What is man that You should exalt him, that You should set Your heart upon him,
Significance
Psalm 144:3 asks "O LORD, what is man, that You regard him (מָה־אָדָם וַתֵּדָעֵהוּ, mah-adam vateda'ehu), the son of man that You think of him?" Job 7:17 poses a strikingly similar question with an inverted tone: "What is man that You should exalt him (מָה־אֱנוֹשׁ כִּי תְגַדְּלֶנּוּ, mah-enosh ki tegaddlennu), that You should set Your heart upon him?" Both use the "What is man?" (מָה־אָדָם/מָה־אֱנוֹשׁ) formula, but the psalmist speaks in wonder at divine condescension, while Job speaks in anguish at divine scrutiny. Job wishes God would leave him alone; the psalmist marvels that God attends to him at all. The same vocabulary serves opposite emotional registers, revealing two authentic but contrasting postures before divine attention.
Found via
Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type
Allusion
Connection Method(s)
Contrast — the same "What is man?" formula carries opposite registers: Psalm 144:3 marvels that the LORD regards frail man, while Job 7:17 groans that God's relentless attention will not look away; wonder and anguish stand in deliberate tension until the question settles on the Son of Man, in whom divine attention to man is finally and wholly grace (cf. Heb 2:6-9).