Man's Royal Dominion: Self-Mastery Under Elohim

Psalm 8:6 declares that Elohim made man to have dominion—a word whose full weight we have scarcely measured. Joseph Parker, D.D., asks: Is there not stirring in the human heart the recognition that I was meant to be a king? Man was ordained to exercise dominion over the enticements of matter, to command even the most fascinating spectacles to stand back. True kingship means dominion over the satisfactions of sense.

Parker calls it heroic when a man declares to a enslaving habit: "I have done with thee—you leave now!" This is what Elohim intends man to become. Yet self-control remains the great aim of every life. What good is dominion over external things if we cannot hold ourselves in check?

But dominion extends beyond self-mastery to creation itself. Psalm 8:7-8 places all creatures under human feet. This stewardship demands justice. The lower creation cannot be too insignificant for Elohim to care for or for us to protect. When we inflict cruelty upon the meanest creature, we commit unwarranted aggression against what the old divines called His "rectorial rights." Elohim feels injustice to His creation as sensitively as injury to His own person. Our dominion is not domination—it is responsible care, reflecting the character of Adonai Himself.