From passages like Psalm 104:5–9, he concluded that the world remains profoundly vulnerable, constantly on the verge of chaos as a result of human sin. God’s providential hand is what holds back, at any moment, the threat of the waters of oblivion.41 A medieval cosmology underlay his thinking here, convincing him that water is an element inherently lighter than earth. The natural tendency of the world’s oceans, therefore, is to overwhelm the land. Only the continual commandment of God preserves the existence of dry earth as a virtual miracle from one moment to the next.42
