Let This Be Recorded
Feels like we’re circling the drain of Eva’s greatest hits here. Ok, hang on…let’s not go with “circling the drain”…sheesh…seems a bit heavy-handed. Cue Sarah McLachlan tunes.
Let’s go with “hovering” over some of Eva’s moments with which people have seemed to resonate.
Ick. Just threw up in my mouth.
Some humans thought this was helpful…so I’m sharing it with you other humans. Do with it what you will. How’s that?!
But seriously…I did have some Psalms Praise Event gals request this to be shared so they could sit in it some more and also share with family…so I thought this might be the best way. At this point, I think we should actually call it “Keller’s Greatest Hits,” but then I might have to get permission and all, from his people…and so, I digress. Hope this is helpful to you too when you try to wrap your mind around the “unchangingness” of God.
Psalm 102:18-22, 25-28
18 Let this be recorded for a generation to come, that a people yet to be created (those not born and those not born again into the family of God) may praise the LORD: 19 that he looked down from his holy height, from heaven the Lord looked at the earth, 20 to hear the groans of the prisoners, to set free those who were doomed to die, (for what purpose are these things recorded??) 21 that they may declare in Zion the name of the LORD, and in Jerusalem his praise, 22 when peoples gather together, and kingdoms, to worship the LORD. 25 Of old you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. 26 They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away, 27 But you are the same, and your years will have no end. 28 The children of your servants shall dwell secure; their offspring shall be established before you.
I love what Tim Keller said this about this passage: “So many of our problems, and in a sense all of our problems to some degree, stem from not knowing who God is or forgetting who he is at the moment…He’s the unchanging God. The Psalmist looks at his life and sees that nothing remains. Nothing lasts. Everything he wants, everything he longs for, everything he loves, everything he enjoys is slipping through his fingers no matter how tightly he holds onto it. Everything changes.” Can you relate? Do those words sound as those you spoke them from your soul? Keller goes on to say, “We lose everything. Our life is over like that. When children are little, summer seemed to be endless. Then by the time you became a young adult, you said, “Boy, how fast the summer went!” At a certain point in your life, you start to feel like you’re on a toboggan without brakes.”
Let me share this illustration and application (from Keller as well) that helps explain this aspect of God’s character. He says it so perfectly already, there’s no sense reinventing the wheel…but it helps to illustrate how God exists outside of time and therefore, is never changing…and that is something that provides us with a reliably firm foundation.
“Let’s think of time as an ever-rolling stream. Let’s think of a mountain and a river going through the mountains, around this mountain, between this mountain and the next mountain. The rivers go this way and that way, lots of bends in them, and there are boats on the river. Every boat can’t see the other boats.
Let’s imagine this river is time, which means the boats upstream from you are actually in the past (because they got there first, in case you needed a little help there)...so they’re upstream, and you can’t see them. The boats downstream from you are really in the future. (got it now?) But you can’t see them, and they can’t see you. But in this illustration, imagine every single boat can see and has a clear sight-line to the summit of a mountain. Whoever is on top of the mountain can see every boat, though the boats can’t see each other, and the person on the top of the mountain is equidistant from every boat, even though the boats can’t see each other.
That is how God relates to time, because God looks down on time, the ever-rolling stream, and it’s all present to him, because he’s outside of time. He does not know duration. That means things that have happened from our vantage point are present to him. Things that will happen from our vantage point are present to him too, which means there’s no such thing as anything new or old to him.
Now you and I change all the time! We change our character under new influences. We change our minds under new information. We say, ‘Oh, I didn’t know that,’ so we change our minds. But nothing can be new to God, or old. It’s all present to him, and therefore, he’s perfect. He can’t improve. He can’t decline. There’s no information or influences that come into his life he doesn’t already have, that don’t flow from him. What that means then…the implications are enormous…the implications of an everlasting-to-everlasting God, a beginningless God, a changeless God.
Every institution, every family, every loved one, your career, everything. The stars are going to wear out. The mountains are going to wear out. They will be discarded, but you remain the same and your years will never end. Then suddenly there’s a lightning bolt in verse 28. The children of your servants will live securely in your presence, and their descendants will be established or permanent.
Do you see what he’s saying? God is not permanently committed even to the mountains or the stars, but he’s permanently committed to his servants. He puts his everlasting love on them, and they last forever. Even the stars don’t last forever. Even the mountains don’t last forever. But if God’s everlasting love is put on you, you are everlasting.”
He is the unchanging God who forgives our sins, heals our every affliction and adversity, redeems us to everlasting life, covers us with mercy and grace, and wraps us in the unending love of Christ. (Psalm 103) He doesn’t change his character. He doesn’t change his mind. He doesn’t change his truth. He doesn’t change. And because we can count on that…because we can literally REST in that…because that is our solid ground…because there’s not a universe where that will ever change…
Let this be recorded for a generation to come, that a people yet to be created may praise the LORD!