Before the mountains were born, before you had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, you are God. Psalm 90:2 WEB
This is the oldest of all of the psalms. The title is “A Prayer of Moses.” In the psalm, Moses teaches the Israelites to give God praise for his care of the people through the generations. This verse praises God for his eternal existence. In addition, it praises God for his creation of the world. It glorifies the Lord in the power and majesty made manifest in the material world.
After experiencing their miraculous deliverance from Egypt, the Israelites, frustrated by the difficulty of their wilderness experience, turned away from God and worshiped a golden calf. This idolatry displeased the Lord. Moses prayer is an appeal to our heavenly Father for compassion and an example to the people of faith and worship.
Moses’ words indicate his belief and awareness that God is the most high authority. It demonstrates his submission to the Creator in awe and reverence. Beyond that, Moses’ words indicate an understanding that the material world arose from the eternal immaterial nature of God. Just as a painting indicates the existence of a painter, the creation itself indicates the existence of a Creator.
From Everlasting to Everlasting
Cause and effect are inextricably linked. It stands to reason that the cause of the material world is a timeless, immaterial, uncaused Creator. This is necessarily so. Otherwise, we are met with an infinite regress of causes. As Moses says, God exists “from everlasting to everlasting.” In other words, God is eternal while the material world is temporary and only brought into being by the Creator.
Jesus too is eternal. As we read in John 1:1-3, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him. Without him, nothing was made that has been made. WEB”
Jesus Christ is the Word of God. He is God in the flesh. John 1:14 makes this clear saying, “The Word became flesh and lived among us. We saw his glory, such glory as of the one and only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth. WEB” Jesus is our supreme example of the immaterial giving rise to the material. Though the body dies, his resurrection points to the believer’s eternal life with the Father in heaven.
Prayer: “Father God, when I consider the glory of your eternal goodness, I am in awe of you and your creation. From everlasting to everlasting, you are God. Forgive the corruption in me as I turn from sin and toward the righteousness made manifest in Christ. In Jesus’ name – Amen”
Yesterday’s Devotional: A Spring of Life
