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The secrets of the Son, include His condescension, His stooping down to the level of
man. "What is man that Thou art mindful of him?" Something of this same truth is
found in Psa. 113:, where, after contemplating the high glory of the Lord, the Psalmist
speaks in adoration of the condescension of this same highly exalted One, saying:
"The Lord is above all nations, and His glory above the heavens. Who is like unto the
Lord our God, Who dwelleth on high, Who humbleth Himself to behold the things that
are in heaven and in the earth: He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth the
needy out of the dunghill. That He may set him with princes" (Psa. 113: 4-8).
"He humbled Himself" (Phil. 2: 8), "He hath raised us up together, and made us sit
together in heavenly places" (Eph. 2: 6).
Returning to Psa. 8:, we observe that the condescension of the Lord is manifest in
the choice of "babes and suckling" in perfecting His praise, and that for an explicit
reason:
"That Thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger."
Who is this enemy and avenger? This enemy and avenger is mentioned again in
Psalm 44: 16, and if we turn to I Cor. 15:, where Psa. 8: is quoted by the Apostle,
we shall read:
"For He must reign till He hath put all enemies under His feet, The last enemy that
shall be destroyed is death" (I Cor. 15: 25, 26).
Or, again, if we turn to Heb. 2: where the Apostle quotes Psa. 8:, we read:
"Forasmuch as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise
took part of the same: that through death He might destroy him that had the power of
death, that is the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime
subject to bondage" (Heb. 2: 14, 15).
The enemy and avenger, moreover is not far to seek in Eph. 1: and 2: Psa. 8: is
once again quoted (Eph. 1: 22) and he is called "the prince of the power of the air" in
Eph. 2: 2. Further light is found by realizing that the word "still" in the phrase "still the
enemy and the avenger" is the Hebrew shabath "to cause to keep sabbath". The word is
found in the first place in Gen. 2: 2, 3. It is used in the sense of causing something to
cease in such passages as:
"I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease" (Isa. 13: 11).
"How hath the oppressor ceased?" (Isa. 14: 4).
"He maketh wars to cease" (Psa. 46: 9).
The epistle to the Hebrews declares:
"There remaineth therefore a rest (sabbatismos a keeping of sabbath) to the people of
God" (Heb. 4: 9).
When the Psalmist contemplated the heavens, he exclaimed:
"What is man that Thou art mindful of him? or the son of man that Thou visitest
him?" (Psa. 8: 4).