Rejoicing In The Word For Ladies – The Earth Is The Lord’s (December 2022)

I love friendly autumn days. I was born in September and celebrate my wedding anniversary in October. Fall has the coziness and snuggle of winter days but without the bitter cold outdoors. Fall is warm colors and harvest spices and apples and sweaters. In the United States, the abundance of the harvest months leads us to a spirit of Thanksgiving as we enter the month of November. God’s faithfulness to the law of sowing and reaping reminds us to lift our eyes to the heavens and give gratitude for the stability found in the steadfastness of nature and nature’s God.

“The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein” Psalm 24:1. This verse is such a comfort and encouragement. Spurgeon said in his Treasuries of David, “The fulness of the earth may mean its harvests, its wealth, its life, or its worship;… the Most High God is Possessor of all.” Of the world, Spurgeon reveals, “The term world indicates the habitable regions, wherein Jehovah is especially to be acknowledged as Sovereign.” The governments of the world rest upon His shoulder and within the realm of His omnipotence and omniscience.

John wrote this in his New Testament gospel, “All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made.” We know from the book of Acts and chapter 17 that He is the “God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that He is Lord of heaven and earth, (and) dwelleth not in temples made with hands; and hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after Him, and find Him, though He be not far from every one of us: for in Him we live, and move, and have our being” Acts 17:24, 26-28a. All the earth is God’s courtroom (Psalm 50), and He is the Sovereign Judge. “The heavens are thine, the earth also is thine: as for the world and the fulness thereof, thou hast founded them. The north and the south thou hast created them… Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne: mercy and truth shall go before thy face” Psalm 89:11-14.

This earth will one day perish, but the righteous man may claim Christ as his everlasting habitation. “Be thou my strong habitation, whereunto I may continually resort” Psalm 71:3. What a blessed truth to meditate upon as we look to God with Thanksgiving this month! “Thou in thy mercy hast led forth the people which thou hast redeemed: thou hast guided them in thy strength unto thy holy habitation” Ex. 15:13. (V.K.S.)