5 Yet you have made them a little lower than God,
and crowned them with glory and honour.
6 You have given them dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under their feet,
7 all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field,
8 the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
These verses are tremendously important but at the same time terribly dangerous.
The importance lies in the vision of the human creation. Human beings “them” have been made “a little lower than God.” We are “crowned… with glory and honour.” This gives the lie to any vision of humankind that views us as despicable, irredeemable, eternally lost, or damned.
To be human is to be a luminous spark of light bearing in the world the image and likeness of God. The “them” in verse 5 clearly refers back to “human beings” in verse 4. The extraordinary dignity of which HP writes is not confined to one class of human beings, one culture or one religious belief system. HP affirms that all people are “made… a little lower than God.” Every person ever created has been “crowned… with glory and honour.”
In order to avoid the danger in these verses, the following verses 6-8 must be read in this context. It is only when I am living in tune with the glory and beauty of my true nature that it is safe for me to exercise “dominion over the works of God’s hands.” Without the luminous vision of my true nature as a living embodiment of beauty and truth, I will abuse my power as a ruler in creation and bring into the world that destruction and chaos of which there is such abundant evidence everywhere we look.
It was a reckless gamble for God to entrust to people like me the measure of power granted to human beings. Tragically, I have failed to honour the responsibility that is part of my true nature.
What causes me to live so far below the glory and beauty of my true nature?
Lord help me to take seriously the profound responsibility for the well-being of all creation that is part of being created in your image and likeness.
In A Spacious Place 
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June 10, 2021 at 4:11 pm
bobmacdonald
What helps me keep up hope is when I see, both inside and outside our institutions and belief systems, a shared care for the creatures of this world, the marmot out of place, the struggling local pod of orca. I also see intense work in detailed mode to help us all together within the troubles and contradictions that we face. Religiously, this encompasses both the careful copying of ancient texts, and the intense questioning and criticism of the same so that we learn our history and our biases.
June 10, 2021 at 5:09 pm
bobmacdonald
I have thought in the past that this psalm reflects Genesis. But it’s interesting that although this version uses dominion as it might in Genesis if it follows KJV. I didn’t use dominion in Genesis but rule (rdh). And here I did not use ‘rule’ since the word is mashal (see the m-w-l below), the one I mentioned in a comment on the first verse in the psalm as posted a few days ago. I use govern for mwl which also means proverb.
And you make it a little less than God,
and with glory and honour you crown it.
You give it governance [tmwilhu] over what your hands make [bmywi idiç].
All, you put under its feet.
Flock and drove, all of them,
and even beasts of the field.
Bird of the heavens and fish of the sea,
traversing the paths of the seas.
The three Hebrew words above are so compact. It takes 9 English words to translate them.
This entrusting to the human the whole of creation within reach of its hands is quite a statement of our responsibility. Reaching the stars made by the fingers of G-d perhaps was not expected (and still isn’t!). But the reach of the human hands is wide.
The list of animals and fish is approximate compared to Genesis. The allusion may not be there at all. Perhaps Genesis 1 may have been written after this poem.
1:26b and let them rule among the fish of the sea and among the fowl of the heavens and among the cattle and in all the earth and among every creeper that creeps upon the earth.
1:28b And rule among the fish of the sea and among the fowl of the heavens and among every living creeper upon the earth. [no mention of bhmh here]
No mention of flock (xan) and drove (apl) in Genesis, but cattle (bhmh) here, reflects beasts of the field (bhmot wdii) in the Psalm. No creepie-crawlies in the Psalm – but we do care for the cicadas as long as they stay to our south.