Mensa Otabil - What Is Man? (10/07/2025)
We’re looking at Psalm Eight, and if you haven’t done so, please take time to read through the whole psalm. It’s just a few verses, and each day try to read through it so that the studies will fit into your own reading of the psalms. It is a very important psalm, and today we’re going to look at verses three and four. I will divide my teaching between today and tomorrow on these same verses, so tomorrow I will still preach from verses three and four.
Let’s read verses three and four of Psalm Eight: «When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have ordained, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you visit him?» I want you to imagine David sitting alone in the still night. How do we know it is the still night? Because he talks about the moon and the stars; he doesn’t mention the sun. This is a night meditation-the meditations of his heart in the night. He is watching the stars and the moon in their courses above. He doesn’t have a telescope to see as people can today, but he knows that this is grand space; it’s huge and massive. He can’t fully appreciate it with his mind, and it is in that space that he is meditating.
Let’s follow David’s meditation. He says, «When I consider your heavens,» and here he’s talking about the created universe. He is considering all of it. He sees this vast expanse that is out there, and he mentions «the moon and stars which you have ordained.» Why does he say that? Because he sees order. The moon goes and comes, and the stars move in their places; they denote weeks and months. Year after year, they still point us to what a month is, what our times are, and what the seasons are. There is a certain precision with which David is looking at the thing that God has created.
While human beings come and go, the order of the moon month after month continues, and he sees it as the ordination of God. Then he talks about «the work of your fingers.» He says, «God, these things we see out there are massive, but they didn’t just appear; you flung them into space. You created them; they are the work of your hands.» Now David is lying down under the stars, watching God’s handiwork. He sees that this is God’s handiwork.
As he contemplates all of that, he asks a very important question: «What is man?» Why does he ask that? It’s a big question all of us have been asking. If you compare the size of a human being with the mountain, then the mountain to the Earth, the Earth to the sun, the sun to the solar system, the solar system to the Milky Way galaxy, and then consider that there are trillions of galaxies, you begin to wonder, who are we? What is man? Where is our place in this huge universe? Do we have a place? Does God have a plan with us?
This is the big question that people ask; scientists and astronomers are asking, and this is a theologian- a worshiper-asking, what is man? Like David, sometimes we also feel small in the vastness of God’s creation, and we wonder if we have a place in God’s plan. Does God have us in mind? Is God able to hear us in the midst of all this? Well, tomorrow, we will answer that question, but today we want to pause and ask ourselves, in the midst of everything God has created, where is our role? What is our place? What are we supposed to do? Why did God place us here? What are we supposed to find out?
That is the contemplation of David that night, asking all of that in the context of what God has used him to accomplish. Who am I, just a shepherd boy, to lead a nation to victory, to conquer a giant that nobody else is able to fight? David is putting the pieces together to find his place in God’s scheme of events, and I believe that God has a plan for your life that is far bigger than your size. Let us pray. Say with me, «Heavenly Father, you are the king of creation. From the depths of my being, I bow to worship you. In Jesus' name, amen.» I’ll catch you again tomorrow. I’m Pastor Mensa Otabil. Shalom, peace, and life to you.