“But the LORD shall endure forever: He has prepared His throne for judgment.
And He shall judge the world in righteousness, He shall minister judgment to the people in uprightness.”
(Psalm 9:7-8)
The word eternal is sometimes used, both in Scripture and in our everyday language, to indicate a very long time or a period of time whose end is unknown. Sometimes it signifies a duration which, though not without beginning, is without end. In this way, angels and the souls of men are eternal, for though they had a beginning, they will have no end. But eternity, in the strict and proper sense of the word, signifies a duration without beginning, without end, and without succession. In this sense, being eternal is peculiar to the great God. God alone is eternal.
The idea that there was a period at which God began to be is averse to both reason and scriptural revelation. Logically, the Creator must exist before any of His creation came to be. Further, Scripture plainly declares that God is without beginning, “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God,” (Ps. 90:2). It no less plainly declares that He is without end, “The Lord shall endure forever,” (Ps. 9:7). One of His glorious titles is, “The high and lofty One that inhabits eternity;” and He is described as, “The everlasting God, the Father of eternity; the First and the Last.”
Being eternal, God is without succession or change. Change belongs to that which is temporal and inconsistent. God is neither. From everlasting to everlasting, He is God, i.e. He is eternally the same. God not only remains constant in being as He is, but He always remains the same in that being. “You are the same,” (Ps. 102:27). God’s being is permanent and remains entire with all its perfections. He remains unchanged in infinite duration. He is the forever I AM.
In contrast to God, all creatures are in a perpetual flux. Something is acquired, or something is lost, every single day. Stephen Charnock said, “A man is the same in regard of existence when he is a man as he was when he was a child, but there is a new succession of quantities and qualities in him. Every day he acquires something until he comes to his maturity, every day he loses something until he comes to his end. A man is not the same at night as he was in the morning, something is expired and something is added; every day there is a change in his age, a change in his substance, a change in his qualities … but God has His whole being in one and the same point or moment of eternity.”
Though everything else around us changes, God never does. This means that His Word, His promises, His mercy, His grace, His love… all that we have in Him also never changes. The constancy of God should be a comfort to you and give you peace always, in every circumstance of life as a believer.
“For thus says the high and exalted One who lives forever, whose name is Holy,
‘I dwell on a high and holy place, and also with the contrite and lowly of spirit
in order to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite,’” (Isaiah 57:15).
- To be exalted as the eternal God at the right hand of the Father is an honor peculiar to You alone Lord Jesus. You fulfilled God’s will perfectly. You died for the sins of Your people, You were in the tomb for three days, You were raised from the dead, ascended into heaven, and now You are at the right hand of the Father with a name above every name, the Lord God. What unfathomable truths are housed in the mystery of the Gospel!
- All Your promises are eternal as well, Lord. I love Your promises and hold steadfastly to them. I believe them by faith, and I look to You through them all. They are all “yes and amen” in You.
- I don’t know how to think about eternity. I don’t have the capacity, Lord, to really understand forever. What does it mean that You are forever? What does it mean that You are eternal? I don’t understand the gravity of it, but I certainly believe it, as Your word says it over and over. And I am grateful that You are eternal, unchangeable, and infinitely beyond my understanding, because You are God.
- Lord, You can judge rightly and perfectly because You are the eternal God who sees all. I want you to find me walking in a manner worthy of Your name. Help me hide Your Word in my heart that I might not sin against you. And enlarge my heart to love You as I ought.
Further References for Ps. 9:7-8
Ps. 11:4, 47:8, 93:2; Lam. 5:19; Ps. 102:12, 103:19; Isa. 66:1; 2 Peter 3:8; Job 36:26
