Ps 8:5

“He has made us "a little lower than the angels," I mean, by reason of death: but even that little we have now recovered. There is nothing therefore to hinder us from becoming nigh to the angels, if we will. Let us then will it, let us will it, and having exercised ourselves thoroughly, let us return honor to the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, now and ever, world without end, Amen.”

“Therefore was the son of man first visited in the person of the very Lord Man, born of the Virgin Mary. Of whom, by reason of the very weakness of the flesh, which the Wisdom of God vouchsafed to bear, and the humiliation of the Passion, it is justly said, "You have lowered Him a little lower than the Angels" [Psalm 8:5].”

“From here on the humility and glory of the Lord Savior is related. He was made less not because of any necessity inherent in his role as servant, but by his loving free wish; as the Apostle says, "He emptied himself, taking the form of a servant." The psalm continues with the words "a little less than angels," because Christ took up the cross to win the salvation of all, since it was for this reason that the Creator of angels was made less than angels. The words "a little less" are well stated, since he took on himself a mortal body, though he had no sin. He "was crowned with glory and honor" when, after his utterly miraculous resurrection, as God he was exalted in as much as he had been made man, and he received the trust of the whole world.”

“What is man, that Thou art mindful of him? And the son of man, that Thou visitest him? – What is man! is the antithesis of How Excellent is Thy Name! for the latter expression is intended to magnify, but this to depreciate. He says, When I consider Thy heavens, the moon and the stars, great creations and intelligences as they are, (I exclaim) What is man! that Thou dost remember him and hast imparted to him some of the glory of the higher incorporeal intelligences; for even in the case of those that are corporeal I see their great bodily size and relative superiority, and that man is as nothing compared with them. And he says, the work of Thy fingers, and also which Thou hast ordained, to confute the scoffers who say the world is eternal; therefore he says work and Thou hast ordained, for Thou didst make them all new. And he says: I will consider of Thy heavens, although only the nearest is visible to us, because they are concentric up to the eighth, which is the sphere of the Zodiac, and because they are all transparent, as an object in a glass vessel which is visible from outside. And the learned Rabbi Abraham ben Ezra, of blessed memory, has written that the Psalmist says Thy fingers because the fingers are ten in number and the spheres are ten – seven firmaments containing the seven planets, the sphere of the Zodiac, the ninth sphere above that of the Zodiac, and the tenth the Throne of Glory. What is man that Thou art mindful of him? And the son of man that Thou visitest him? repeating the idea with a change of terms. Or he means to say by that Thou art mindful of him, that Thou didst remember him at his creation and didst impart to him some of Thy glory. And Thou visitest him – all the days of his life Thou watchest over him and his deeds to reward every man according to his ways.”

“"O Lord, our Lord, how glorious is Your name over all the earth! You have made him little less than the angels, and crowned him with glory and honor." And in truth this name is admirable in so far as it refers to the eternal God, for it implies a true distinction of Persons together with unity of essence. Likewise, it is admirable in so far as it refers to God made man, because the three natures are conjoined: the highest with the lowest, without debasement; the first with the last, without alteration; the simple with the composite, without composition.”

“In the New Testament, after the universal scripture and the course of time, Christ was formed, as was man on the sixth day, that He may "have dominion over the fish of the sea," and "the birds of the air." As the Psalm says, "what is man that You should be mindful of him, or the son of man that You should care for him? You have made him little less than the angels, and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him rule over the works of your hands, putting all things under his feet: all sheep and oxen, yes, and the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, the fishes of the sea," etc. And in order that it be understood of Christ, the Apostle says: "You have made him little less than the angels, and crowned him with glory and honor." And there follows: "But we do see Him who was made 'a little lower than the angels,' namely, Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of His having suffered death." Man was created out of a virgin soil that had never received blood, which signifies Christ born of the Virgin; and as Eve was formed out of Adam's side, so also the Church, out of the side of Christ. But since Christ never sinned, how can Adam's transgression correspond to Him? There must be transference from the head to the body.”

“But there follows concerning man in comparison to the angels, to whom man is found to be close. "You have diminished him." In the angels the image of God is found through a simple intuition of truth, without inquiry; but in man through discursive reasoning; and therefore in man it is somewhat diminished. Hence it is that men are called angels: Mal. 2: "They shall seek the law from his mouth, because he is the angel of the Lord of hosts." Man is also corruptible, but only slightly; because at some time man in the fatherland will know all things without discursive reasoning; and he will be incorruptible in body: 1 Cor. 15: "This corruptible body must put on incorruption." Next he shows the clemency of God toward man by comparison with man himself, when he says "with glory and honor," etc. To be crowned belongs to kings. God made man as the king of lower things, and there is "glory," namely the brightness of the divine image: and this is a certain crown of man: 1 Cor. 11: "Man is the image and glory of God": Ps. 4: "The light of your countenance, O Lord, is signed upon us." But he is honored who is not subject to anything. For man is subject to no natural bodily creature as regards his soul, neither in his coming into being nor in his progress: not in his coming into being, because he is not produced by a creature, and he acts freely; nor does he perish with the body; and in this the honor of man consists; and therefore it says in Wis. 2: "Nor did they judge the honor of holy souls," etc., up to "he made him": Ps. 48: "Man, when he was in honor, did not understand," etc. The second is the passion. "You diminished him" on account of the passion. Heb. 2: "Him who was made a little lower than the angels," etc. In the Hebrew it reads: "And you diminish him a little from God": because he was joined to God in the unity of person; but diminished on account of the passibility he assumed. The third is the benefit of the resurrection in the honor shown to the apostles, which he enumerates through the passion: Phil. 2: "That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow," etc. Jn. 5: "That all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father."”

“Him. The prophet considers the nature of man at such a distance from the divinity. Being, nevertheless, united with it in Jesus Christ, it is raised far above the angels, Hebrews ii. 6. (Berthier) — When we reflect on the meanness of our nature, on the one hand, and on what God has done for it on the other, we are lost in astonishment. The pagans were aware of the corporal infirmities of man, (Seneca Consol. xi.) but not of his spiritual disorders. Hebrew has here, the son of Adam, or one of the lowest class; and not of ish, which means a person of nobility, vir, Psalm iv. 4. (Calmet) — Yet Christ applies to himself the former appellation, to shew us a pattern of humility. (Haydock) — St. Augustine inquires, what difference there is between man or the son. The Hebrew v, means, likewise, and; yet or would have been better, Exodus xxi. 16. — “Whether he have sold him, or he be in his hand.” (Amama)”

“God has placed man next in dignity to angels, and but a little lower, and has crowned him with the empire of the world. glory and honour--are the attributes of royal dignity (Psa 21:5; Psa 45:3). The position assigned man is that described (Gen 1:26-28) as belonging to Adam, in his original condition, the terms employed in detailing the subjects of man's dominion corresponding with those there used. In a modified sense, in his present fallen state, man is still invested with some remains of this original dominion. It is very evident, however, by the apostle's inspired expositions (Heb 2:6-8; Co1 15:27-28) that the language here employed finds its fulfilment only in the final exaltation of Christ's human nature. There is no limit to the "all things" mentioned, God only excepted, who "puts all things under." Man, in the person and glorious destiny of Jesus of Nazareth, the second Adam, the head and representative of the race, will not only be restored to his original position, but exalted far beyond it. "The last enemy, death," through fear of which, man, in his present estate, is "all his lifetime in bondage" [Heb 2:15], "shall be destroyed" [Co1 15:26]. Then all things will have been put under his feet, "principalities and powers being made subject to him" [Pe1 3:22]. This view, so far from being alien from the scope of the passage, is more consistent than any other; for man as a race cannot well be conceived to have a higher honor put upon him than to be thus exalted in the person and destiny of Jesus of Nazareth. And at the same time, by no other of His glorious manifestations has God more illustriously declared those attributes which distinguish His name than in the scheme of redemption, of which this economy forms such an important and essential feature. In the generic import of the language, as describing man's present relation to the works of God's hands, it may be regarded as typical, thus allowing not only the usual application, but also this higher sense which the inspired writers of the New Testament have assigned it.”