Psalms 8:5-8

_ _ God has placed man next in dignity to angels, and but a little lower, and has crowned him with the empire of the world.

_ _ glory and honour — are the attributes of royal dignity (Psalms 21:5; Psalms 45:3). The position assigned man is that described (Genesis 1:26-28) as belonging to Adam, in his original condition, the terms employed in detailing the subjects of man’s dominion corresponding with those there used. In a modified sense, in his present fallen state, man is still invested with some remains of this original dominion. It is very evident, however, by the apostle’s inspired expositions (Hebrews 2:6-8; 1 Corinthians 15:27, 1 Corinthians 15:28) that the language here employed finds its fulfillment only in the final exaltation of Christ’s human nature. There is no limit to the “all things” mentioned, God only excepted, who “puts all things under.” Man, in the person and glorious destiny of Jesus of Nazareth, the second Adam, the head and representative of the race, will not only be restored to his original position, but exalted far beyond it. “The last enemy, death,” through fear of which, man, in his present estate, is “all his lifetime in bondage” [Hebrews 2:15], “shall be destroyed” [1 Corinthians 15:26]. Then all things will have been put under his feet, “principalities and powers being made subject to him” [1 Peter 3:22]. This view, so far from being alien from the scope of the passage, is more consistent than any other; for man as a race cannot well be conceived to have a higher honor put upon him than to be thus exalted in the person and destiny of Jesus of Nazareth. And at the same time, by no other of His glorious manifestations has God more illustriously declared those attributes which distinguish His name than in the scheme of redemption, of which this economy forms such an important and essential feature. In the generic import of the language, as describing man’s present relation to the works of God’s hands, it may be regarded as typical, thus allowing not only the usual application, but also this higher sense which the inspired writers of the New Testament have assigned it.