Psalm 102:23

Psalm 102 belongs to Book IV of the Psalms (Psalms 90 to 106), where God’s eternal rule is often set beside human frailty. It opens with the psalmist’s own anguish (Psalm 102:1–11): his days are consumed like smoke, his bones burn like a hearth, his heart is withered like grass, and he is as alone as a solitary bird. From verse 12 he lifts his eyes to God’s enduring reign and prays for Zion to be rebuilt, sure that the LORD will build up Zion and appear in his glory (Psalm 102:12–22). Verse 23 brings him back to his own pain. All the hope of the verses before has been spoken, and his sickness is still with him. In the Psalms faith and hurt stand side by side like this, and both are brought to God.

“He weakened my strength” uses the verb ‘ânâh, to bow down, afflict or humble, or as Strong’s puts it, “to depress, literally or figuratively”. God has brought low his kôach, his strength, vigour and capacity, the power he needed to live and work. “He shortened my days” uses qâtsar, to be short or to cut short, a verb also used for reaping a harvest. The two lines say much the same thing, the second carrying the first further, from failing strength to a life that will be over too soon. Whether he lay near death or felt his days drained away by suffering, he is telling God how close to the end he feels.

“In the way” is baderekh in Hebrew, “on the road”. It most naturally means the road of life: his strength gave out partway along, in mid-course, while there was still road ahead. Some take it also as the path of duty or of faithfulness to God, which would make the suffering harder still to understand.

In Israel a long life was counted a blessing from God. The fifth commandment promises it to those who honour father and mother (Exodus 20:12), and wisdom promises length of days (Proverbs 3:2). A life cut short could be felt as a great misfortune or even a sign of God’s displeasure. Scripture speaks often of how brief our years are (Psalm 90:10), and David prays to be made to know how frail he is (Psalm 39:4).

“I said, O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days.” The verb “said”, ʼâmar, is the everyday word for saying, which can also mean to think, and the weight lies in what he says. “Take me not away” uses ʻâlâh, to go up or ascend, here in the sense of being taken up and removed, which in this verse means being carried off by death. “The midst of my days” is chêtsîy (half, middle) with yôwm (day), literally “the half of my days”. He fears dying with half his life unlived and the work God gave him unfinished.

In the same breath he turns to God: “thy years are throughout all generations.” The word dôwr means a generation, or more broadly a period or age. God’s years run through every generation there has been or will be. His own life is cut in half, and God’s has no measure at all. Moses calls him “The eternal God” who is our refuge (Deuteronomy 33:27), the God who was there before the world was formed (Psalm 90:2). His word stands for ever (Isaiah 40:8), and he says of himself, “For I am the LORD, I change not” (Malachi 3:6).

This contrast is what makes the prayer hopeful. Because God lasts through every age, his promises and purposes outlast any one person’s life. If the psalmist’s days are short, the God he prays to is still there, still faithful and still able to keep his word.

To show how far God’s years reach, the psalmist goes back to the beginning. “Of old” translates pânîym, the word for “face”, which with a preposition means “before” and so “formerly” or “long ago”. Before there was any earth or sky, God was there, and he made them.

“Laid the foundation” is yâçad, to set, found or establish, a builder’s word. God is pictured as the architect who set the earth on a firm base, so the world we stand on was put there on purpose and in order. “The heavens are the work of thy hands” uses yâd, the hand. The sky above us, with everything in it, is God’s own handiwork. Earth and heavens together name the whole of creation, just as “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” does (Genesis 1:1). Isaiah calls him “the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth” (Isaiah 40:28).

The nations around Israel told of gods who struggled with one another or with unruly matter before the world came to be. The psalmist speaks of one God who built it all, the earth below and the heavens above.

This verse also carries the psalm’s prayer. The God who made the earth and the heavens is able to hear an afflicted man and to rebuild Zion. It also prepares for the next verse, because whatever God has made can grow old, while he cannot.

“They shall perish, but thou shalt endure.” “They” are the earth and heavens of verse 25. ʼâbad properly means to wander away or be lost, and so to perish. “Thou shalt endure” is ʻâmad, to stand. The heavens and the earth will be lost, and God will still be standing.

“Yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment.” The verb for “wax old”, bâlâh, means to wear out, like a coat that grows thin and frayed. Clothing was costly and everyone knew how it wore through in time, so the picture was plain to all. Isaiah uses the same comparison: “the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment” (Isaiah 51:6).

“As a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed.” A vesture, lᵉbûwsh, is a garment. The verb châlaph means to pass on, pass away, or change and replace, and it is the ordinary word for changing clothes. God will change the heavens and the earth as a man takes off worn clothes and puts on others, and “they shall be changed”. The verb comes twice, so that the change is certain once God wills it. What looks to us like the most lasting thing there is, the sky over our heads, is in his hands like a garment.

“But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end.” The KJV prints “art” in italics because the Hebrew leaves it to be understood. God is the same in his being, his character and his purposes. Creation wears out and the psalmist’s strength is failing, but God has stayed exactly who he is.

“Years”, shâneh, comes from a root meaning to repeat, so a year is one turn of time. Speaking of “thy years” uses our measure of time to describe God’s life, which has no limit. “Shall have no end” uses tâmam, to be finished, completed or brought to a stop. God’s years will never be finished. The psalm began this part by saying that God’s years run through all generations, and it returns to them here.

So God’s promises are sure, his love is constant and his justice is steady. Malachi records God saying, “I change not” (Malachi 3:6), and James calls him the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation (James 1:17). He is the Alpha and the Omega, the one who is, who was and who is to come (Revelation 1:8).

The passage ends with hope for others. “The children of thy servants shall continue, and their seed shall be established before thee.” A servant, ʻebed, is a servant or bondman, and God’s servants are the people who belong to him and live in obedience and faith. “Shall continue” is shâkan, to settle, stay or dwell, so their children will dwell in a settled home. “Seed”, zeraʻ, is seed or grain and so offspring, the descendants who come after. “Established” is kûwn, to be set up and made firm. “Before thee” places them in God’s presence, under his eye and his favour.

The two lines say the same thing twice, as Hebrew poetry often does, and the repetition makes the promise firm. It stands on the verses just before it. Because God is the same and his years have no end, the people who belong to him have a future that the wearing out of heaven and earth cannot take away.

The psalm names no date, but its longing for a ruined Zion to be rebuilt fits a time of national disaster, most likely the Babylonian exile or the years just after it. Children and the continuing of a family line mattered greatly to a people whose identity rested on God’s promises to Abraham, to give the land to his seed (Genesis 12:7) and to be a God to him and to his seed after him in an everlasting covenant (Genesis 17:7). The prophets made the same pledge: God’s kindness and covenant of peace hold firm (Isaiah 54:10), and Israel will stand before him as long as the sun, moon and stars keep their courses (Jeremiah 31:35–37). Paul says that God’s gifts and calling are without repentance (Romans 11:29).

This answers verse 23. The psalmist feared that his own days were being cut short. He ends by trusting that God’s people will go on, generation after generation, because God goes on. In the Old Testament the life of each believer was bound up with the life of the covenant people, and the promise that God will always keep a people for himself is the setting in which each of his servants finds a secure place.

The letter to the Hebrews quotes verses 25 to 27 and speaks them to the Son: “Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth” (Hebrews 1:10–12). Where the psalm says “as a vesture shalt thou change them”, Hebrews reads “as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail.” So the Son laid the foundations of the earth, the heavens are the work of his hands, and he stays the same while they wear out. Paul says that all things were created by him and for him and that by him all things hold together (Colossians 1:16–17). John says that the Word was with God, was God, and made all things (John 1:1–3). Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and for ever (Hebrews 13:8), the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end (Revelation 22:13). The psalm speaks to God, Hebrews hears the Son in it, and since Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one God, all three share this eternity and this unchanging nature.

These verses give words for the time when strength fails too soon. The psalmist says it plainly to God, names God’s hand in it, and asks to live. Then he looks from his own half-spent days to the God who was there before the earth was founded and will still be there when the heavens are folded away like old clothes. Nothing in his circumstances has changed yet, but he has found the One who never changes.

The passage shows us a God who hears the afflicted, who made everything and will make it new, and who keeps the children of his servants before him across every generation. In Christ that God has come close enough to share our shortened days and to break the power of death. Whatever our strength and however many our years, verse 27 still stands for us: “thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end.”