… for he founded it on the seas and established it on the waters. – Psalm 24:2

Today’s Scripture Reading (April 19, 2019): Psalm 24

The ancient idea about the universe is that it is made of water. It is an obvious deduction. After all, the water that we see around us is often blue, and that is also the color of the sky. So the sky must be made of water. And then, there are times that water falls to earth. Ancient people actually believed that the water that was above sometimes leaked through, replenishing the water that was below the earth. The cycle of evaporation and condensation was unknown; there was merely the water above and the water below.

But the proof extends even further. If you live on the earth and walk far enough in any direction, you will eventually arrive at water. So as far as the ancient people were concerned, the liquid stuff surrounds us. Even worse, from their interaction with the water that surrounds us, it seemed that the realm of water was one ruled by chaos. Boats often went out into the water. They fished and brought back food. Boats provided transportation to islands that could not be reached in any other way. Boats provided shortcuts; ways to get to other places quicker than if you had to journey over land. But boats were also vulnerable to the chaos that existed in the water. And sometimes, especially if the boat went too far away from land, the boats succumbed to the disorder and never returned.

The miracle of all of this is that we live in the space between the waters. Not just the water that is above and below, but the water that is in the north and south, and the water that is in the east and the west.

David had never seen a globe. He actually had never even seen an ocean. David had seen the Mediterranean Sea, and maybe the Red Sea. He had seen smaller bodies of water like the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. He knew the chaos of the water that he had seen. And leaning on other ancient teachers, David was aware of the water that surrounded him. He also understood the Hebrew account of creation, where God separates the water, leaving this empty space in which live. He knew that God then placed the land in the empty space, a place where we could live. He established the land in the empty space between the waters. And to David that was a miracle.

And it is. David may have had his science wrong, but he was right that the earth’s existence is perfection – God’s perfection. We live in the “Goldilocks Zone” in our solar system. It is in the perfect place for life, just the right distance from the sun and the other planets. And it is all because God founded the earth and established it right where it needed to be.   

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 1 Chronicles 16