I would like you to take a moment to find Psalm 8 in your Old Testament. Before I read Psalm 8 I want to prepare you for what you are about to hear. This psalm was written from a theistic, Judeo-Christian worldview. The psalmist is clearly affirming his belief in a personal, creator God. As he searches the heavens surveying the moon and stars, as he gazes over the horizon at his flocks and herds, considering the birds of the air and the water-life in the sea, he is overwhelmed with the sense that God is watching. God's presence is so real and wonderful to him that he has goose bumps. Adrenaline is flushing through his whole body. His back is in knots from excitement.
What is man that you are mindful of him?
In Psalm 8 (NIV) David writes, "O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger. When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet: all flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas. O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!"
I remember as if it were yesterday one of the most exciting days of my life. I was fifteen years old and had recently received my learning permit for driving. My Dad asked me to drive him into Kankakee to run some errands. Normally we would drive by Koernor airport, which was really just a private airstrip.
Throughout my entire childhood I wanted to be a pilot. I loved airplanes and cherished the thought of flying. My brother and I spent hours on our home computer flying flight simulators. I had subscriptions for flight magazines. Anyhow, on this day my dad didn't have any real errands in mind. As we neared the airport he told me to slow down and turn into the airstrip. At first I thought we were going to turn around or something, but instead I realized that he had arranged for my brother and I to take our first ride ever in an airplane!
I remember taxing down the bumpy grass runway. As the engines roared to full power we gracefully floated up off the earth into the air. As I looked down I could see my dad leaning over a white fence, smiling, enjoying the fact that he had surprised us and was giving us the thrill of our lifetime! But as we ascended into the heavens, my dad became a speck. Our family van became a matchbox car. The fields became tiny green and brown squares. It seemed like we were in another world, and in one sense we were.
As the psalmist considers the heavens, the moon and the stars, the distant galaxies, and the great expanse of the universe, he marvels at the thought that the great and powerful God, creator of the cosmos, maker of the heavens and earth, is personally mindful of a tiny, virtually unnoticeable, infinitesimal speck of a man.
The psalmist inquisitively asks, "What is man that thou are mindful of him? The son of man that you care for him? You go through all this trouble to create him and place him in a wonderful creation. Why?"
Does God really notice?
I'd say the psalmist asks a pretty good question, wouldn't you agree? But he is making an assumption about God that most people today reject. The psalmist is assuming that God is mindful and is near, and does care, and does pay attention to specks, and is personally involved in his creation.
A lot of people concede that a God exists, but a personal God? Come on! Get real! How can a God who is infinitely greater than the heavens and earth, from the perspective of eternity, from the perspective of the universe, even notice, let alone care about something so puny and insignificant as man? This defies all logic. It seems to stretch the upper boundaries of our imagination! Does God really notice me? Does God really care about me?
So the skeptic says, "God is personally involved? You say he cares, does he? What about this chronic pain I have from my arthritis? What about my daily trips to the doctor and hospital? What about the cancerous tumor that is destroying the life of this young, single mother or this father of three?"
"What about September 11? What about the hunger, the poverty, the sickness, the pain, the suffering, and the evil that abounds everywhere around me? What about the fact that I just lost my job and cannot find employment? That my retirement has deflated? That my bills aren't getting paid? What about this pressure I am under? This stress? This temptation? This guilt? What about this gut-wrenching grief that is tearing my soul apart? What about this anger that I have because someone hurt me? What about this depression, these suicidal thoughts? It's just too much! What about these broken marriage vows? The pain of divorce? The shame? The hurt of my children? The brokenness?"
"Doesn't God notice me down here struggling to pick up all the shattered pieces of my life and trying to make sense of it all? Does a speck of a human like me really not escape his eye? So the skeptic concludes, "Don't talk to me about a personal God. Save it for your Sunday choirs to sing about. But spare me, will you?"
Yes, God really notices.
The psalmist is making a pretty bold claim, wouldn't you agree? God notices me. In Hebrews 2 the writer is especially interested in the psalmist's claim. He notices a glimmer of truth and hope in the psalmist's words. He sees something that perhaps the skeptic doesn't see, or even refuses to see. In Hebrews 2:6-8 he quotes the psalm. He rekindles the controversy."What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?" Is there something to this claim? The writer of Hebrews uses the occasion of Psalm 8 to present an even more compelling picture of God than what the psalmist could have ever imagined.
Let's take a look at Hebrews2:5-18 (NIV) together starting at Hebrews 2:5. "It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking. But there is a place where someone has testified: 'What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the angels; you crowned him with glory and honorand put everything under his feet.' "
"In putting everything under him, God left nothing that is not subject to him. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering. Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers. He says,'I will declare your name to my brothers; in the presence of the congregation I will sing your praises.' And again, 'I will put my trust in him.' And again he says, 'Here am I, and the children God has given me.' "
"Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death— that is, the devil— and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham's descendants. For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted."
The reality of human suffering.
I want you to notice that the writer of Hebrews doesn't for a second dismiss the most obvious and painful reality of human suffering. The Psalm 8 quotation in its original context is referring to mankind in general. When God created man in Genesis he created man a little lower than the angels but he crowned man with his own glory and honor and image. We were full of life and hope and potential. All of creation was subjected to us. But the writer of Hebrews makes a keen observation in Hebrews 2:8 (NIV). Referring to man he says, "Yet at the present we do not see everything subject to him (man)."
Something changed. The original order of things was corrupted. We sinned. We became at odds with the created order. Things do not go our way. Suffering, disease, rebellion, evil, death, and a hundred other things subvert our will. As Hebrews 2:15 indicates, we are held in slavery by our fear of death. There is a sense of dread or impending doom with which we live out our existence. We are not at peace. We wrestle with feelings of uncertainty, despair, and doubt. In the present we lack the psalmist's confidence in a personal God. We question God's existence. We question his involvement. We question his intentions. We question why he created us. We feel that he is far away. Distant.
In Hebrews 2 the writer is inviting us to open our eyes and see beyond our suffering. He invites us to see what he sees. To see that despite appearances, God is truly personally involved in the lives of specks like us. He invites us to look no further than Jesus for proof that God is personally involved.
Our suffering savior.
He extends the application of Psalm 8 to include the son of man, Jesus Christ. In like manner as man Jesus was made for a time to be lower than the angels. He was crowned with God's glory and honor. Everything was subjected to him. Jesus shared in our humanity. He became flesh and blood. He became like his brothers in every way. He suffered. He was tempted. He was subjected to the whims of evil. He was made a slave of death, but not of fear. He dwelt among us confidently proclaiming God's name, God's love, God's mercy, God's favor, God's grace, and God's plan. He stood in our midst, in the presence of the congregation singing praises to God, extolling God's infinite worth, and majesty, and glory. He proudly stood shoulder to shoulder with us in our suffering. He became a brother.
Hebrews 2 paints a picture of God that no other religion dares to portray. God is not aloft somewhere in the heavens circling above our suffering, watching from distant comfort, aloof to the brutal realities of our fallen world. Jesus isn't some God who walks six inches above the ground. In Hebrews 2:10 many translations portray Jesus as the author of salvation.
In the Greek the idea of author is hardly implied. The Greek in Hebrews 2:10 portrays Jesus as the pioneer of our salvation, as a trailblazer, as a conquering general, and the founder and leader of our salvation. Jesus didn't merely author the plan of salvation. He executed his plan. He became one of us, flesh and blood. He fully identified with us. He pursued us. He rescued us. He suffered along with us. He was bruised. He was bloodied. He tasted death. He paid the ultimate price. He led the charge. He paved the way. He rolled up his sleeves and wrangled with sin. He took up his position on the front lines.
Jesus is the great conqueror who stood toe to toe with death and defeated it. Jesus is the great liberator who freed us from our enslaving fear of death. Jesus is our merciful high priest who is sympathetic and understanding and compassionate and gracious toward us. This is because he was one of us. But Jesus is also our faithful high priest who knows the ins and outs of resisting sin. He is knows how to stand for righteousness and how to live for God under extreme pressure. Jesus is our helper who is powerful to help us in our time of need. He is our redeemer who pays the tab for our sins so we can be accepted by God. He is our rescuer who is driven by grace to bring us into our salvation.
Jesus isn't some kind of coach potato who sits in his heavenly living room sipping soda and eating potato chips as we struggle in the cold against the adversary. Jesus is in the hall of fame because he's been in our shoes. He's been on the playing field of life, taking it to the enemy, calling the shots, pioneering our salvation, conquering the enemy, and leading mankind into eternal hope.
So what does all this mean?
Hebrews 2 reminds us that we have absolutely no basis for taking a callous posture toward God. He is mindful of us. He cares. He notices. He saves. The writer of Hebrews invites us to gaze into the portrait of an all-out God who is personally involved in our lives, and who spares no measure to save us. There isn't any pressure in your life that Jesus doesn't completely understand. There isn't anything going on in your life that escapes God's eye. There isn't any power or pressure that can defeat you if you are in Christ.
You may think you are alone in your struggle, but you are not alone. God is near. You may think that you are an insignificant speck of nothing, but you are everything to your savior Jesus Christ who suffered and died to bring you to God. You may think that because you suffer, God doesn't love you. But Christ was driven by grace and love to taste death on your behalf. You may at times feel powerless and defeated and haunted by despair, but you have been freed from the grip of death through faith in Jesus Christ.
"O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!"