1. We Are Stewards Who Enjoy His Goodness in Creation (vv. 1-2). Of all the heavenly bodies created by the Lord, the earth is the one He has chosen to be His own special sphere of activity. Clarence Benson called the earth “the theater of the universe,” for on it the Lord demonstrated His love in what Dorothy Sayers called “the greatest drama ever staged.” He chose a planet, a people, and a land; and there He sent His Son to live, to minister, to die, and to be raised from the dead, that lost sinners might be saved. The earth is God’s, everything on it and in it is God’s, and all the people on the earth are God’s, made in His image and accountable to Him. The divine name “Lord” is used six times in this psalm. “All the earth is mine” (Ex. 19:5), says the Creator, but in His goodness He has shared it with us. He is “possessor of heaven and earth” (Gen. 14:19, 22), and we are guests on His planet, stewards of all that He gives us to enjoy (1 Tim. 6:17) and to employ. This stewardship is the basis for the way we treat planet Earth and protect the treasures God has shared with us. Anything we give to Him, He has first given to us (50:10-12; 1 Chron. 29:14). Paul quoted 24:1 in 1 Corinthians 10:25-26 to remind believers that all food was permitted to them (see also Mark 7:14-23; 1 Tim. 4:3-5). The place of “water” in the creation is seen in 104:5-9; 136:6; Genesis 1:1, 6-7, 9; 49:25; Exodus 20:4; and Deuteronomy 33:13.