For He has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters.
Parallel translations
- WEB For he has founded it on the seas, and established it on the floods.
- KJV For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods.
- NKJV For He has founded it upon the seas, And established it upon the waters.
- NASB For He has founded it upon the seas And established it upon the rivers.
- NLT For he laid the earth’s foundation on the seas and built it on the ocean depths.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God founded the earth on the seas and established it on the waters. His creative power is the basis of his ownership.
Overview
The psalmist gives the reason for God's ownership: he himself founded and established the world, picturing the dry land set firm amid the waters. This reflects the creation account where God brings ordered habitable land out of the deep. The Creator's authority over all things is here affirmed, the same authority exercised through the eternal Son by whom all things hold together.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Jer 5:22Do you not fear Me?” declares the LORD. “Do you not tremble before Me, the One who set the sand as the boundary for the sea, an enduring barrier it cannot cross? The waves surge, but they cannot prevail. They roar but cannot cross it.
- Gen 1:9–10And God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered into one place, so that the dry land may appear.” And it was so.
- Ps 136:6He spread out the earth upon the waters. His loving devotion endures forever.
- Ps 104:5–6He set the earth on its foundations, never to be moved.
- Job 38:4Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding.
- Ps 33:6By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, and all the stars by the breath of His mouth.
- Jer 10:11–16Thus you are to tell them: “These gods, who have made neither the heavens nor the earth, will perish from this earth and from under these heavens.”
- Job 38:8–11Who enclosed the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb,
- 2 Pet 3:5–7But they deliberately overlook the fact that long ago by God’s word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water,
- Ps 96:10Declare among the nations: “The LORD reigns!” The world is firmly established; it cannot be moved; He will judge the peoples with equity.
- Gen 8:22As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall never cease.”
- Ps 93:1The LORD reigns! He is robed in majesty; the LORD has clothed and armed Himself with strength. The world indeed is firmly established; it cannot be moved.
- Ps 95:4In His hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to Him.
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Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 24:2 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.