Creation is immense and God made it all, and the psalmist leads anyone listening to the majestic distance of God -- and yet, yet, yet, even though immense and majestic, God both notices and pays attention to humans. The immensity contrasts with seeming insignificance -- until one pays attention to the task of humans.The psalmist says these things about the task of humans:1. They are just shy of God (8:5). Yes, that is exactly what the psalmist says.2. They are crowned -- surely here the psalmist is thinking back to Genesis 1-2 -- with "glory" and "honor" (8:5). That is, humans -- Eikons of God -- are kings.3. They are assigned the task of ruling over all things in creation: sheep and oxen, birds and water creatures.4. The Fall did not undo this task.5. Any NT reading shows that Jesus did precisely this: as Lord (1 Cor 15:27; Heb 2:6-8).This is the task of humans in creation: to rule on behalf of God as God's gloried and honored Eikons. This is not the task of exploitation but the task of governing God's good world on God's behalf.
Scot McKnight reminds us that we were created just shy of God for a reason. We were created to rule over creation on behalf of God. Our exploitation of that good purpose is sin.
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