Psalms 50:12

If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is Mine, and the fulness thereof.

The owner of the world

I. There must be a growing knowledge of God amongst men. Men once thought that God could be hungry, and that offerings of wheat, goats, etc., would appease His appetite: but when this psalm was written they had advanced far beyond this in their knowledge of God. And we now have no such idea. Science, learning, and the study of the life of Jesus, have classified and enlarged our ideas of God and God’s workings. Then we ought not to be afraid to say, “The teachings of our fathers, the associations of the old theology of creeds must be modified. We must not allow our spiritual life to be controlled by leading strings held in dead hands.” We must be ready to stand in the light of the revealed character of God, and accept our impulses and conclusions from that.

II. A statement of the rights of God over the world promotes that knowledge, How many of those who read inscribed on the portico of the Royal Exchange, “The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof,” ever ponder the large meaning of these words. All natural things are His. How we prize that which is ours--from our first children’s toys to our possessions now that we are come to mature age. And because this feeling of ownership is in us we know that it is in God. And not only the things, but the energies in them, are His. And all things that men produce, for they come out of the fulness of God’s world. What, then, can He wish for from us but that we come to know Him and to love and honour Him as we should? Therefore remember--

(1) All property is held from God. We are but His stewards.

(2) Everything in the world is a witness to God.

(3) God is the sustainer of all things. (D. O. Watt, M. A.)