You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. – Psalm 8:5

Today’s Scripture Reading (February 7, 2013): Psalm 8

We like to know our position in society. Recently I was in a leadership meeting and we were discussing the flow of information – and community – through the organization. And our first attempt was a traditional pyramid structure that started with a leadership and then spread out to the leadership team and the committed people and then to the fringe of the organization and finally to the community whom we serve. But that word “serve” caused us problems. So we inverted the triangle. Now the leader was at the bottom and the people that we served were positioned at the top. But the diagram still did not seem to be quite right. So we discarded the triangle for a circle; one that flowed out like ripples fleeing from the stone’s entry into the pond. It was better, but maybe still not quite right.

So maybe it is not surprising that have traditionally struggled with this passage.  It has been translated that we were created a little lower than the angels, although the New International Version softens the translation by calling them the “heavenly beings.” But the word at the heart of the controversy is that the word that is translated “angels” in the King James Version or “heavenly beings” in the New International Version (actually the latest edition of the New International Version reverts back to the word “angel” for this verse.) It is the word “'elohiym” - a word that could be translated either an angel or a dweller of heaven, but the problem would seem to be that in practice it never is. By far the most common translation of “'elohiym” in the Bible  is “God.”

The reality is that it would seem that we were created a little lower than God – we truly are his sons and daughters. But we rebelled. We fell from the place that we had been created for – and now we are simply trying to find our way back. What is hard for us to understand is that God, through Christ, has already restored us. The only battle that is really left for us is the one that is inside our own minds. We need to believe that we were created sons and daughters of the living God and co-heirs with Christ, and that because of Christ – we really have been restored to that exalted position.     

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Psalm 9 & 10