The prayer we recite as we return the Torah to the ark is a triumphant march in which G-d is celebrated as a storm god, shaking the hills and forests with the power of His voice (kol ad-nai).
The psalm begins with a call to the “heavenly beings.” It ends with reference to the Temple and the people of Israel, whom G-d will bless with strength and peace. On one level, one could imagine that the psalmist (possibly King David) was trying to juxtapose the heavenly and the earthly, thus creating a sense of wholeness (all of creation, from top to bottom, recognizes the power of G-d).
But it is equally likely that the psalm is intended to shift the spiritual emphasis from heaven to earth. Contrasting them, rather than combining them. According to this interpretation, in the beginning it is the angels who praise G-d. But because of the extraordinary intervention of G-d into the human world—not least through the revelation of Torah—praise of the Divine is now primarily, if not solely, within the human domain.
This is perhaps what the psalmist meant when he said that human beings were created just a little below angels.
On the other hand, it could be argued that our praise of G-d is even better than the praise offered by the “heavenly beings.” Indeed, one could find many rabbinic references to this view. The angels praise G-d because it is built into their nature. It is functionally automatic. Now, they may be able to sing in perfect harmony and all that, but they are only doing what they are programmed to do. Human beings, on the other hand, pray because we choose to do so. We may not always have the right words to express ourselves, but the words we use are the words we have chosen to use. We may not be able to fully grasp the majestic qualities of G-d, but our words are a reflection of the theological search we have chosen to make.
One might even go so far as to say that we are the chosen people because we are the choosing people. So the next time we choose to go to shul, and open the siddur, and daven to the best of our ability, we should keep in mind that we are participating in a grand and audacious venture. Our voice, our kol, is as nothing compared to the kol ad-nai of which this psalm speaks. But what it has going for it is that it is our kol, and notwithstanding our limited vocabulary, and distractions, and our singing out of tune, and all the other foibles and weaknesses of humanity, the fact that we are raising it in praise of Hashem makes it a powerful voice indeed.