King James Version, with Nii Okai's journal notes · 1 note
1O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens.
2Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.
3When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;
4What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
5For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.
The word translated angels is actually elohim, the same word for God and the same word translated judges in certain verses.
I have heard some argue, and some say, that it's best translated "you have made him a little lower than God"... I think I have believed that myself in time past.
But looking at the whole passage contextually, translating elohim as angels seems best.
David starts off by talking of how frail and insignificant man is in the frame of God's creation when compared to the moon, stars ✨ etc.
Yet in his frailness God has made man head of the earth 🌎. And "had made him lower than angels" fits best because through the passage, God's covenant name of Lord is used.
So if David wanted to say he has made him lower than himself, either he would have said "you have made him lower than yourself" or "... lower than the Lord God",
but chose to use the word God, and so it's best understood as the angels, who are in a sense considered as divine.
6Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:
7All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field;
8The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.
9O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!