What is man, that you are mindful of him? and the son of man, that you visit him?
All Commentaries on Psalms 8:4 Go To Psalms 8
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
Him. The prophet considers the nature of man at such a distance from the divinity. Being, nevertheless, united with it in Jesus Christ, it is raised far above the angels, Hebrews ii. 6. (Berthier)
When we reflect on the meanness of our nature, on the one hand, and on what God has done for it on the other, we are lost in astonishment. The pagans were aware of the corporal infirmities of man, (Seneca Consol. xi.) but not of his spiritual disorders. Hebrew has here, the son of Adam, or one of the lowest class; and not of ish, which means a person of nobility, vir, Psalm iv. 4. (Calmet)
Yet Christ applies to himself the former appellation, to show us a pattern of humility. (Haydock)
St. Augustine inquires, what difference there is between man or the son. The Hebrew v, means, likewise, and; yet or would have been better, Exodus xxi. 16.
"Whether he have sold him, or he be in his hand. "(Amama)
