Before I start, I want to lay out a hermeneutical principle: we are to find Christ throughout the Old Testament (John 5:39; Luke 24:27). Now let's look at the relevant verses of Psalm 8, first in a proper translationHow about how the Csb and Niv handles Psalm 8?
Psalm 8:4-5, NKJV. 'What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you visit him?' You have made him a little lower than the angels, and you have crowned him with honour and glory. You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands.'
The point here is that the term 'Son of Man' is a divine, Messianic title (Daniel 7:13-14) and the name that the Lord Jesus most frequently uses of Himself (e.g. Mark 14:62). The writer to the Hebrews quotes Psalm 8 to this effect: 'But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with honour and glory.....' (Hebrews 2:9).
Psalm 8:4-5, NIV 2011. 'What is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honour. You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their feet.'
The NIV has obliterated the term 'Son of Man and placed the whole thing into the plural to avoid the hate-word 'man' which is so unacceptable to feminists. So any possible reference to the Lord Jesus has disappeared. I say that a translation has no right to do that. If the reader does not wish to find Christ in Psalm 8, that is his option, but the translation should simply place the text, as literally as possible in front of the reader.
Psalm 8:4-5, CSB. 'What is a human being that you remember him, a son of man that you look after him. You made him a little less than God and crowned him with glory and honour. You made him ruler over the works of your hands.'
This is clearly better than the NIV in that it is still possible to find the Lord Jesus in the text. I dislike the translation of Elohim, (lit. 'mighty ones') as 'God' here since although the Lord Jesus took on the form of a bondservant (Philippians 2:7), He never ceased to be fully God. The Septuagint, Syriac and Targum all give 'angels.'
