Denis Alexander discusses this text in the context of Galileo’s dispute with the Catholic Church over whether the sun went round the earth.[1] According to Alexander, Galileo’s view was that if this text asserts the fixed position of the earth, then this is but language “in which God ‘accommodated’ himself to the level of the readers of the text.”[2]
Accommodationism in the use of language by the Deity is possible but this requires reasons to be given that He is using language in this way, pointing to features of the text that show this type of usage on display. Galileo’s view is a clear example of possible ‘accommodationist’ interpretation but it also shows the dependency of accommodationism on a certain prior reading of the text.
If Ps 93:1 is not about the planet, or its position in space, or its relation to the sun and its orbit, i.e. anything astronomical or related to the heavens and heavenly bodies, then there is no need to hypothesize an accommodationist use of language and prove this by pointing to features of the text.
The problem for Galileo is that the Bible doesn’t have cosmological texts that give us a planet in space. The Bible has poetic lines here and there that get put into a cosmological framework by commentators of all persuasions, usually to promote their own cosmology. For our text, a cursory glance at the 38 uses of the verb ‘to move’ will show that there is a strong psychological and social pattern in its use.
A typical example would be the determination of someone not to be moved from a course of action. Thus, Ps 96:10 has, “Say among the heathen that the Lord reigneth: the world also shall be established that it shall not be moved: he shall judge the people righteously.” The usage is all about people and their government by God. Clearly, Ps 93:1 is not about planetary motion and Galileo need not have worried.
1st Peter: Some New Testament Allusions