Psalm 8:5 says, "You have made him somewhat lower than angels/And have crowned him with glory and honor." The word angels in Hebrew is Elohim, which is normally translated God (Gen. 1:1). The Septuagint translated Elohim here into angels. In Hebrews 2:7 Paul quoted this verse, not according to the Hebrew version but according to the Septuagint version. God made him somewhat lower than the angels. Who is "him" in this verse? "Him" actually refers to the man Jesus. God has made the man Jesus somewhat lower than the angels. To make Jesus lower than the angels refers to His incarnation with His human living. In the sense of being in the flesh, He was somewhat lower than the angels.

After His human living, He was resurrected, and in His resurrection, He was glorified. Then He ascended to the heavens, and in His ascension, He was honored. "Crowned...with glory and honor" indicates or implies two steps: Christ's resurrection and His ascension. Before His resurrection and ascension, there was the death of Christ. If there is no death, there is no resurrection, and if there is no resurrection, there is no ascension. Furthermore, without His incarnation and human living, He was not qualified to die. He had to become a man and live for thirty-three and a half years. Thus, in Psalm 8:5 we can see all the steps of the Triune God's process: incarnation, human living for thirty-three and a half years, death, resurrection, and ascension.

Verses 6-8 say, "For You have caused him to rule over the works of Your hands;/You have put all things under his feet:/All sheep and oxen,/As well as the beasts of the field,/The birds of heaven and the fish of the sea,/Whatever passes through the paths of the seas." Whatever passes through the paths of the seas are the sea animals other than the fish. These verses refer to the kingdom in which Christ will rule over all the created things and to the restoration in this one-thousand-year kingdom, the millennium.

Psalm 8 is a short psalm, but it comprises and implies Christ's incarnation, human living, death, resurrection, ascension, and His being crowned to be the Lord and Christ and the King of kings, the unique Ruler of the entire universe. The day will come when He will be in the kingdom for a thousand years to rule over all the creatures. This is the revelation in Psalm 8.

The last verse of this psalm repeats the first part of the first verse by saying, "O Jehovah our Lord,/How excellent is Your name/In all the earth!" At the end of the psalm, David does not say anything further about the heavens, because eventually the earth will be as excellent as the heavens.

Now that we have read through Psalm 8 in an interpretive way, let us consider in more detail the major points in this psalm.