“The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein,” -Psalm 24:1
The Psalm opens with a general acknowledgment of God’s utter sovereignty and magnificent wealth in possessing and ruling over all of creation. But this was not the view of all people groups in the ancient world.
For example, after the king of Assyria sacked Israel, he sent messengers to Hezekiah in Judah, saying, ‘Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you by promising that Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, devoting them to destruction. And shall you be delivered? Have the gods of the nations delivered them, the nations that my fathers destroyed, Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Telassar? Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, the king of Hena, or the king of Ivvah?’ ”” -2 Kings 19:9–13
Sennacherib represents the belief system of much of the ancient world: namely, gods were localized, ruling over the regions of the people who worshipped them (e.g., consider the pantheon of the Mediterranean region). But David knew (as did Hezekiah) YHWH was sovereign over all of creation. The LORD is the creator and sustainer of the entire Earth—including everything and everyone in it.
This general declaration is the foundation on which the rest of the Psalm’s theological architecture is crafted. There is not a single inch of all of creation in which the Lord cannot and does not say, “This is mine!”