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The Earth Is the Lord’s: Learning to Live as Stewards

The Earth Is the Lord’s: Learning to Live as Stewards

Last updated on: August 9, 2026 at 6:33 pm by Jeff McLain

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The Earth Is the Lord’s: Learning to Live as Stewards 2026-08-09T18:33:25-04:00 Jeff McLain

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The Earth Is the Lord’s: Learning to Live as Stewards.

Most of us have rented a car at some point. If you’ve ever stood at the rental counter, you know there is never any confusion about who owns the vehicle. Before they hand you the keys, they make a scan of your driver’s license, they place a large hold on your credit card, have you sign the paperwork that explains your relationship to the car, the agent explains the features of the car, records the mileage, tells you how much gas you must return it with, and walks around it with you, noting every scratch and dent. They want both of you to know exactly what condition the car is in before you drive away, what your relationship to the car involves, and that you return it as you found it.

Then something interesting happens after this experience. You drive differently. That car is not yours; it is probably newer than yours, and you want to treat it like it is not yours. You don’t take corners quite as aggressively. You think twice before squeezing into a questionable parking spot. You ask your kids not to eat messy fast food in the back seat. You pay attention to where you leave it and how you care for it. Why? Because every mile reminds you that it isn’t your car. You’re enjoying it. You’re responsible for it. But you don’t own it. You’re caring for something that belongs to someone else. In fact, part of the fun is that it is often nicer, newer, cleaner, and with different features than your own car, which makes driving it fun.

In many ways, renting a car becomes an act of stewardship. It is something nice lent to you, for a price surely, that you learn to enjoy. As a result, you treat it differently.

To understand all, and everyone in it, is the Lord’s; we would live into forgiveness better. The kind of deconstruction we need more than ever is the kind in which we let go of the belief we have built the life we have. From creation to Pentecost, from birth to the afterlife, all of it is the Lord’s. God extends much to us. However, we cannot lose sight of the centering aspects of who owns it all.

The Earth Is the Lord’s, and Everything In It

Over the past two weeks, I’ve had a verse written on the whiteboard in our dining room. Every morning over coffee, every evening around the dinner table, and every time I walked through the room, these words kept catching my attention:

“The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it…” (Psalm 24:1)

I have been wrestling with the idea that David is inviting us to see our entire lives—and all that we do, have, believe, and pursue—as an act of stewardship.

Though we call them our homes, what if our homes are not ultimately ours?
Though we refer to “my bank account,” what if our money isn’t ultimately ours?
We may talk about “my job,” but what if our careers, our land, our relationships, our time, even our very lives are not possessions to control but gifts entrusted to us for a season?
We say my children, my wife, my husband, my health, but what if none of it is ours?

David begins Psalm 24 with a bold theological posture and declaration that completely reorients our perspective and way of seeing.

“The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.”

Everything. The whole thing. All that is in it. However, even though we can probably admit this, are we treating all that we have differently?

We are stewards living in our Father’s world. And just as knowing a rental car belongs to someone else changes the way we drive, knowing this world belongs to God should change the way we live.

Psalm 24 reminds us that nothing falls outside God’s ownership or our responsibility to steward what God has entrusted to us. God is not only interested in our spiritual lives. God entrusts us with different kinds of capital, yet God remains the owner of every one of them. That means God cares about our physical capital—our health and well-being; our relational capital—the relationships we cultivate within our families and in the places where we live, work, worship, and play; our intellectual capital—the way we think, learn, and grow in wisdom; our financial capital—the resources entrusted to us and the way we manage them; and our material capital—even the ordinary possessions we own and use each day. Everything we have is held in trust and is meant to be stewarded faithfully for the glory of God.

Psalm 24 becomes a liturgy of reorientation. As we confess that “the earth is the Lord’s,” we are reoriented to remember that none of it is ours; it’s all a gift. We are orienting our ways of being and seeing. We are reoriented to live renewed lives of worship, gratitude, stewardship, and faithful witness.

A Psalm of Orientation

Psalm 24 is a psalm of orientation. Before it tells us what to do, it reminds us what is true. We learn none of it is ours. And all of it needs to be stewarded with responsibility.

In Psalm 24, David begins not with a command, call to worship, or a lament. Rather, David starts with a bold theological declaration. That opening sentence becomes the foundation for everything that matters in life; it reads like Genesis, and it fundamentally influences everything that follows. This opening theological declaration tells us who God is, what the world is, who we are, and why humanity exists. I think it is safe to say that if we misunderstand that first verse, we will misunderstand the rest of the psalm, and we will live a way of life that is far from the responsible way of living God asks of us.

Perhaps we could also say that if we don’t get this first and foremost in our way of life, then we are not living into the fullest of what God has for us and wants to entrust into our responsibility.

The movement of the psalm is beautiful. It begins with creation, reminding us that God is the Creator and rightful Owner of everything because God alone established the earth upon the waters. The earth is older than us. We did nothing to bring it into existence. As a result, David is inviting every worshiper to humbly examine their own heart and the little control they have. How are we going to reorient our lives in light of how small we are? Such realization causes us to live differently. The psalm goes on to describe people whose lives are marked by integrity, purity, and wholehearted devotion to God and God’s way of living, rather than idolatry or deceptive living. These are not people who have made self or selfish pursuits their priority; rather, they have pursued God’s will and wants. It is worth noting that idolatry and deceptive living continually get the people of God in trouble. Finally, the psalm ends with a joyful, liturgical welcome as the gates are commanded to open for the King of Glory. Scholars talk about the way this Psalm probably had a call-and-answer aspect to it, as we reminded ourselves of all the grace God extends to us in this life he rules and reigns over.

We Are Reoriented through Psalm 24

I want to focus on Psalm 24:1–2. I want to suggest that Psalm 24:1–2 is a way of seeing the world again in the right way. As a result, I want to suggest four ways Psalm 24:1–2 reorients us every week.

We are reoriented to worship. Before David asks anything of us, he reminds us who God is. The beauty that is in the world and the way it declares that God is the Creator, the Owner, and the King of all that exists. Beauty drives us to worship, and worship begins by putting God back at the center. We remember that life is not ultimately about us, our plans, or our accomplishments. Everything else finds its proper place when we first recognize it as belonging to God.
We Are Reoriented to Gratitude. David doesn’t simply say the earth belongs to God; he says, “and everything in it.” The world is full of God’s abundance. Every sunrise, every meal around the table, every friendship, every mountain, every field, every laugh, every careless word, every child, every puppy, every act of kindness reminds us that we live in a world filled with God’s goodness. As we focus on this passage, we stop taking life for granted and begin receiving it as a gift. Gratitude becomes an act of worship because we recognize that every good thing ultimately comes from the hand of our generous Creator, and we become grateful for all things in all situations.
We Are Reoriented to Stewardship. If it is all God’s, we stop living like landowners and begin living like caretakers. Jesus told us parables to get us to the same reality. Our bodies, our relationships, our minds, our finances, our homes, and even the ordinary possessions we use every day have been entrusted to us for a time. They are to be invested like money for a cause. Like someone driving a rental car, we care for them differently because we know they are not ultimately ours. We seek to use them faithfully, not for our own glory but for God’s purposes. Stewardship is simply learning to see everything through the eyes of the true Owner and to turn a profitable interest in what we have been tasked with.
We Are Reoriented to Witness. God did not create us merely to enjoy the world but to bear His image within it. To look at the world as God’s, and all that is in it, we must consider its original design and Creation’s original purposes. Adam and Eve were placed in God’s good creation to cultivate it and extend God’s goodness. That calling continues today. As we live with worship, gratitude, and faithful stewardship, we become living witnesses to the Creator King. In our homes, our workplaces, our neighborhoods, and our church, we point others toward the One to whom all things belong. Our lives become a testimony that there is another way to live—a way shaped not by ownership, entitlement, or self-interest, but by the gracious reign of God.

As we continue to proclaim that the earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, we must allow this theological statement and confession to drive us to greater worship, gratitude, stewardship, and then taking up the tasks of witness that we were created to live out.

Psalm 24 As A Quiet Confession

What if, every morning before we left our homes, we quietly confessed, “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it”? This truly would help us lead a quiet life and live it faithfully and well. I think it gets us to the type of life that Paul challenges the Thessalonian church to in 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12. Perhaps, by confessing this verse out loud and allowing faith to be formed by hearing the words read, we will recover a rooted Christian way of life and form more meaningful, simple Jesus communities that are better stewards of what we have already been given to be responsible with, but perhaps God will also extend more to our care as we prove ourselves trustworthy.

I think confessing Psalm 24:1-2 would help us to begin to see everything differently. We would care for our physical health because our bodies are gifts entrusted to us by God. We would invest more intentionally in our relationships because our families, neighbors, coworkers, and church community are not possessions to use but people to love. We would steward our minds by continually growing in wisdom and truth.

Even more, we would hold our finances with open hands, asking not, “What do I want?” but, “Lord, how would You have me use what already belongs to You?” Even the ordinary things we own—our homes, vehicles, tools, technology, and possessions—would become opportunities to faithfully care for what God has placed in our hands.

Like a rental car, we would remember that none of it ultimately belongs to us. We would enjoy what God has given us without clinging to it. We would care for it without pretending that we own it. We would receive it with gratitude and release it with trust.

Perhaps this is one of the quiet practices we need to recover: remembering that the earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it. Not simply as a theological statement, but as a way of seeing. A way of living. A way of receiving each day.

Recently, I preached about this at River Corner Church. You can hear some additional thoughts through that Sunday morning message.

Conversation

I’d love to hear your thoughts as you reflect on this passage with me.

What is God inviting you to see differently as you consider that “the earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it”?
Where in your life do you find it hardest to live as a steward rather than an owner?
What is one thing God has entrusted to you that you want to steward more faithfully?

You may also enjoy reading: When Psalm 23 Began Reading Me, Taking Every Thought Captive, and Remembering the Nudge: Revisit the Place God First Spoke.

If this post resonated, subscribe for future reflections, share it with a friend, or leave a comment. You can learn more about his journey to recover a rooted Christian way of life through the Lord’s Prayer, ancient habits, leading a quiet life, and simple Jesus communities online at JeffMcLain.com, the Lead a Quiet Life blog on Patheos, or the Discovering God Podcast.

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About Jeff McLain

Jeff McLain is a Doctor of Ministry Student on the Lord’s Prayer at Kairos University, Director of Pastoral Ministries at Water Street Mission, and a pastor at River Corner Church. Mobilized by 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12, Jeff blogs about recovering a rooted Christian way of life through the Lord’s Prayer, ancient habits, leading a quiet life, and simple Jesus communities. You can read more about the author here.

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