Rabbi Roodyn

In this pasuk the Malbim returns to the claims of the apikorsim who say that the heavenly spheres are more important or significant than mortal man.

This pasuk  כי אראה שמיך, when I behold Your heavens, elaborates on that claim. The word שמים, one of the first words in the Torah, is the plural of the word שָׁם, there, which implies a great distance. The planets and the stars are elevated high above our lowly planet and are far more numerous and spread out than we can ever imagine.

These heavens are מעשה אצבעותיך, the handiwork of Your fingers. The Malbim explains that the difference between the work if ones hands rather than the word of one’s fingers is that handiwork can also include actions done by a shaliach. However, work done by one’s own fingers can only come from the craftsman himself. From the awesomeness and beauty of the heavenly spheres one can clearly see that this is the work of Hashem’s Fingers and not the handiwork and not the work of any intermediary.

He then explains the phrase ירח וכוכבים אשר כוננת, the moon and stars that You have established in a similar vein. The word כונן implies something that is strong, established and enduring. They are different to anything we experience in this world, where we see mortal beings go through the cycle of birth, life and ultimately death and decomposition.

The awesomeness of the universe leads us to exclaim

מָה אֱנוֹשׁ כִּי תִזְכְּרֶנּוּ וּבֶן אָדָם כִּי תִפְקְדֶנּוּ:

what is man that You should remember him, and the son of man that You should be mindful of him?