The King is the Creator.
"Who laid the foundations of the earth." Having filled his soul with adoring thoughts of God, by considering his palace, his surroundings, and his attendants, the psalmist goes out into the kingdom of this eternal King, to see what he can learn of him from the provisions, and order, and adaptations, and rule of his dominions. And then an introductory thought comes to him. This eternal King not only founded this kingdom, he actually made everything in it. "The sea is his, and he made it, and his hands formed the dry land." High honour is given to the man who founds a kingdom. What honour is due to him who absolutely originates the great, mysterious, complex, nature kingdom? Bible writers see in the psalm a sketch of creation. Browne calls it "a bright and living picture of God's creative power, pouring life and gladness throughout the universe." But the reference to creation is only a brief, passing, introductory one; and what the psalmist fully dwells on is the marvel of the Divine order and rule in the earth sphere as created.
I. THE SHAPING OF THINGS IS THE ETERNAL KING'S IDEA. Take but the infinite varieties of form for material things—a crystal, a tree, a mountain, a weed; or for animated things—a bacillus, a mammoth, a dragonfly, an albatross, a worm, a man;—and our minds are overwhelmed by the effort to imagine the ideas of all forms fashioned in one intellect. There is no form of being that was not first of all a thought of God. He is the Foundation of all. If original forms modify and change, it is only according to God's ordered laws.
II. THE POWER OF THINGS IS THE ETERNAL KING'S ENDUEMENT. For there is nothing made that can really be called dead. Everything has a possibility of doing something. Even a stone can hold moisture on its under side. Metals have their chemical properties, and the very dust can at least combine. In higher ranges of being each creature has its power and its mission. And the power in things is ordered, not just developed. What must he be who is Source of power in everything?
III. THE RELATION OF THINGS IS THE ETERNAL KING'S ARRANGEMENT. Everything is connected with everything else. Nothing in the world is isolated. Everywhere there is flux and reflux. Everything is touching something, and influencing it by the touch. What must he be who devised all relations and all their consequences?—R.T.