Top 7 Bible Verses About The Ocean Or The Sea

Here are seven Bible verses relating to the ocean or the sea.

Psalm 146:6 “Who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, who keeps faith forever.”

The first verse about the ocean or sea is naturally about the Creator of it. God not only made the heavens and the earth, but also the sea and all that lives in them. The psalmist is obviously writing about the creation of all things and that He “keeps faith forever” in the sense that it is He “who executes justice for the oppressed, who gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets the prisoners free; the Lord opens the eyes of the blind. The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down; the Lord loves the righteous. The LORD watches over the sojourners; he upholds the widow and the fatherless, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin” (Psalm 146:7-9).

Revelation 20:13 “And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done.”

For the Jews, the oceans or seas were symbolic of death. They were not a seafaring people at all, and they saw the sea as an enemy or as representative of death. Perhaps these feelings go back to the time when Pharaoh caught up with Israel. At their backs was the Red Sea while they had the Egyptian army on the other. Both represented death for Israel, but with God’s parting of the Red Sea, it is like He has said to Israel, I can overcome death and I can suspend the physical laws of nature for a time because, “I AM” or the Self-Existent One. This verse (Rev 20:13) speaks of the resurrection of the dead (in the sea) who are then judged by Jesus Christ for their human works (Rev 20:12-15). That’s fatal without Christ’s righteousness being attributed to them (2nd Cor 5:21).

Psalm 8:8, 11 “The birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas. This far you may come and no farther; here is where your proud waves halt’?”

When God spoke, the universe existed, so He actually spoke it into being. The psalmist proclaims, “Let all the earth fear the LORD; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him! For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm” (Psalm 33:8-9). Since God spoke and it came into existence, then He can command the sea to go only so far and stop or “This far you may come and no farther.”

Job 38:8, “Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb.”

Job is hearing from God Who asks Him, “Who has shut up the sea” (Job 38:8) and “Have you commanded the morning since your days began, and caused the dawn to know its place” (Job 38:12)? God’s response was due to Job’s questioning God, which was not helped by his friends who accused him of being self-righteous. Because He is the Potter and we are the clay (Isaiah 64:8), who do we think we are (jars of clay) to question God (the Potter)?

Revelation 21:1 “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.”

For those who love the water, this may be one of the most misunderstood Bible verses in the Bible. This verse doesn’t mean they’ll be no surface water on the new earth. The old earth’s passed away by this time and the new earth has been established. The sea being no more may mean that death or what the sea represented as death was now gone forever.

Jeremiah 31:35 “Thus says the Lord, who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar— the Lord of hosts is his name.”

R.C. Sproul, Bible teacher, author, and pastor once said that there is not one single random, radical atom in the entire universe that is not under the sovereignty of God. Everything has its place and purpose. Life could easily disappear without the mood. Its gravitational pull guides the tides which promotes life in the oceans. God has set the seas, moon, sun, and the earth and beyond…to a fixed or set pattern that provides order in the universe and predictability for our solar system.

Psalm 107:23-24 “Some went down to the sea in ships, doing business on the great waters; they saw the deeds of the Lord, his wondrous works in the deep.”

This is an obvious praise psalm because the psalmist is intent on glorifying God. He mentions the “wondrous works in the deep,” possibly meaning the whales and other life. These “deeds of the Lord” refer to His creating of them and all of His works are truly “wondrous,” such as God “commanded and raised the stormy wind, which lifted up the waves of the sea” (Psalm 107:25) and “He made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed” (Psalm 107:29), which reminds of the time when Jesus calmed the storm when He was with the disciples (Mark 4:39).

Conclusion

If you have never turned to God in repentance and brought to a place where you’ve forsaken sin and turned to God and placed your trust in Christ, then you must read Revelation 20:12-15. I don’t have to be a prophet (which I’m not!) to know the future of all who refuse to repent of their sins and trust in Christ (Rev 21:8). My prayer for all who read this is that you might be saved today, if you’re not saved already.

Article by Jack Wellman

Jack Wellman is Pastor of the Mulvane Brethren Church in Mulvane Kansas. Jack is also the Senior Writer at What Christians Want To Know whose mission is to equip, encourage, and energize Christians and to address questions about the believer’s daily walk with God and the Bible. You can follow Jack on Google Plus or check out his book Teaching Children the Gospel available on Amazon.