What Does Psalms 95:4 Mean?

The next two verses develop the greatness of verse 3 through creation. In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his. The totality of the vertical dimension of creation — from the deepest places beneath the surface to the highest peaks — is within his grasp and under his ownership. The hand that holds the depths and the heights is the same hand that could be extended in judgment or salvation, always with complete knowledge of every part of what he made.

The antithetical spatial parallelism pairs the depths of the earth (the hidden, lower, underground dimension of creation) with the heights of the mountains (the visible, elevated, majestic dimension). Together they span the full vertical range of the created world. The claim is that both extremes — the unreachable deep and the soaring high — are equally in his hand, equally his. No part of creation is so remote or so lofty that it escapes his grasp or moves outside his ownership.

Isaiah 40:12 uses similar creation-spanning language to establish the incomparability of God: he "measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with a span." The depths and heights of verse 4 are what Isaiah 40 names as evidence that no other being can be compared to the Lord. Romans 11:36 closes Paul's great creation-and-covenant meditation with "from him and through him and to him are all things" — the depths and heights of verse 4, along with everything between, are included in Paul's "all things."