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Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents
102:25-28 The Lord Is Eternal, and His Faithfulness Outlasts the World. The psalm finishes with words addressed to God, meditating on God's everlasting being and purpose. The average person experiences the physical world as a long-established operation (cf. the English saying, "as old as the hills"); and yet God is older still. Of old God laid the foundation of the earth; he was there before the world was created (cf. 90:1-2). And though the earth and heavens will perish and will all wear out like a garment, God will remain. In fact, the years will not change him; you are the same. This means that his purposes will not change either, and, even if it takes (what seems to us) a long time to bring those purposes about, he will never grow weary or give up. Thus the psalm closes with confidence that goes well beyond the individual worshipers' lifetime, expecting God to keep his promises to many faithful generations descended from today's faithful (102:28).
102:25-27 Hebrews 1:10-12 cites these verses from the Greek Septuagint, which is very close to the Hebrew. Because the book of Hebrews applies the words to Jesus, some interpreters think of this passage as "messianic." But it is better to observe that the text is not explicitly messianic; rather, NT authors call Jesus "Lord" (Gk. Kyrios, the LXX rendering of Yahweh) and apply to him several OT texts about Yahweh (e.g., Phil. 2:10-11, using Isa. 45:23; 1 Pet. 2:3, using Ps. 34:8; 1 Pet. 3:15, using Isa. 8:13); further, Christ's involvement in creation supports this pattern (e.g., John 1:1; Col. 1:16; Heb. 1:2). (See note on Ps. 97:7.) The author of Hebrews uses the expression the same again for Jesus (Heb. 13:8).
