“What a piece of work is human"?
Ps 8:4-6
If any of us make it to the moon we may come across a tiny token of the first human visit, which contains a fragment from the chapter of the psalms we get to read today.
When Apollo 11 landed in 1969, a small disc inscribed with goodwill messages from various nations of the earth included a message from Pope Paul VI, with the words of Psalm 8. Buzz Aldrin, one of the astronauts, and an elder in his Presbyterian church, also recited from this psalm in a video transmission during Apollo’s return trip to earth. He focused on the psalm’s most famous lines:
כִּֽי־אֶרְאֶ֣ה שָׁ֭מֶיךָ מַעֲשֵׂ֣ה אֶצְבְּעֹתֶ֑יךָ יָרֵ֥חַ וְ֝כוֹכָבִ֗ים אֲשֶׁ֣ר כּוֹנָֽנְתָּה׃ מָה־אֱנ֥וֹשׁ כִּֽי־תִזְכְּרֶ֑נּוּ וּבֶן־אָ֝דָ֗ם כִּ֣י תִפְקְדֶֽנּוּ׃ וַתְּחַסְּרֵ֣הוּ מְּ֭עַט מֵאֱלֹהִ֑ים וְכָב֖וֹד וְהָדָ֣ר תְּעַטְּרֵֽהוּ׃
“When I behold Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
the moon and stars that You set in place,
what are human beings that You have been mindful of them,
mortals that You have taken note of them,
that You have made them little less than divine,
and adorned them with glory and majesty?”
Ps 8:4-6
There’s stunning tension here between human humility and hubris. On the one hand - we are but creatures in a vast cosmos that predates us and will likely outlast our species. On the other hand - the human achievements, including the writing of the psalms and the space rockets that reach the moon are in many ways our greatest glory.
It’s no wonder that these lines will echo in Hamlet’s famous speech, and also, curiously, sung in the musical “Hair”.
Do we matter more than other creatures? Will AI consider us, one day, mere obstacles, as humans have been treating nature?
“What are human beings - that You have been mindful of us?”
The Hebrew word used in this verse for ‘human’ is telling. The word is “Enosh” - and while it is a word used to describe our species it also has a very specific origin story. In Genesis 4, after the Cain and Abel debacle, a new human is born -- Eve and Adam name their son Enosh. “It was during that time that people began to recognize God’s presence.”
Enosh then represents both humility - and hubris. There is a bigger story here, so much greater than us, and yet, what is our responsibility and task as co-creators of this story, guardians of our lives?
Andrew R. Davis, Biblical scholar and theologian, has this response to this perennial question:
“The theology and anthropology of Psalm 8 are reminiscent of Genesis 1, where humans are described as the climax of God’s creation. They are made in God’s image, and the day of their creation is not just good but “very good.” In both Genesis 1 and Psalm 8 this honor comes with commensurate responsibility; humans are called on to imitate God’s dominion by acting as stewards of the created world.
This responsibility is an important reminder when we feel helpless in the face of our present ecological crisis. The problems are so big, and each of us is so small. While acknowledging our smallness, Psalm 8 insists that it is no excuse for passivity. God has given us—humanity as a whole—the tools we need to carry out our vocation of stewardship. The next time you encounter a wonder of nature or stare into the starry night sky, let the words of Psalm 8 give voice to your feeling of awe but also inspire you to action on behalf of God’s creation.”
And in his own unique Zen way, Norman Fisher gives voice to this sense of wonder that unites astronauts, popes, poets and the rest of us as we glimpse the bigger picture of this universe whether God exists or not:
“When I behold the night sky, the work of your fingers
The bright moon and the many-layered stars which you have established
I think:
A woman is so frail and you remember her
A man so small and you think of him
And yet
In you woman and man become as angels
Crowned with a luminous presence
And you have given them care for the works of your hands
Placed the solid growing earth under their feet
Flocks of birds and herds of deer
Oxen and sheep and goats and cows
Soaring birds and darting fishes
All that swims the paths of the sea
O you whom I am ever addressing
Your unsayable named covers heaven and earth”
How can we hold both our human sense of humble awe, along with the necessary need for full responsibility?
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My favourite of all psalms, for reasons of the very tension between creation, human consciousness and human responsibility which you describe here. I also love the circular nature of the poem for aesthetic reasons, starting and ending with the same exclamation about the greatness of G-d.