Psalm 24

a psalm of David

⁰¹          The earth is the Lord’s,

and all it contains.

                        The world,

                                    and those who live in it.

⁰²             He has [raised] it above the seas,

and above the floods has fixed it.

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Praise the Lord God & Creator

For the Lord’s Day:  the 9^th of January 2005

Introduction:  There are many commentators who would impose upon the biblical writers a primitive understanding of how the universe was founded, established and arranged.  A common misconception of the primitive myths was that of a flat earth resting upon a primeval ocean penetrated by the foundations of the mountains.  At a time when those ideas first began to hold sway, Joseph A Alexander  observes:  “the idea is not that of subterraneous waters bearing up the land, but simply that the habitable earth, raised above the surface of the waters which surround it...”

 

In another popular idea, several of the more liberal commentators believe that this grand hymn of tribute to the Creator God is similar in construction to the mythic hymns of neighboring kingdoms wherein the local deities were celebrated as bringing order out of primeval chaos.  Again, this is sheer poppycock, the first verses in this celebration poem is nothing more than a reminder that on the third day, the good Lord separated the dry land from the waters of the earth.  In this regard, Alexander makes our first and essential point: “the sense of the two verses, taken in connection, is that since Jehovah is the God who collected the waters, and caused the dry land to appear, he is the rightful sovereign of the habitable earth, and of those whom it sustains.”

 

Development:  To make a more certain division between the two halves of verse one; let me use a poor example.  Like many property owners, we have on our 6.42 acre lot – usable as well as unusable commercial space.  Probably as much as sixty per cent of our property is not a major asset for our primary purpose.  After all, we have something of a minimal flood plain on both sides of our creek, and the steep hillsides at the back do certainly limit constructive profitable use for us in an ordinary sense.  The majority of our useable property is up here along the roadside, and yes, we have been able by the use of free dirt to expand the potential for parking and play grounds.

 

All of our property is in a sense our good earth, given into our care and management, but our useable world is that closest to the highway and that which is most easily accessed in ordinary clothes and dress shoes.  To explore the remainder, one must be prepared to dress for hiking, climbing and even wading.  Of course, such endeavors are profitable to the body and even a mind that appreciates natural beauty and limited solitude in the woods and streams of nature.

 

With that idea in mind, we can begin to appreciate the vast panorama of real estate in this fair land of ours.  Despite, the multitude of suburbs and shopping malls, barely five per cent of the American landscape is developed at this point in time.  And if we write that appreciation larger to include the sum total of God’s grander and greater creation we can realize however little we can appreciate it, the absolute fullness of the created order.

 

Henry Morris in an excellent commentary upon the book of Genesis gives us a small hint as to the moving of the Holy Spirit in the presence of the waters before the dry land and the stellar hosts of heaven emerged.  When speaking of the movement of the Spirit, he writes that:  “in modern scientific terminology, the best translation would probably be ‘vibrated.’”  For more common folk, we can better envision a stirring of the waters as the universe was being “energized” in Morris’ vocabulary.  Now remember, like Job – Mr Morris was not there to see the creation coming together, but what he is getting at is a lot like the separation of curds and whey in the process of making butter and cheese from raw milk.  And yet the divine “vibrated stirring” establishes not only the firm land of the planet, but also the heavenly bodies nearby and further on out into the end of the universe.

 

In the striking scene set before us, the most useable portions of the universe for human habitation were being separated from the rest of the known universe with a divine purpose in mind.  And that purpose was to separate an inhabitable world from the uninhabitable.  There is a new science abroad in the land, wherein the creationists are arguing the voluminous evidence that our little corner of the universe actually was created for habitation within very specified and narrow limits.  Time after time, they have noted that if the speed of the earth’s spinning, or the chemical allowances for molecules – indeed if any of numerous arrangements were even minutely off, life as we know it would be impossible.

 

With all of that said, let us make our second point clear.  In the two lines of verse one, we sense first the absolute totality of all creation being set in order by the power of God.  Second, there is a purpose in all this divine activity and that is to create a habitation for all of those who ever have or will inhabit this small planet.

 

Calvin comments on the “fullness” of the earth that it includes “all the riches with which the earth is adorned” and then he goes further to suggest that “the Psalmist intends by the expression men themselves, who are the most illustrious ornament and glory of the earth.”  Consider that precious comment in comparison to the fur-righteous animal lovers and tree huggers who would hope to remove mankind from most of the earth, so that the planet may return to a more pristine paradise!

 

This is not what the Lord God of heaven and earth intends.  After all, He encouraged Adam and Eve to not only fill the earth, but also to manage and subdue it.  He only did the harder part of setting aside livable real estate.  David observes in the context of this grand vision of creation that:  “He has [raised] it above the seas, and above the floods has fixed it.”

 

I use the word [raised] here in the sense of an old hymn that reports “He made the mountains rise.”  And except for the one great flood, He has set a limit to the place of the waters of the seas, oceans and rivers.  Now, those are not absolute limits of course.  You can walk down along our stream and trace out where the stream once flowed, and where it still overflows from time to time.  However, the banks and hills contain the waters to their proper course.

 

Application:  And of course, we are all too familiar with the catastrophic tsunami from which those countries on the rim of the Indian Ocean are still recovering.  Five million people may have been affected.  And in some of the remote islands and coastal areas – whole cultures centered in a handful of villages may have been completely overwhelmed by the flood.  How many were swept out to sea will remain unknown and yet the visible body count continues to climb as relief forces find their way into every nook and cranny of the coasts.

 

And yet, we can undertake relief efforts on a grand scale, because predictably, the waters have returned to their appointed place.  Even while we undertake the unprecedented cleanup effort, we know that the land can be restored to productivity and even prosperity.  The sea knows its limits and only by divine allowance, was a fallen nature allowed to rage. 

 

I read in one account that some Christian groups were worried that too many converts were taken into glory and that thereby the visible church in that part of the world was tragically weakened.  But, such is life in a fallen world, some thousands are swept away to damnation, but others are taken up into heaven to spend eternity with our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Our last lesson for this morning is the hardest.  And that is this:  the whole human population of the world is the Lord’s to manage as He wills.  He is God after all, even as David celebrates in this wondrous Psalm.  Further, we may add that every good thing we have and know is given by His hand.

 

Earlier this week, we were hit by the harshest ice storm in many years.  Of the seventy-five Blue Spruce trees that I had planted thirty-some years ago, fully ten per cent are probably damaged beyond repair.  Sadly, this happens from time to time.  One year back in the eighties, we lost half a dozen decorative trees planted by the previous owners.  I took pictures of the damage before chopping them up into fuel for the wood stove.  Later on, I discovered that the damage was a tax deductible catastrophe.  And once the value of the wood had been subtracted – there remained a healthy unexpected allowance towards the year’s expenses!

 

Now, I do not mean to imply that the IRS is always in the business of turning tragedy into profit, but the financial facts of life can often illustrate the working out of God’s providence in the midst of apparent natural and manmade disaster.  Earlier in the year, I had announced in a public place that the Lord God of heaven and earth was sovereign over the life and death of every human.  One person was put off and I was charged in the name of the State to mind my manners and not worry people about eternal facts which must be faced by every man, woman and child.

 

I have no doubt that those who were intended to hear my voice, did indeed hear it and are the better for it.  And we who are here gathered have given the Lord’s word a better hearing than the world around us.  So, in the course of hearing God’s claim to both created earth and habitable world, let us give Him the honor due His holy name, and thereby prove ourselves to understand not only the introduction to this grand nature hymn of Israel, but also to the theological details that must follow after these verses.  To God alone be the glory in this His creation.  Amen.

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PREACHING RESOURCES

Alexander, Joseph A.  Commentary on Psalms.

Calvin, John:  Commentary on Book of Psalms.

Delitzsch, F:  Commentary on the Old Testament – Psalms.

Kidner, Derek.  Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries: Psalms 1-72.

Spurgeon, C.H:  Treasury of David.

The Westminster Confession & Catechisms.

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