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.