---
title: Psalms 24:1
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/psalms-24-1/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/psalms-24-1.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Psalms 24:1
testament: OT
section: Poetry
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Psalms 24:1

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> The earth is the LORD’s, and the fullness thereof, the world and all who dwell therein.

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (2013 revision): "To Jehovah belong the earth and everything in it, The productive land and those dwelling on it."

## JW Usage

Straightforwardly affirmed — Jehovah owns the earth and everything in it. JWs use the verse for God's sovereignty over creation and his right to be worshipped exclusively. The tension only appears when the verse is set beside the Watchtower's teaching that particular days, objects and customs remain the devil's territory because idolaters once used them.

## Protestant Usage

This is the sentence Paul reaches for when he wants to settle whether a Christian may eat meat that has been through a pagan temple, and the way he uses it is the whole point. If the earth and everything in it belong to God, then nothing in creation is the property of an idol. Misuse does not transfer ownership. That principle answers the pagan-origins argument at its root rather than case by case. You can spend an afternoon arguing about whether December the twenty-fifth really came from a Roman festival — or you can ask who owns December. A day is God's creation. A tree is God's creation. Someone else having once bent them toward a false god does not make them permanently unclean; it makes them stolen goods to be returned. Bring it up when a Witness raises contamination by origin. Read Psalm 24:1 and then 1 Corinthians 10:25-26 together, and ask what conclusion Paul drew from this verse. Compare 1 Corinthians 10:26, Acts 17:23.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Redeeming Culture, Not Fleeing It](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/redeeming-culture-acts17.md) — Paul reused a pagan altar to preach Christ (Acts 17:22-31) [Practice]