Psalm 8:4

Exegesis

“What”

This word is probably emphathic (a word used to emphasize a part of a sentence) of a certain man, a certain thing, anything, or nothing. This word points to “man.” It could be used to ask a question or in exclamation.

“Is”

To be something now implies that it was in the past. Something can not be now what it never was. This word is in the third person singular present form of “I am, am, it is I, be, I was, have been.” A third person uses “he, she, it, they” (usually not part of the conversation). Singular person means one person, not multiple, so that leaves us with he or she or it. So “man” must be a singular since “is” is refering to “man.”

“Man”

This Greek word literally means “man-faced.” This word is generally used to describe “a human being, male or female.” The man is distinct from God and animals. He may also refer to the human race. The Hebrew word is from the word the means, “incurable, desperate, desperately wicked, woeful, sick.” It can mean an individual, or group, or mankind. Job 4:17 shows how sinful mortal man is in comparision to God.

“That”

This word is the neuter of the word which means, “which, who, whosoever, that, whatsoever, whosoever” as conjunction.

“Thou art mindful”

This word is the prolonged form of the word that means, “remember, be mindful, be had in rememberance, in rememberance, and come in rememberance.” This word basically means to think about and never forget. God keeps us, sinful man, on the forefront of His glorious mind. Why? How can such a glorious God think of such pitiful man? It does not make sense. The perfect Son is given into marriage with that which is anything but perfect! And this was no mistake. God purposely arranged the marriage of the glorious Savior to wretched worms. Not only that but He also made us beautiful through the Son of Righteousness. Since God is never changing, somehow He has always been mindful of us.

“Of him”

This word is a pronoun that refers to the “man” spoken of before. Why is God mindful of this man and no other? He was not mindful of Satan in the garden, but He was of Adam and Eve when He gave them the promise of salvation. He was not mindful of any animal, but created them for man’s good and for God’s glory. He was not mindful of any angel, but made them ministering spirits for them who shall be heirs of salvation. He was not mindful in saving fallen angels or fallen creation: He shall destroy the heavens and the earth and put Satan and his angels in hell along with those who do not repent and believe the Gospel. He shall instead, create a new heavens and a new earth. Why is God mindful of us? Because He promised to save us; but why did He promise to save us? This is why it is so amazing that God would be mindful of man to save him, but not any other part of creation.

“Or”

This word “distinguishes things which exclude each other, or one of which can take the place of another” (Vine). Before this “or,” God talked about “man” in reference to mankind. Now the question will be “what is the son of man?”

“The son”

I am uncertain if this is refering to the offspring of man or to Christ. It seems more likely that the former is true. We were talking about man in the context of how much less he is than God, and the offspring of man carries along the meaning of weakness and mortality. Since we have been born of man, we are man. We are born after our kind and our kind is not only man, but sinful man. In Hebrew, son is a noun from the word that means “build, made, built again, repair, set up, have children, obtain children, and surely (inf. for emphasis)” (Vine). The son is the builder of the family name. So those who came from man that build up the name of man. In the sense here, man has built himself up to be wicked and that is the family name of man now: wicked and wreched sinners. That is why we need a new name from God. We need His name. We must be His bride to take away the filthy family name of man and make us into those who may be called sons and daughters of God, for in Him we are adopted into His family name. A name that no one can ever defile.

“Man”

This is the same Greek word as used above. In the Hebrew though, it is different than the first term. This term is Adam. We are Adam’s offspring. We are His seed. This was our family name before Christ. He was made in the image of God and defiled it, and so is our image defiled because of Adam’s sin, for he represented all of mankind when he sinned. We are now born with a sinful name, but we have been promised that if we believe God, He shall give us a righteous name through the name that is above every other name, for this is the only name that can save us: Jesus. Man does not deserve to be magnified or trusted in (Job 7:17). He sins daily and is a liar in Adam. All man can do is lead people to hell. It is only God that leads to eternal life. it is only God that can pardon our transgressions and take away our iniquities. While the son of man needs to repent, God does not lie and should never repent (Num. 23:19). Job 25:6 says that both, man and the son of man are worms. Man doesn’t deserve to even be acknowledged: man is vanity (Ps. 144). There is no help in man, but God made the heaven and the earth (Ps. 146:3-9).

“That”

This is the same word as used above

“Thou visitest”

This word means to look after or check in with someone or something. God never leaves us nor forsakes us. He always looks after us and continually checks in on us. And He, seeing that we are sick in sin, came down and literally visited us in flesh and looked after us, gave us a cure, and left us with the Helper (the Holy Ghost). He also doesn’t see man as so small that He would not visit him, who hates God, in judgment. He indeed visited man with a promise that would allow him to escape the coming judgment. God visits man every morning and He tries man as a doctor tries his patients (Job 7:18). He gives salvation unto kings and is the protector of His people (Ps. 144).

“Him”

Same as “of him” above.

There are only two possible family names, spiritually speaking. You are either in Adam with a defiled name that has dishonored God and is deserving of hell. Or you are in Christ with a pure and righteous name that grants eternal life. God shall visit those in Adam with wrath. But those in Christ, He shall visit as a loving Father. As a bride inherits the name of her husband, and his family becomes her own, so is it with the true believer. Christ is our Bridegroom. He has paid our dowry upon that cross and was visited with judgment for us. His name is now our name and His Father is now our Father. May we therefore worship God today, because we are no longer the sons of Adam, deserving hell, but instead, the sons of God, who by grace alone have eternal life.

Since Adam literally means, man, all of mankind has inherited his name. By nature, we are sons of Adam. What does this name mean? It means that we are more wicked than we could ever imagine. By the nature of our name, we are unfit to enter into heaven. But let us worship God today, for through Christ, we have inherited a more wonderful name: a perfect name. As a bride inherits the name of her beloved husband, so does the Church inherit the name of her beloved husband, who is Christ. Through this spiritual marriage, we are adopted into God’s family. Through this, we are no longer sons of Adam, but instead, sons of God.