By contrast, the Golden Gate Bridge withstands enormous tides and currents and survived the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake unscathed in part because it sits on solid foundations, at one end on a bedrock ledge and at the other on a massive pier the size of a football field.
Israel looked at mountains as eloquent expressions of God’s power and faithfulness. When so much of our social and political world is in flux, it is re-assuring to be on solid ground and the poet credits this stability to God.
The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.
The world and all its people belong to him.
For he laid the earth’s foundation on the seas
and built it on the ocean depths.
It seems ironic to say that the earth is ‘founded on the seas’. How can anything be established on water?
The poetic image, of course, comes from the creation story in Genesis One where the solid earth rose out of the sea at God’s command and became firmly established. The poet celebrates God's power as the authority that prevents the sea from overwhelming the land, making the inhabitable world secure. People living in Manhattan, London and Amsterdam rely on that.
Psalm 24 affirms that as a result all creation belongs to God. It goes on to explore the implications of God as creator and king, namely the ethical foundations for righteous living. Clean hands, pure heart and truthful speech lips give stability to our lives and secure standing in God’s holy place.
In contrast, Isaiah sees the restlessness of people without God, the instability of undisciplined lives of people who reject moral restraint.
"Those who reject me are like the restless sea,
which is never still, but continually churns up mud and dirt.
There is no peace for the wicked,”says my God.
Photo Sources: Wikipedia Commons
Tower of Pisa ... Rock of Gibralter ... Golden Gate Bridge
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