“What is man, that Thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that Thou visited him?”— Psalm 81:4.
THIS psalm celebrates the omnipotence of God as manifested in creation (1-3), and then looks at man in his littleness and helplessness, standing in vivid contrast to the almighty power of Jehovah, and yet the object of His special favor. It is not of man as originally created that the question “What is man?” is asked. But of man, fallen, for it is “the son of man” that is in view, Adam was the son of God (Luke 3;38) by direct creation. The son of man takes in the entire fallen race. But what was lost by Adam’s sin is retrieved in Christ; therefore He is emphatically the Son of Man who will be set over all creation in God’s due time (Heb. 2:6-9). What the first man lost by sin the Son of Man has regained by redemption.
“On His Father’s throne is seated
Christ the Lord, the living One!
All His toil on earth completed,
All His work for sinners done.
In the glory
See Him—God’s eternal Son!
Man the cross to Him awarded;
Man the Saviour crucified;
This world’s judgment stands recorded,
God’s own justice satisfied!
By the glory
Christ was claimed on earth who died.
Son of Man, His Incarnation
Opened first the tale of grace;
Son of Man, in new creation
Leader of a chosen racer
Well may glory
Crown Him, in the ordered place!”
—Miss H. K. Burlingham.