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I. THE ESTIMATE WE MAKE OF MAN'S PLACE IN GOD'S UNIVERSE DEPENDS UPON THE CRITERION BY WHICH WE JUDGE. There is a sense in which, viewed as a physical force in the world of matter, man is nothing.

II. IT BECOMES NECESSARY, THEREFORE, TO MEASURE MAN'S PLACE AND IMPORTANCE IN GOD'S UNIVERSE BY ALTOGETHER OTHER STANDARDS.

1. If we contemplate man simply as a being of intelligence, the scale begins to turn. The fact of a thinking mind in man puts him above sun and moon and stars. Mind is above matter, intelligence above force.

2. The importance of man in the universe is greatly heightened when we advance from the mental to the moral. "Two objects," said Kant, "fill my soul with ever-increasing admiration and — Above us the starry heaven, within us the moral law." Man is a member of the kingdom of spirits. He is capable of virtue and of sin. He is a free being, capable of self-improvement and self-destruction. He can contend with his Maker.

3. Man as a sinner is of special importance. A creature who sins always makes himself of importance. An offending member of a family assumes a significance he did not have before. Viewed simply as a sinner, man looms up in the Divine government above the stars.

4. A sufferer is a being of importance in God's universe. He is worthy of God's thought and visitation. However feeble, and obscure in rank, if he suffers, and is liable to suffer forever, he becomes of importance in the Divine government.

5. The crowning proof of man's greatness and worth must be taken from God's own estimate. That is found in the sacrifice that God has made to restore man to the high place from which he has fallen. The moon and the stars cost nothing — the redemption of the soul cost God's Only Begotten Son.Inferences:

1. The reasonableness of the fact that God is mindful of us.

2. The real greatness of man as a sinner lies in his penitence, contrition, confession.

3. If a man is worth so much to God, he surely ought to be of great value to himself.

4. If man is so important a creature as a sinner and a sufferer, how much more so as a Christian!

(James Brand, D. D.)

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KJV: When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;

WEB: When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have ordained;