Psalm 102: 25-27

²⁵          In the beginning You laid the foundation of the earth,

                        and the heavens are the work of Your hands.

²⁶          They will perish, but you will remain;

                        they will all wear out like a garment.

            Like clothing You will change them,

                        and they will pass away,

²⁷             but You are the same,

and Your years have no end.

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Christ – the eternal Sovereign

For the Lord’s Day:  the 2^nd of  February 2003

 

Hebrews 1: 10-12

“And ‘You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning ,and the heavens are the work of your hands; they will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment, like a robe you will roll them up, like a garment they will be changed.   But you are the same, and your years will have no end.’”

 

Introduction:  Commentator John Brown tells us that this “passage is obviously brought forward to illustrate directly, not the inferiority of the angels to the Son, but the superiority of the Son to the angels.”  In several further paragraphs, he admits that we would not ordinarily use portions of Psalm 102 to describe the very Son of God, unless we understand that the restoration period Psalm truly applies to “the kingdom of the Messiah.”  Further Brown observes “even although the original reference to the Messiah in the Psalm could not be so satisfactorily made out as it is, the argument to a Christian is quite a conclusive one.  Language plainly applicable only, to a divine person is by an inspired author referred to Jesus Christ: therefore He is divine; and because He is divine, infinitely superior to the angels.”

 

The Old Covenant understanding:  Spurgeon establishes this Psalm as a national plaint for the condition of the Capital and country resting upon Zion – the city of our God.  But, any use of the word “complaint,” he tells us, “has in it none of the idea of fault-finding or repining, but should rather be rendered ‘moaning’, - the expression of pain, not of rebellion.”

 

The introductory moaning in the first half of the Psalm is for the utter distress in which the psalmist finds Zion’s holy precincts and the surrounding city and lands.  And as the psalmist progresses towards a stronger ending in confidence – we find a growing hope of better things to come.  And in the Apostolic use of that end, we can almost sense and understand the moaning of all creation – until the underlying afflictions have all passed away in the final establishment of the heavenly kingdom under the divine rule of Messiah having come!

 

Commentator Stephen Charnock compares the usage of the “earth” and “heavens” in the twenty-fifth verse, as indicative of “the most stable parts of the world, and the most beautiful parts of the creation, those that are freest from corruptibility and change, to illustrate thereby the immutability of God, that though the heavens and earth have a prerogative of fixedness above other parts of the world, … and are as beautiful and fresh in their age as they were in their youth many years ago, … yet this firmness of the earth and heavens is not to be regarded in comparison of the immovableness and fixedness of the being of God.  As their beauty comes short of the glory of his being, so doth their firmness come short of his stability.”

 

But, these glorious beauties of the earth are transitory – in the end, on that great Day when all heaven breaks loose – the substance and design of the temporal creation shall see corruption and all things will be changed into something better.  And the very design of Creation that enables us to see a hint of its Creator, will give way so that we may see the Triune God of heaven and earth Himself in all His splendor and glory in the person of Jesus Christ.

 

The New Covenant Development:  Even as the Old Covenant prophets realized, the fading glory of the world is for a time or a season only.  This correct view of the created order is affirmed in the Revelationary prophecies of the Apostle John and this view is brought to the surface here to demonstrate the higher being of Christ and the fact that the Creator Triune God is higher, more certain and stable than any part of the created order.

 

In fact, the Apostle here would convince us in these verses that Christ is indeed the Divine One mentioned in this psalm and thereby, because of His eternal and everlasting divinity thereby superior to the angelic order.  “Moreover,”  F.F. Bruce would admonish us “in the Septuagint text the person to whom these words are spoken is addressed explicitly as ‘Lord,” and it is God who addresses him thus.”  This very eternal divine nature of Jesus Christ, thereby defines the created order of angels as inferior to their Creator as is the creation itself.

 

And further, the persistent human scientific suspicion that creation is running down and will one day end – is indeed as true as the scriptural references that pronounce the theory true.  But, the earth and all therein are not the limit of all that exists.  There is as the Bible tells us another presence beyond creation and He is permanent, beyond the created order and thereby we must presume as He would have us know it – that His life and purpose towards us is eternal in its implication.

 

Another Psalm, the 90^th reminds us of our personally limited life span, and the records of history do indeed demonstrate that many generations have come and gone – but to the worldly human: only the world continues.  But to those whom God loves with an everlasting love – there is the promise of life eternal in and through the creative agency personified in the second person of God:  Jesus Christ, Himself!

 

Application:  Only two lessons remain in this first chapter of the incredible book written for the benefit of the Hebrew people who clung to the Old Covenant structures and foundations of faith which correctly understood must culminate in Christ alone!  “One God”, the Jewish rabbis still sing of, because their eyes are blind and they cannot see the majestic glories of our Jesus Christ woven into every thread of the fabric of their national word, testimony and story given to them by the God of all creation.

 

Of course the Christian Church is little better.  Having bought, hook – line and sinker the evolutionary themes from the secular scholars who have broken every law and principle of theology, philosophy, science and truth: the contemporary American Church is little worse than the degenerate generation of Hebrew scholars who refused to consider the implications of every “jot and tittles” in their Law and Prophets.

 

Every principles of doctrine, hermeneutics, even the symbolism of Sonship, Bride of Christ as well as the promises and purposes of the Creator God are all suspect in many imaginative ways that would be the envy of pagan scholars in every generation.

 

What we have to realize, if we are to understand the arguments of this Apostle to the Hebrews – is the nature and name of the person, with whom we are dealing in the New Covenant records.  Jesus Christ is according to the revelations of the historic Christian Church the very Son of God, God with Us or the Third Person of the Trinity – however, we would sustain the faithful witness of the first generation Christians and the Apostolic authority!

 

Here we are fifteen lessons into the first chapter of this amazing work and the present theme is hardly wrung out:  Jesus Christ is Lord and God!  Of His glories, the Apostle John tells us the whole world could be filled with books!  And if all the libraries of the world were fairly accounted – that is a prophecy that is increasingly evident. 

 

In the last decade, the worldly publishers have all rushed to pick up by purchase every Christian publishing house because Christians read more widely and more seriously than much of the contemporary culture.  Of course, I have no doubts that part of that rush to buy – has more to do with some form of ultimate control.  We have only to consider the ongoing tragedy of the Zondervan House and the International Bible Society in their senseless sellout of scriptural integrity for any increase in their market share of Bibles sold.

 

Yet given the proposed Canadian regulations – much profit can be gained in replacing every scriptural copy in that country with a politically correct version protective of Sodomite cares and concerns.  Just think what an ongoing increase of governmental regulations could do with biblical printing trends as more and more aspects of the biblical truths become declared illegal.

 

What will future generations be allowed to know about our God and King if the corporate socialists gleefully continue to change the Christian scriptures to serve their marketing ends and the increasing need of sinners to reflect upon the innate goodness of their personas – all to the declining whims of self-esteem?

 

More and more, the present generation needs to know and realize that God is indeed God and that He; Himself came in the person of Jesus Christ.  He is above and beyond all creation and in His glorious eternity – He will judge the nations, and all the tribes and peoples of the earth.

 

Near the end of Hebrews, the Apostle defines the unchangeableness of the very nature of Christ:  “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.  Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them.”  (Hebrews 13: 8-9)  He also warns us against strange teachings that would feed the mere mortal cravings for encouraging thoughts and doctrines that please the palate alone!

 

One of the things that caused me the most emotional and intellectual pain in the public sector over three decades was the still ongoing affinity for change – even as the corruption of culture increased dramatically and change came to resemble a series of pampering to the basest forms of the human ego.  And I do mean pampering in the popular marketing sense - pun intended!

 

Dr Raymond Brown, gives us a closing thought as we stand on the threshold of the third millennium:  “It is interesting to note that the first readers of this letter were reminded that, in a world characterized by change, they could be assured of the companionship of the changeless Lord Jesus Christ.  The word must surely have come to them with encouraging assurance: ‘You  remain’ He is the same and his ‘your years will have no end.’   This inspiring conviction not only comes at the beginning of the letter but is also asserted” in its closing chapter:  “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”  Amen and Amen! 

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PREACHING RESOURCES

 

Brown, John.  A Geneva Series Commentary: Hebrews.

Brown, Raymond.  The Bible Speaks Today: The Message of Hebrews.

Bruce, F.F. The Epistle to the Hebrews.

Spurgeon, C.H:  Treasury of David.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version

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