Does the earth move?

He set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved. - Psalm 104:5

In 1610, Galileo went public with his idea that just maybe the earth wasn’t the center of the universe. The idea was that possibly the earth went around the sun. Maybe. The church wasn’t impressed. The idea that the earth could move around sun was not possible. After all, the psalmist said that it couldn’t be moved. The earth was set on its foundations. Everything had to revolve around it.

In 1616, the Catholic Church condemned the belief that the Earth circled the sun. No one was allowed to believe it. Of course the psalmist was speaking poetically. The marvel of the earth is that it is perfectly positioned to sustain human life. It is the perfect size and has the perfect atmosphere to sustain our life.

Does the earth move? Of course it does - in fact it seems that everything in our universe is in motion. But the mystery is it that it is in perfect motion - for us. And for us to continue – the earth really cannot be moved.

And we can praise God for that.