:27 – (READ)

Mankind was created by a special act of God, in His own image…

Humans are unlike any other species… we are not from the primordial ooze – we are not from lower primates, we did not climb out of the ocean or down from the trees – we were created, male and female, in Gods image .

In all of the creation account animals, fish, plants were spoken into existence… but humans were God breathed into existence. (Genesis 2:7)

That is what David recognizes and understands when he says – “you have made man a little lower than God…” (Some translations read angels but it is correctly translated GOD!)

Not only are we created in God’s image. - We are created as God’s crowning glory –

Psalms 8:5 is says – “And You (God) have crowned him with glory and honor.”

We have an image, a position and a place far above anything else, including the angels. That is hard for us little humans to fathom… that while God does love all His creation - we are made in such a way that only as humans do we have the capacity for a relationship with the Creator.

This isn’t given so that we can think to highly of ourselves but for the realization that humans, more than plants, animals and the environment are infinitely more important to God than all other creation…

In our society we have tried to place mankind at the level of animal life. Some would want little barn owls to be treated better than little children; some would want to save a tree before they would save a life… Yes it does say in Psalms 8:6-8 that we are to take care of and be good stewards of the land and the animals that God created but it does not say that they are to be given a higher place than man…

This realization as David understands our human position above all other creation and before God causes his outburst of – “O Lord, our Lord, How majestic is Thy name in all the earth!”

It should our response too!

Unfortunately we missed the mark and We distorted our image and created our own fatal flaw –

God made us in His image, He made us to be the crowning achievement of His glory and He gave us freedom to choose or refuse - a real love relationship…

By our free choice man sinned against God and brought sin into the human race. That privilege and responsibility was misused and it resulted in what Paul would say in -

Romans 3:10 - “There is no one who is righteous, not even one;” and in

Romans 3:23 - “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;”

Sin is the issue that separated us from God and distorted our standing with Him. And without even thinking about it our reasoning has become “I by my sin got into this mess; therefore I by my sin I will get out of it.”

We have come to believe that our distorted lives can be fixed by the same distorted behavior…

But once we truly consider our place before God and who we are in all His creation…