What does “stretched out the Earth over the waters” mean?
Question:
"To him that stretched out the earth above the waters: for his mercy endureth for ever" (Psalms 136:6).
What does "stretched out the earth above the waters" mean? Is there any connection between this verse and II Peter 3:5-7?
Answer:
There are several passages that indicate that the land mass of the earth rested on subterranean water. Other passages are:
"The earth is the LORD'S, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods" (Psalms 24:1-2).
"He gathereth the waters of the sea together as an heap: he layeth up the depth in storehouses" (Psalms 33:7).
"For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished" (II Peter 3:5-6).
The use of the word "storehouses" in Psalms 33:7 is interesting as a storehouse holds the excess that you plan to use later. If you recall, when the Flood began, it not only rained for 40 days, but it also mentions that fountains of the deep were opened. "In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights" (Genesis 7:11-12). This storehouse of water upon which the earth's land mass rested broke forth to cause the great Flood.
Dr. Walt Brown's In the Beginning is a very interesting book that examines the scientific implications of what these verses hint at.
