The psalmist may have been wrong grammatically, but the Spirit could never be wrong. The Spirit inspired David to compose it this way, leaving an opening for us to fill in the main clause. After he says, "When I see Your heavens, the works of Your fingers,/The moon and the stars, which You have ordained," what should be said? The main clause can be filled in. I would propose four ways. It could read, "When I see Your heavens, the works of Your fingers,/The moon and the stars, which You have ordained, I say, What is man....?" I say is the main clause. Or it can read, "When I see Your heavens...I wonder," or "I consider." It could also read, "When I see Your heavens...I shout." The psalmist also could have said, "When I see Your heavens...I weep." This is very meaningful.
After David said, "When I see Your heavens, the works of Your fingers,/The moon and the stars, which You have ordained," there is the need of a "selah," a pause. We have to stop here for a rest to consider what to say. When I see the heavens, the works of God's fingers, the moon and the stars, I have to say and I have to ask and I have to find out—"what is man?" I have to say this; I have to ask this. I have to find out what man is that God remembers him and visits him.
By what way did God visit man? The answer follows in verse 5a—"You have made him somewhat lower than angels." Today we understand that this is incarnation. How did God visit us? He visited us by becoming incarnated. He put on humanity and became a man to be a little lower than the angels. This is the way God visited us.
He was also crowned with glory and honor (v. 5b). Glory refers to His resurrection, implying His death. Without death He could not have entered into resurrection. To be crowned with glory is to be glorified. To be crowned with honor implies the ascension. Therefore in one verse, verse 5, we see Christ's incarnation, His all-inclusive death implied, His resurrection for His glorification, and His ascension for Him to be honored.
God visited man by being incarnated, living on this earth, dying, rising up from the dead, and ascending to the heavens to be crowned with glory and honor. Thus, God visited man through the long journey of His process to become the life-giving Spirit to reach us and to enter into us. Ultimately, He was consummated as the life-giving Spirit. The incarnated One is now the life-giving Spirit. It is this One that can produce the babes and the sucklings.
The babes and sucklings are produced through regeneration in the initial stage. Then they continue to be produced in full through their sanctification, renewing, and transformation. Through transformation they are perfected in praising the Lord. This is the Lord's recovery and the Lord's victory. God overcomes His enemy through these babes and sucklings. The work of Christianity is to produce active ones; they endeavor to produce "giants." Our work is to produce babes and sucklings.
Verses 6-8 say, "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." These verses refer to the kingdom. All things will be ruled over by Christ with His Body, and all things will be subjected under His feet. This really perfects the praise, completes the praise, in this psalm. This short psalm reveals so much. It speaks of the heavens, the earth, babes and sucklings, man, three categories of enemies, and the Lord's incarnation, human living, death, resurrection, ascension, coming back, and kingdom.
We Christians may praise the Lord, but our praise needs to be perfected. We need to praise Him for His splendor above the heavens and His excellency on earth. Then we can praise Him for His incarnation for Him to come to visit us. Then we should go on to praise Him for His human living, for His death, for His resurrection, for His ascension, and for His kingdom. We have to praise Him with all these matters. Then our praises will be perfected, completed. This praise is the strength out of the mouths of babes and sucklings. Such perfected praise is the ultimate consummation of the Lord's work of incarnation, human living, death, resurrection, ascension, and coming back to rule on this earth.
When we come to the Lord's table, we stop every kind of human speaking and human doing. We stop our work. We are here at the table to do only one thing—to praise Him. In order to praise, we must stop our work. Thus, at the Lord's table, we all are the real babes and sucklings. While we are here being stopped from all of our doings to praise the Lord, the adversaries, the enemy, and the avenger are all defeated. This is a shame to God's enemy.
We need to remain in the condition and spirit of the Lord's table. Our Christian life should be like the Lord's table. When we go home after the Lord's table, we should continue to praise the Lord. We have to learn not to do too much. On the other hand, we should not be lazy. The point is that we should stop our human doings and be those who simply praise the Lord.