God is Forever

November 14, 2010

Background Scripture: Psalm 90
Lesson Passage: Psalm 90:1 – 12

Forever is a very long time. I suppose that this is the only way we mortals can even have a concept of eternity. We visualize eternity as being independent of time. Almost by definition, time can not exist in eternity. Some theologians define eternity as a state of forever now. There is no yesterday or tomorrow; there is just now. God, in introducing himself to Moses, declared that I am that I am. In such a theology, God exists in the eternal now. God is forever. In Psalm 90, Moses’ prayer expresses man’s time-dependent existence in relationship to God’s existence. We don’t often think of Moses as a poet or hymn writer but the psalm in our lesson today is the only one that identifies Moses as the author. Certainly with his vast experience interacting with God, we should expect anything that Moses took time to write to be worthwhile studying. In this psalm, Moses acknowledges God’s infinite nature and contrasts it to man’s finite physical existence. Moses adds perspective to a lot of priorities we dare to set in life. We are reminded that our life is a brief existence. Moses prays for God’s guidance in how we establish priorities in this life seeing that our time is limited here. As a young man seeks the counsel and advice of an elder who has experience beyond his years, mankind should seek the guidance of the eternal and only wise God in all matters pertaining to life and godliness. God has been and is both the source and sustainer for man since the very beginning of time. God is our habitation or place of dwelling. Paul noted that even those who don’t know God personally acknowledge that in him we live and move and have our being. There is no place that we can go to escape God’s presence. God existed even before he called into existence everything else. There is no physical existence that has been here forever. God always has been and he always is. For the self-existent God, all of time is brief and fleeting. Since we can think of God existing within the eternal now, yesterday and tomorrow are insignificant. So then a thousand years really are but as a watch in the night. God does not lend himself to discovery by us. All that we can ever know of God or about God he must reveal to us in a way that is finite enough for us to comprehend it. At God’s word, men are turned back into dust from where we were taken. Our time between birth and death passes quickly. In light of the fact that we shall stand before the judgment seat of God and give an account of the deeds done in our bodies, we should depend on God’s guidance as to how we are to use this brief time wisely. If we cannot aspire unto righteousness and holiness during these few years, what hope do we have for an eternity in the presence of God’s holiness? Should we not seek to experience now a portion of what eternity promises the children of God? Moses’ prayer is that God would grant us now the will and the ability to live here in preparation for the eternity that is promised for the future for God’s children. If we desire to live in God’s presence, then let us aspire to live forever in a manner that is pleasing to him since God is forever.

Robert C. Hudson
November 5, 2010