The One Constant in a World of Uncertainty

Psalm 102, we will start in verse number 23.

Let's pray, and then we'll get started. God,

we thank you that we can come into your house

tonight, and I pray that whatever burdens or

stress or anxiety or just struggles or anger

or whatever it is in our heart that we might

have brought in with us tonight, I pray. that

we would just seek you in these few moments.

I thank you for the love that you have for us,

the love that you put into this place. I thank

you for all the folks that are so dedicated to

come and to participate in ministries just like

we were working on before. And we thank you for

the freedom we have to come in here tonight.

And I pray that your word would help us to seek

you and know that you are eternal and you are

in control. And I ask these things in Jesus'

name. Amen. Just a brief recap. You may recall

that the very first part of this psalm, the psalmist

was crying out to the Lord in his day of distress,

in his time of struggle. And regardless of what

the psalmist's struggle was, we all have days

of distress. We all have days of struggle. We

have days where we may have enemies that are

coming against us like the psalmist. Or just

life, just life in itself is just... It's tough

just making it through a normal day. It's just

always something, it seems like. Things could

work just as easy as they don't, but nine times

out of ten, it just seems like things don't work.

If you ever got a 50 -50 shot of getting it right,

it seems like for me, I always get it wrong.

I was looking for something today through a big

stack of papers, and I said to myself, after

I got halfway through the stack, I said, you

know what I'm looking for is going to be at the

bottom of the stack. And so I started going through

the bottom first. And sure enough, I came across

it really quick. Sometimes things in life, they

just don't work as easy as we think they should.

And life is hard. And so we can relate to the

psalmist crying out to the Lord. So the first

few verses, he cries out to the Lord. Things

are really bad. He feels like everything is just

crumbling around him. But we see in verse 12,

but. he begins to praise the Lord and he began

to acknowledge the goodness of the Lord. And

he began to talk about the work of the Lord and

future generations praising the Lord and rejoicing

in the Lord. And then right here at the end of

the Psalm, for a second, he kind of goes back

to that old attitude, that old mindset. And we

see that in verse 23. He says, he has broken

my strength in mid course. He has shortened.

My days. That is, or verse 24, excuse me. I say,

my God, do not take from me in the middle of

my life. Your years continue through all generations.

So however how old the psalmist is here, he doesn't

appear to be very old. He says, in the middle

of his life. He's a young man, but yet life has

become very difficult to him. And what does he

say? He has broken my strength. In mid -course,

I'm in the middle of my race. I'm in the middle

of my life. I'm still a young man, and it just

doesn't seem like anything is going right. The

stress and the pain and the struggles of life

were heavy upon him. But what does he say? My

God, do not take me in the middle of my life.

God, bear with me. God, don't give up on me.

God, don't let this be the end. God, I want to

keep going, but life is too tough. So, God, I

need you to help me right now. And maybe that's

our prayer sometimes. Maybe every day. Maybe

some of you are younger. Maybe some of you are

older. Maybe some of you are just getting started

in your race. Maybe some of us are in the middle

of our race. Maybe some of you have been running

for a long time. And it doesn't really matter

where in your journey in life you are. There

are days that... We probably pray this prayer,

and if we don't, we probably need to. God, don't

abandon me. Don't leave me. Don't let this struggle

get the best of me. Don't take me, he says, in

the middle of my life. Now, he acknowledges that

his life is finite. There's a limit to it. And

the Scripture says that our life is short and

full of struggle, is what the Scripture says.

And we would all... Agree with that. We understand

that truth. But in the midst of his struggle,

he says, look, God, I know that I am finite.

I know that my strength is weak. I know that

I can't make it, God, on my own. But he also

realizes another truth that's very important.

And that is that even though we are temporal

in this world, God is eternal. And that's what

he says. My God, do not take me in the middle

of my life. Your years continue through all generations.

God, you are eternal. God, you have always been

and you will always be. You have seen generations

come and you have seen generations go and you

have shown your power and deliverance to those

who have come before me and you'll show your

power to those who have come after me. God, you

are eternal. But right here and right now, I'm

living in this time and I am weak and I can't

make it in my distress and in my struggle. So,

God of all eternity, I need you to help me. right

now. And then he continues back to that idea

of praise. He stops for a second and says, look,

God, my strength is broken. I'm in the middle

of my journey and I'm broken, but I'm still going

to praise you. So we see that same theme kind

of going back and forth in Psalm 102. He says

in verse 25, long ago you established the earth

and the heavens are the works of your hands.

They will perish, but you will endure. All of

them will wear out like clothing. You will change

them like a garment, and they will pass away.

But you are the same, and your years never end.

What a great reminder there that God is eternal.

God is all -powerful, and God is able to hold

together everything or everyone, No matter what

goes on, God has the power to share eternity

with us through Jesus Christ. That we don't just

have to live in this struggle and fight through

this struggle and die, but that we serve an eternal

God, and if we trust in Jesus Christ, His Son,

who died on the cross, then God promises to give

us eternal life. And so the psalmist calls out

to an eternal God, knowing that whatever happens

in this life, that there's something bigger and

something better that is in control of the God

of the universe. And so even if this earth should

pass away, even if the heaven should pass away,

God will still remain in control. And those who

trust in God will be protected by God and saved

by God and live for eternity in the presence

of God. a verse here that's quoted several times

in the New Testament in verse 26, talking about

the heavens and the earth. He says, They will

perish, but you will endure. All of them will

wear out like clothing. You will change them

like a garment, and they will pass away. We see

this reference sometimes. That is that things

that we see will not always be. that heaven and

earth shall pass away, and they will pass away

one day, and God will create a new heavens and

a new earth. That's what he says. God, you will

change them like clothing, like worn -out clothing

is changed. Now, it doesn't take us long to get

up in the morning, and we take our pajamas off,

and we put our clothes on. It's almost instantaneous,

only a few seconds for us to make that change.

We take off the old, and we put on the new. And

that's what the psalmist says here. God, you

are in control of everything, and everything

is going to pass away. It's going to change.

It's going to be changed like a garment. But

God, you are still in control. So even if this

world full of struggles is bad, I know, God,

that I don't trust in this world full of struggles.

I trust in you. And even the struggles will one

day pass away, but God, you will not. So God,

I trust in you that you will deliver me from

my struggles in this life and for all of eternity.

And that's the hope of the psalmist, is that

he knows that this world is not the final say.

Now that's good news for us tonight. We need

to be reminded of that. Because you go home and

you watch the news or you listen to the news

and you see all the evils and the struggles and

the pains that you're struggling, that you're

struggling with in your life and you see what

other people are struggling with around the world

and all the things that are going on, but we

have to remember what the psalmist remembered.

Okay, God, I'm weak right now in the midst of

the struggle, but when I'm weak, you are strong.

So, God, I know that you are eternal and I'm

going to trust in you. To know that one day this

struggle will end. But God, if I trust in you,

I'll have an eternity in your presence. Where

there will be no more struggle. There will be

no more crime. There will be no more worries.

There will be no more sin. All of that will come

to an end in the presence of an eternal God.

Verse 27. But you are the same and your years

will never end. Your servants' children. will

dwell securely and their offspring will be established

before you. He's continuing to remember those

who are going to come after him. That the God

of the people who came before him is the same

God that he's calling out to now. And he's the

same God who's going to be for generations to

come. Because generations will come and generations

will go. Good people will come and good people

will go. Bad people will come, bad people will

go. Good times will come, bad times will go.

This is the way that life is. Nothing in this

world is constant. There is only one thing that

is constant, one person that is constant, and

that is God, who has always been and who will

always be. So anything we trust in other than

God, we're in trouble because anything we trust

in is going to be destroyed. Anything we trust

in is going to be gone. And anything we trust

in that's not God, when it is gone, we will be

gone with it. But if we trust in the Lord, as

the things of the world come and as the things

of the world go, as the very heavens and the

very earth shall pass away, we serve an eternal

God who will make a new heavens and a new earth.

And through Jesus Christ desires to spend an

eternity with us in that heaven. So God promises

us an eternity through Jesus Christ. May that

be where our hope is tonight, that we're not

overcome by what is seen, but we have faith in

what is not seen. We have faith in an eternity

where our struggle will come to an end. The psalmist

knew that truth, and he cried out to God, God,

I'm weak in my struggle, but I trust you. May

that be our prayer tonight. Let's pray. God,

we come to you. We thank you for this good word.

And it's a word we can relate to because we've

got those struggles and those pains and those

difficulties. But God, I pray that you would

help us to realize that you are bigger than the

things that we see. The things that we see are

only temporary. But God, you are eternal. So

I pray that we would see that truth, that we

would rejoice in that truth, that we would rejoice

in the way you've worked. and those who have

come before us, that we would rejoice in the

way that you work in our life, dear Lord, and

that we would rejoice in the way that you'd work

in the lives of those who come after us, dear

Lord, that they would know the same truth that

we know, that the gospel has continued to be

spread, that Jesus Christ and his love and his

death and his resurrection, dear Lord, are spread

to a lost and dying world. that they would look

to the cross of Jesus, that they would look past

the things that are passing away, and they would

look to the eternal Savior of the world. And

I ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.