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The sea is His, for He made it; And His hands formed the dry land.
Psalms 95:5 · New King James Version
Parallel translations
  • WEB The sea is his, and he made it. His hands formed the dry land.
  • KJV The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land.
  • BSB The sea is His, for He made it, and His hands formed the dry land.
  • NASB The sea is His, for it was He who made it, And His hands formed the dry land.
  • NLT The sea belongs to him, for he made it. His hands formed the dry land, too.

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

The sea is God's, for He made it, and His hands formed the dry land. God is the Maker of sea and land alike.

Overview

Continuing the theme of God's sovereign ownership, the psalmist credits Him with creating both sea and land. Because He made all things, He rightly rules and is worthy of worship. The same creative power belongs to Christ, through whom all things were made (John 1:3; Genesis 1:9-10).

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 8

  • Gen 1:9–10God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered together to one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so.
  • Ps 33:7He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap. He lays up the deeps in storehouses.
  • Ps 146:6who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them; who keeps truth forever;
  • Prov 8:29when he gave to the sea its boundary, that the waters should not violate his commandment, when he marked out the foundations of the earth;
  • Jonah 1:9He said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear Yahweh, the God of heaven, who has made the sea and the dry land.”
  • Jer 5:22Don’t you fear me?’ says Yahweh ‘Won’t you tremble at my presence, who have placed the sand for the bound of the sea, by a perpetual decree, that it can’t pass it? and though its waves toss themselves, yet they can’t prevail; though they roar, yet they can’t pass over it.’
  • Prov 8:26while as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the beginning of the dust of the world.
  • Job 38:10–11marked out for it my bound, set bars and doors,

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (2)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Psalms videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Psalms 95:5YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on PsalmsMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

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 95:5 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.