ANGEL 10 - Psalms 8:4-5

OK, let’s pull our focus back in on verses four and five, where we come in contact with one of Mormonism’s distinctive doctrines about angels.

After contrasting the littleness of Man with the vastness of God’s creations, the Psalm brings up some surprising signs of our importance in the scheme of things. 

·         God is “mindful” of us.  The Hebrew is תִזְכְּרֶנּוְּ “you will remember/recall him.”

·         God “visits” us.  The Hebrew is תִפְקְדֶנּוְּ “you will visit him.”  The range of meanings of “visit” in Hebrew includes “to go see,” “to look after,” and “to take care of.”

·         God “crowns” us with glory and honor.

·         And lastly he “makes us a little lower than the angels.”  The Hebrew here is more complicated than this simple English phrase implies –

First, the word the King James renders as “angels” is simply the word “elohim,” usually translated (according to context) as “God” or “gods.”  Second, the verb in Hebrew is

וַתְּחַסְּרֵהוְּ

Vat’hassrehu.

“And he caused him to lack” 

One way of rendering the literal sense of this phrase might be “And he caused him to lack a little from the gods.”  Perhaps the phrase could be understood as a description of the limitations of our present mortal state compared to our pre-existent status where we were clearly and unequivocally the “sons of God” (Job 38:7), part of God’s family.  Some biblical scholars have observed that in some passages elohim seems to refer to a divine council which God the Father addresses.  One example is found in Psalms 82.  Interestingly enough in Psalm 82 the Lord (who judges among the “gods” – Elohim – verse 1) addresses the “gods” (elohim) or “children of the most high” and tells them about a future state of mortality (v. 6-7).  To a Latter Day Saint a careful study of the wording of both of these passages from Psalms evokes powerfully the doctrine of a pre-existent Council in Heaven where God’s children agreed to a plan that called for the spirits of the sons of God and children of the Most High to be born into a mortal body on this earth.

Unlike most Christians, Mormons do not view angels and men as being separate orders of beings.  The word angel simply means messenger.  In Mormonism we consider an angel could be a spirit not yet born, a spirit of one who has passed from this world, or a human being who has died and now has a resurrected body.  In all three cases the messenger would belong to the same species as ourselves – the children of the Most High.