Manifold Majesty (Psalm 90:1-2, 4)
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I. What God is for His People
In this Psalm, Moses magnifies the grace of adoption. Israel was once leaderless in an earthly sense. In fact, for many years they lived as a people without God. But now, God has become their God and He has taken them in as His own. He promises to do them good all the days of their life. Isaac Watts reflected on these truths when he penned the words:
Our God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Our shelter from the stormy blast,
And our eternal home.
The people of God, at every point in history, have always found a home with the Most High, He has always been our “dwelling place.” There is nothing stable in this life, except for the Lord. He is not a shallow-pegged tent in the desert, but a fixed, sure and lasting foundation. Through all of life’s ups and downs, our only security and surety is in Him.
II. Who God Has Always Been
The Eternal One. God is time-less. Before time was, while time rolls on, when time shall be no more—He lives, and He is the great “I am that I am.” He has no beginning and no end. He is measureless eternity, without the succession of moments, hours, days or years. Every moment of every day is ever before Him. When we consider the truth of God’s love in the light of His eternality, it is even more amazing. Just as He is God from everlasting to everlasting, so also His love towards us is from everlasting to everlasting. It has no beginning and it has no end. Our God “chose us in Him before the foundation of the world” and “in love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself” (Ephesians 1:3-5).
The Self-Existent One. God is the uncaused cause. He alone is the cause of all created things. He has no origin, no beginning. His existence depends on nothing outside of Himself. He is not only independent in Himself, but His self-existence causes everything else to depend on Him for existence. Creatures (like us) have a derived existence, and therefore a dependent existence. God, on the other hand, is self-existent, and therefore self-dependent and self-sufficient “to all generations.”
The Changeless One. In all of God’s perfections, He is unchanging. He is neither susceptible to change nor capable of change. He simply is and cannot change, either in His being or in His promises. He is not tirelessly working to stay the same, but is essentially God.
What amazing, steadfast hope is ours because of who He is! He is God eternal (“Before the mountains were born…”). He is God without us (“from everlasting to everlasting, You are God”). He is God with us and for us (“You have been our dwelling place”). He is Immanuel. He became man and dwelt among us. He did not need us, and yet He chose to save us, rescue us, and redeem us for Himself!
- What does it mean that God is eternal? Self-existent? Changeless? How does each of those truths affect the way you worship Him and trust Him?
- How does the knowledge of God as eternal, self-existent, and changeless help us understand His other attributes, such as love, justice, power, sovereignty, goodness, etc.?