“Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.”
Psalm 90:2 [KJV]
Recently, I watched a toddler walk up to his mother and tug her skirt. When she looked down, the little boy held his arms up and said, “Hug.”
The mum bent and gave her son the hug he requested. He cuddled into her shoulder briefly, received the reassurance he needed, and then shortly walked away to play with a toy.
Sometimes I feel just like that toddler. I need a ‘hug’ from my heavenly Father to right my world. I need the reassurance of simple, familiar verses. I need to meditate on the same thoughts about God that brought me comfort last time, and the time before.
Perhaps you also need a spiritual ‘hug’. Perhaps, like me, you need to hear an old truth once more. One old truth that encouraged me this week is the thought that our God is eternal.
I’m sure we are all aware of this fact. The dictionary defines something eternal as ‘lasting forever, having no end’. The Bible tells us that God has both no end and no beginning, with Psalm 90:2 saying, “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God." I admit comprehending the concept of God being from ‘everlasting to everlasting’ is beyond me. Things in our world constantly change. We regularly see beginnings and endings, some welcome and some unwelcome. But the Lord is eternal, a fact stated repeatedly throughout scripture, including in Deuteronomy 33:27, 1 Timothy 1:17 and Genesis 21:33. God’s eternal nature also underpins His other characteristics. For example, think of God being all-knowing (omniscient). In my family, I didn’t witness every event that my siblings talk about, because some happened before I was born. Yet God has no birth date. There is no point in history past, present or future, where God does not exist, and this makes Him an eyewitness of all things.
But how does knowing God is eternal affect my life? What are the practical implications of this weighty theological concept?
Firstly, God’s eternal existence means that I can be emotionally stable regardless of what I feel like. Human emotions can flip all over the place. One moment we strongly feel God’s nearness and enabling. Then something happens, or our hormone levels change, and we question whether He hears us, cares about us, or if He even exists. In the ‘down’ moments of migraine-induced mood swings, I turn to verses such as Isaiah 40:28, “Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.” God does not die, when we are tempted to doubt his existence in a moment of physical or emotional weakness. God is. God is faithful. As the Apostle Paul wrote, “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it” (1 Corinthians 10:13). No matter what we feel like, the Lord remains the one of whom Moses said, “The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms” (Deuteronomy 33:27a). Reflecting on God’s eternality stabilises our emotions, and saves us from making feeling-driven decisions that would hamper growth in our Christian life.
Secondly, knowing God is eternal calms our fears of the future. God’s eternal nature guarantees the fulfillment of all the promises He has given in the Bible. If God could die or stop being God, His promises would have an expiry date. Some other power, or even Satan, could come along and override God’s promises, the same way a newly elected government here in Australia has the power to rescind or alter any laws made by the previous government. But God is eternal. He will never die or lose his power. He will personally ensure that His promises are fulfilled. These promises include the gift of eternal life and the ‘once saved, always saved’ guarantee stated by Jesus in John 10:28, “And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” God’s eternality gives weight to the command and reassurance of Hebrews 13:5, “Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” We have purpose in doing the work of the Lord in the present (1 Corinthians 15:58), everything supplied that we need for this life (Philippians 4:19), and the promise of an eternal home with Christ (John 14:2-3). We’re freed from fear of death (Hebrews 2:14-15), and liberated to follow God’s revealed will today.
Thirdly, because God’s eternality guarantees our eternality, this affects what we prioritise in the present. Life on earth is short compared to eternity, and how we Christians spend this life affects future rewards. 1 Corinthians 3:12-14 uses a building analogy to explain this, “Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.” When we recognise our life is “even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away,” (James 4:14b), then we will be those who prioritise “Redeeming the time, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:16). We will “lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith” (Hebrews 12:1b-2a). We will also prioritise praying for and witnessing to the lost. Souls live for eternity; none of us want those we love to face eternal judgement (Matthew 13:50). In all generations, there are those of whom King David wrote, “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God” (Psalm 14:1a). But in all generations, there is also the eternal God, “Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). Let’s keep praying!
In summary, all of us need the occasional ‘spiritual hug’ from our heavenly Father to right our outlook and actions. May we all keep pressing ‘onwards and upwards’, knowing that from “everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.”
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