We have been dealing with the book of Hebrews and have seen so far that God has spoken to us in these last days not through a set of rules and regulations, nor has He spoken to us a message for moral betterment or better living, but His message is His Son.
OBSERVATION LEVEL
Today the passage for study is Hebrews 2:5-9.
5It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking. 6But there is a place where someone has testified:
“What is man that you are mindful of him,
the son of man that you care for him?
7You made him a little lower than the angels;
you crowned him with glory and honor
8 and put everything under his feet.”
In putting everything under him, God left nothing that is not subject to him. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to him. 9But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
As always, read through the passage a number of times. Observe every detail the author has related to us. Many times when we read a Scriptural passage we are familiar with, we read it through personalized glasses that are influenced by our own religious or denominational background. During this level of observation, be sincere in handling Scripture. Do not be quick to interpret. I will wait for you till you gather all the details in the passage.
Now, that you are ready with the content, take some time to observe and see if there is any structure in the passage that will help you see the flow of thoughts. See what you can come up with yourself before looking at what I have done below.
Structure:
UNDERSTANDING LEVEL
It’s question time! It is at this point you will realize how much you have really overlooked. Asking questions will always expand your understanding of Scriptures. You may post your questions at the end in the comment section, if they aren’t answered already.
We can gather a lot from the Emphasis section above. It is this section that will help you to tune into the intensity and the spirit of the Scriptures. They reveal the emotions of the Scriptural text.
Let’s now go through the three blocks in the structure:
BLOCK I
The author uses a familiar Old Testament (Tanakh) reference from the Psalms. In the first block, we see the comparison made between the angels and man. We are told that, though man was made a little lower than the angels, he was crowned with glory and honor, and everything was put under his feet.
BLOCK II
In block II, the author brings in the contradiction by saying, “Yet at present we do not see everything subject to man”. If this doesn’t apply to man, then who does it really apply to? It brings us to Block III
BLOCK III
“But we see Jesus…” We see that this Psalm the author quotes is a prophetic, Messianic Psalm pointing to the Christ. Christ was made a little lower than angels when he became related to the human race, but now He is crowned with glory and honor because He suffered death, so that by the grace of God He might suffer death for everyone.
The question that came to my mind was this,what is man that you are mindful of Him and the son of man that you care for Him the same cross references in Psalms 8:4-6 and was David referring to Jesus here and why did he do so? Sid has already answered my question and it really opened my eyes to a wider understanding on why the Psalms was written and why did David refer to Jesus then? This is for each one of you who have the same doubt to just ponder on and deeply understand the correlation
Thank you Betty for posting this question here for the sake of others.
Something we need to realize as we study the book of Psalms is that, primarily, the Psalms testify to Christ (in fact, all of Scripture does; Luke 24:44, John 5:39-40). Most of us approach Psalms just to receive comfort and peace or to read something we can relate to emotionally. Now there is nothing wrong with this, but if this is all we do, then I should say, we have missed the first and foremost purpose of the Psalms.
Psalm 4:6-8 is often used to relate to mere man. But the writer of Hebrews uses this passage to reveal the supremacy of Christ who was made a little lower than angels through his humanity.
There are in fact whole Psalms where the Spirit of the Messiah speaks to the Father. For example, Psalm 22, contains real intense words coming from the Spirit of Christ directed to the Father. It is probable that David did share the same emotions when he wrote it, but I wonder if David realized that he would be expressing the agony and anguish of the Messiah through his groanings.
Take time to read through Psalm 22 (especially Psalm 22:1, Psalm 22:7, Psalm 22:16, Psalm 22:18, Psalm 22:22*).
Psalm 16:10 is quoted a lot by the NT writers to point to the resurrection of Christ from the dead.
I encourage you to observe and read the Psalms from this perspective to see the revelation of Christ. I assure you, you will be amazed!
* In the coming article, you will see how the author has used Psalm 22:22 to emphasize the Messiah being one of us, our brother.