The Spirit of God was Hovering

God created the earth formless and empty so it could be formed and filled over the next six days. The darkness, or the evening of the first day, was over the chaotic waters that initially could not sustain life. But the Spirit of God hovered in oscillating movement, surrounding His newly birthed creation like an eagle over its young, indicating His love, protection, and plans for its formation and filling.

The formless and void earth that God formed and filled over the next six days was not the result of a ruined and reconstructed previous earth that resulted from Satan's fall as Gap theory proponents began proposing 200 years ago to try and account for an unmentioned amount of time between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2. The formlessness and void was the initial state of an earth unable to sustain life until God formed and then filled it.