Thy faithfulness is unto all generations:
Thou hast established the earth, and it abideth (Psa 119.90).
The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) announced that “God is dead,” by which he expressed his belief that the idea of God had been so generally rejected that it no longer remained relevant as the basis for morality or explaining the meaning of life. The “God is dead” concept was popularized in America during the 1960’s and taken a step further—that not only the idea of God, but God himself, had truly died. The fruit of this kind of intellectual perversity is nihilism, a philosophy that ethical values do not exist objectively but are falsely invented, and that life is utterly without meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value.1 Any right-thinking person shudders to consider the implications of all this for society. Indeed, this kind of atheism has already produced injustice and violence on a grand scale throughout the twentieth century.
Still, this “God is dead” notion is so deeply ingrained in Western culture that even Christians are adversely affected. God’s mighty acts of redemption recorded in his Word occurred so long ago that some today doubt that he is still at work or that his Word can still be trusted, even though this is completely irrational.
If the God of Scripture ever existed, he must ever continue to exist, because one inherent aspect of his revealed nature is aseity (from the Latin, meaning “from himself;” R. C. Sproul wrote, “I love this word and what it represents. Every time I see it, it sends chills up my spine”2), that is, having the grounds of his existence within himself, without dependence on anything else. The God of Scripture further states that he is truth itself (Deut 32.4; John 14.6), so that he could not ever prove false to his promises, no matter how much time passes.
Even more importantly, God himself testifies by his Word against all irreverent claims of skeptics. Psalm 119.90 is the psalmist’s exultation on account of God’s enduring faithfulness. He asserts it in the first line and illustrates it in the second.
GOD’S FAITHFULNESS ENDURES
This is one of the few verses of Psalm 119 that does not explicitly mention God’s Word (vv. 84, 90-91, 120, 122, 132, 149). Implicitly, the very concept of “faithfulness” includes Scripture because it refers here to God’s being dependable with respect to a standard,3 and in the biblical worldview that standard is God’s Word.
The ESV translates the first line, “Your faithfulness endures to all generations.” There is no one-to-one correspondence between the word “endures” and any particular word in the Hebrew original. A word-for-word translation is, “To all generations thy faithfulness” (YLT). Clearly then, the idea of endurance or permanence is implied. God always has, and always will, prove dependable with respect to the standard of Holy Scripture.
Now we must not imagine that God is in any way inferior to his Word, as we are. He unilaterally imposes upon us the terms of a covenant, and he holds us accountable to those terms. For example, in what theologians have called the covenant of works, if we believe him and keep his covenant, we will be blessed. If we prove faithless and disobedient, we must inevitably suffer the just punishments threatened in the covenant. But God is not accountable to anyone outside himself, and everything he does is good and wise and just. If he enters into covenantal relations with any of his creatures, that in itself is a great condescension on his part. Further, upon such condescension, God never relinquishes his absolute sovereignty to do whatsoever he pleases.
The reason for God’s enduring faithfulness to his Word is that it is the very expression of his perfect wisdom and purpose, a revelation of his own unchanging nature and eternal plan. He would not have promised anything in the first place if he did not already have the deliberate intention and power and goodness to make it good in the experience of his people. “The Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent: for he is not a man that he should repent” (1 Sam 15.29). “For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry” (Hab 2.3). God cannot lie (Tit 1.2); it is actually impossible for God to lie (Heb 6.18), because it is not in his nature to do so. Therefore the prophet confidently affirms, “Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old” (Mic 7.20).
The greatest proof of God’s faithfulness to all generations so far is the first coming and ministry of Jesus Christ. So many of God’s ancient promises have already been fulfilled in this, and at such incomprehensibly stupendous cost! The precious Son of God came to lay down his life, in the humiliation and torture of the cross, to procure the certain redemption of all God’s chosen people.
The NT illustrates that godly hearts stagger at the very consideration of it. “For God so [a word conveying greatness of degree] loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son” (John 3.16). “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” (Rom 8.32). As Robert Haldane wrote,
This is the most conclusive reasoning. If [God] has given us the greatest gift, he will not refuse the lesser. His Son is the greatest gift that could be given,— plainly, then, nothing will be withheld from those for whom he has given his Son.4
Of course God’s faithfulness endures to all generations! Even though the last inspired Word from the Lord was penned almost two millennia ago in the preserved NT canon, those biblical promises are no less reliable now than they ever were. Whoever believes on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ shall still be saved, and all the blessings assured to believers in the covenant of grace shall be made good in our actual experience. The second coming of Christ, with his consummation of the kingdom of glory, will comprehensively and minutely satisfy the ancient hope of all who have ever trusted in the Lord and his Word, and even the incorrigibly wicked will see the final glorious evidence of his enduring faithfulness when others enter the kingdom, and they are excluded forever.
LIKE THE EARTH ENDURES
The second line presents an illustration from the natural world of God’s enduring faithfulness. “Thou hast established the earth, and it abideth,” or, stands, remains, endures.5 The mention of earth in verse 90 complements the mention of heaven in verse 89, as Puritan Thomas Manton eloquently commented:
He had before said, “Thy word is settled in the heavens;” now he speaketh of it as manifested in the earth. There the constancy of God’s promises was set forth by the duration and equal motion of the heavenly bodies, now by the firmness and immovableness of the earth. God’s powerful word and providence reacheth to the whole [creation], this lower part here upon earth, as well as the upper part in heaven.”6
While the Bible is completely true as intended in all its parts, and its truth has implications for the investigation of the natural realm in a scientific way, yet its teaching respecting the created realm is intended to be primarily theological, to instruct us about God himself with his works and ways. To put it simply, the Bible is not a science textbook. It is a revelation and testimony to the glory of our great Creator. It is with this deeply reverent spirit, then, that we are to read and understand such passages as
Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed forever (Psa 104.5).
One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth forever (Eccl 1.4).
These assert the lasting stability of God’s works in contrast with man’s fleeting life and works.
Comparing Scripture with Scripture, we learn that this present earth is bound to continue until Jesus Christ returns from heaven. Then, “the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up” (2 Pet 3.10), and there will be a “new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness” (2 Pet 3.13). If we understand this as essentially a purgation by fire and renovation by God’s power of the existing creation,7 so that all the misery which came through the curse is removed (excepting the abode of the eternally cursed ones) while the matter of the original creation continues to exist albeit in a perfected state, then the earth quite literally will endure for eternity.
Therefore, the psalmist uses a beautifully fitting illustration of God’s enduring faithfulness.
Supremely and throughout eternity, his faithfulness will be on display in the new heavens and the new earth, and the church triumphant will engage in the eternal praises of her faithful Creator and Lord. God never died, and our Incarnate Savior who died has risen again, and lives forever as the covenant-keeper and blessedness of his people. Amen.
Notes:
1. Wikipedia articles on the death of God, Nietzsche, and nihilism.
2. Before the Face of God, Book I, I.18.
3. DBLBSD #575.
4. In loc.
5. TWOT #1637.
6. In loc.
7. I think this view is quite warranted. See Cornelius Venema, The Promise of the Future.