This striking question is three times asked in the Old Testament scriptures. It is asked by Job (chap. 7:17), in the moment of his boundless grief, consumed by suffering.
In the accumulation of his sorrows, and struggling under the hand of God, Job exclaims, “What is man?” asking to be let alone till he had swallowed down his spittle. The meaning of man here is, frail mortal man; in this connection it suggests the sense he had, more or less, of what a poor worm he was, and how strange that the mighty God should set His heart upon him, visit him every morning and try him every moment, even such an one as he whose foundation is in the dust, and who is crushed before the moth. It is well we should enter into the real secret of all Job’s trials; it was the discipline of God’s hand on His servant to lead him to the blessed consummation described in the words, “I abhor myself.” It was for this God had at the first proposed Job as the subject of Satan’s sifting. “Hast thou considered my servant Job?”—is met by the insolent question of the devil, “Doth Job fear God for nought?” This was a vile insinuation as to the purity of his secret motives; and suggests the thought that if needs be, Satan would do as much himself.
It has been very beautifully observed that this was in reality an attack upon God Himself: “For if the most pure of mankind is incapable of loving God gratuitously—that is, really—it follows that God has not the power to make Himself loved. Now, as it is the perfection of a being to love, so it is His glory to be loved” . . . “The most telling blow, therefore, which can be inflicted upon the divine honor is to assert that even the most devout worshiper of God upon earth only serves Him with this arrière-pensée: What shall I gain by it?”
But we have the same question asked in other circumstances and connections in Psa. 144. Here we have the godly remnant in Israel crying to God in the last days; they are passing through the bitterest trials, and plead with Jehovah the entire insignificance of their oppressors, “Man (i.e. frail, mortal man) is like to vanity, his days are as a shadow that passeth away.” This is set forth as a reason why the speedy judgments of God’s hand should work deliverance for them, from their oppressors, who are in prosperity all around them. When man is thus seen, there is a knowledge acquired both of the scene and of the great patience of God. But yet is it in striking contrast with the knowledge of the Christian, for him the cross has settled all and for ever, and he reckons himself to have died, yet alive unto God through Him who died and rose again; further, he knows himself of a new creation, and a child with the Father. How blessed is this, and how sad to see the desire to be earthly people, living only to die at the close of human life!
But now let us turn to the third mention of this question in scripture; it is as we have said in Psa. 8:44What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? (Psalm 8:4), quoted in Heb. 2:66But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou visitest him? (Hebrews 2:6). There we find the spirit of Christ in the Psalmist asking the question, “What is man?” How blessed to see that He does so as the rejected One, put to shame by His own people and by men, His heart feeling a sorrow thus peculiarly His own, pours itself out to Jehovah, and from this His humbled place, taken and accepted by Himself He asks, “What is man?” Jehovah’s answer is, Christ!
He was this Son of man, set over all the works of God’s hand. It is most touching and beautiful to see the way this Psalm is quoted in Heb. 2 already alluded to; “One in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him; or the son of man, that thou visitest him? Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honor, and didst set him over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet.”
Observe how this and the explanation following is introduced; the inspired writer does not say, David in a certain place testified, for he knew well that a greater than David was there! How blessed to ponder all this and treasure it in our hearts. In the days of the sorrow and humiliation of this blessed man, babes and sucklings uttered His praise, and thus the enemy and avenger was stilled; now He is crowned with honour and glory, though as yet all things are not put under Him. But there is a day at hand when His name shall be excellent in all the earth.
Thus, then, what is set before our adoring faith and praise here is, man in the counsels of God, the second Man, the last Adam, Christ the glory of Jehovah, as well as His delight, the wisdom of God and the power of God.
And as in that day that is at hand, when, as we have said, His name shall be excellent in all the earth, so the whole inheritance of this blessed man, the Redeemer-Heir, taken by Him under that title, shall reflect His praise and glory, dis- playing the power of His redemption, as at the first the material creation displayed the handiwork of the Creator, in all its variety of living beauty. This being closely connected with His glory in part, must ever have an affectionate interest for His own, while at the same time faith now turns on high, sees Him and knows Him there, knows too its own associations with the second Man in glory, leaves in spirit the earth and the earthly scene, to dwell with Him in the delights and joys of the Father’s house on high, and to journey here where He is not, as a pilgrim of faith, whose “commonwealth has its existence in the heavens, from which also we await the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior, who shall transform our body of humiliation into conformity to his body of glory, according to the working of the power which he has even to subdue all things to himself.” (Phil. 3:2121Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself. (Philippians 3:21)) Lord, hasten it in Thy time!