You Drove Back the Seas

Psalm 104 tells us more about God in verses 6-9

You clothed the earth with floods of water,
water that covered even the mountains.
At the sound of your rebuke, the water fled;
at the sound of your thunder, it fled away.
Mountains rose and valleys sank
to the levels you decreed.
Then you set a firm boundary for the seas,
so they would never again cover the earth.

These words may not make much sense unless you pay attention to what it's saying about water and the seas. It's about the story of the Great Flood in the time of Noah, but that's really not the most important thing here. These verses say that God covered the earth with water, then rebuked the water, drove it away, carved out dry land and made sure the seas would never again cover the earth.

In the ancient world, the sea was viewed as a metaphor for evil and catastrophe (because of the almost worldwide ancient accounts of a massive flood that destroyed the world?). To drive back the sea and set a boundary so that it could never cover the earth again is a statement about God keeping us from the evils that would overwhelm us. But it leaves the door open for God to bring catastrophe on a smaller scale.

Because of God, we are not overwhelmed by the forces of nature and totally destroyed. Smaller incursions of the power of the seas happen, but somehow, in the midst of our stresses and challenges, God is preserving us from the cataclysm.