"Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God. You turn man to destruction; and say, Return, you children of men. For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night." (Psalm 90:1-4)
One of the most minute compositions ever penned, combining the loftiest and sublimest thought with language in the most simple and easily understood. Its rhythm makes it most easy to commit to memory, for it fastens itself in the mind without effort. It is not, however, as a literary production that we are to consider it, but as a comforting uplifting truth.
One thought that is vividly set forth in this passage is the fact that God is the Great Father of all;--not simply of all men, but of all things. This thought is expressed in the words, "Before the mountains were brought forth." (Psalm 90:2)
All know that the words "bring forth" are the equivalent of "bear" as applied to the bringing of young into the world, and are very frequent in the Scripture. The Hebrew word in this place is the word meaning "to bear, to bring forth," and several translations have the clause very literally and correctly rendered, "Before the mountains of were born."
The French of Segond, which is easy of access for verification, has it, "Avant que les montagnes fussent nés."
The thought is still further carried out in the remainder of the clause, "or ever formed the earth and the world," although here it is necessarily obscured in the translation. The word rendered "formed" is a Hebrew word meaning "to twist, to turn around," and hence "to writhe, to be in pain," and so "to travail, to bring forth," or, in the passive, "to be born."
In the following text, the words are from this same Hebrew word as the word "formed" in the text just quoted: "Look unto Abraham your father and the Sara that bore you." (Isaiah 51:2) "When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth." (Proverbs 8:24-25) "Are you the first man that was born? or were you made before the hills?" (Job 15:7)
These last two texts indicate that the act is the same for both men and mountains. Among other instances of the same word, are: "Sing, O barren, you that did not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, you that did not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, says the Lord." (Isaiah 54:1) "Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she was delivered of a man child. Who has heard such a thing? who has seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children." (Isaiah 66:7-8) "The voice of the Lord makes the hinds to calve, and discovers the forests: and in His temple does every one speak of His glory." (Psalm 29:9) "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me." (Psalm 51:5)
In the second verse we have the terms "the earth" and "the world," the first referring to the planet on which we dwell, and the second to the habitable earth--the population. It is so used in: "And He shall judge the world in righteousness, He shall minister judgment to the people in uprightness." (Psalm 9:8) "For He comes, for He comes to judge the earth: He shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with His truth." (Psalm 96:13) "For He comes to judge the earth: with righteousness shall He judge the world, and the people with equity." (Psalm 98:9)
The verse might therefore with strict propriety be rendered thus: "Before the mountains were born, or ever You had brought forth the earth and its people, even from eternity to eternity You are God."
This little study of words is certainly not so technical as to disturb anybody in his reading, and it is surely calculated to bring us consciously nearer to God, and to make His presence more real.
Jesus Christ is "the firstborn of all creation." (Colossians 1:15,RV)
This again shows the one common origin of all things animate and inanimate. Jesus was begotten of the Father before there was anything. "The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His way, before His works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth: While as yet He had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor thehighest part of the dust of the world." (Proverbs 8:22-26) "He is before all things." (Colossians 1:17)
He is the Only-begotten Son, without whom nothing was made. "All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made." (John 1:3) "For in Him were all things created, in the heavens and upon the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things have been created through Him, and unto Him; And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist [or "hold together"]." (Colossians 1:16-17,RV)
Christ is "the everlasting Father" (Isaiah 9:6) of all creation, visible and invisible. There is but one family in heaven and earth, and all its members are named from Him. "For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named," (Ephesians 3:14-15)
Even the inhabitants of this fallen world "are His offspring," although they are prodigal sons, wandering sheep; "For both He that sanctifies and they who are sanctified are all of one; for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren." (Hebrews 2:11)
We are allied to the angels in heaven, yet we are in the closest family relation to the earth on which we tread, for we are but dust. "Out of it were you taken: for dust you are, and unto dust shall you return." (Genesis 3:19)
So while on the one hand we may have the highest aspirations and the most confident hopes, on the other hand we have no more reason to be proud than the clod that is crushed by the plowman's boot. A proper appreciation of our origin would give to us the greatness of true humility.
God is. That is His name. He is the self-existent One. He is pure life, the Spirit of life. The Word was in the beginning with God, and was God, and: "By the Word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth." (Psalm 33:6)
Christ as the everlasting Word, is "I AM." (John 8:58)
In Him is life, for He is "the life." (John 14:6)
In Him were all things created; from Him, from His very being, His life, all things came. That is why we have redemption through His blood--His life. In giving himself for us, He gives the life of the universe. Thus He renews our life, and we are born again. "What a wonderful Saviour!"--E. A. Hoffman, Hymn: What a Wonderful Saviour, 1891
That is our origin. What a broad and deep meaning this reveals in the words, "Our Father." God is more really our Father than is the man whose earthly name we bear. The relation between God and the whole human race, and to all creation as well, infinitely closer than that of earthly parents to their children. So the Lord says, "As one whom his mother comforts, so will I comfort you." (Isaiah 66:13)
But His parental comfort is as much greater than that of any human mother, as He is greater than any human being. Earthly relationships, at their best, are not merely illustrations, but revelations, of the relation and love of God to mankind.
But we have not yet fathomed the depth of this scripture. Indeed, we have but just begun to explore it. We are bound to God by ties closer than that of any child to its mother. The love of a mother for her child is the highest known among men, but God's is infinitely greater. "Can a mother forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget you." (Isaiah 49:15)
The child is formed of the very substance of the mother, and draws its life from her being; yet even for all that, the mother may forget and even hate her child; but God will not. Why not? Because: "In Him we live, and move, and have our being." (Acts 17:28)
He is our dwelling place. The child, once born, can live independent of its mother, but we can never live apart from God. The mother may die the moment the child draws its first breath, and the child may still live the full term of life; but our life depends on God's life every moment. He is our life, and the length of our days. "For He is your life, and the length of your days." (Deuteronomy 30:20)
In Him we live. The relation of men to God, even down to gray hairs and throughout eternity, is that of the unborn child to its mother. From the very nature of things the mother cannot forget the creature that she carries beneath her heart, and which she nourishes with her own heart's blood. Its presence day and night is a constant claim upon her thought.
Moreover compassion is wrapped up in the thought, for the Hebrew word for "womb" means "compassion, mercy, pity." There are unnatural parents, it is true. He is the Parent of the whole human race, and every moment He carries us in His bosom. The only begotten Son "is in the bosom of the Father," (John 1:16) and we are in Him. What a safe and quiet dwelling place! How close and tender is our relation to the everlasting Father!
It is very easy for us to imagine that we have an existence apart from and independent of God, because we move about freely at our pleasure, and do not see any connection between us and God. That is because we have not our eyes open.
But the closest scrutiny does not in the least shake the statement that our relation to God is that of the unborn babe to its mother,--we are carried in His bosom, and nourished by His life. The child in embryo has a circulation of its own, as distinct as that of any living creature. The blood of the mother does not circulate through the child; it simply draws the life-giving property from the blood of the mother.
So although we have a complete circulation of blood in our bodies, we nevertheless draw all our life sustenance from the life--the blood--of the Lord. His heart is the heart of the universe. From Him flows the stream of life which keeps all creation in existence. The life is the blood; and by whatever means the life is conveyed to us, whether by the air, the sunlight, food, or drink, it is all some manifestation of the blood of Christ, which not only gives life, but which cleanses from sin.
Yes, God is our dwelling-place; never can we be separated from His being without being blotted from existence. So we may read with new wonder and fresh comfort the promise of God, "My people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places." (Isaiah 33:18)
How comforting to know that this sure dwelling place is "from everlasting to everlasting." When we read that a thousand years are to Him not merely as one day, but as a day gone by, and that we are but as nothing in comparison with His eternal greatness, it is not to belittle us, but to exalt Him, and to give us confidence. Happy the people who can say with the confidence of experience, "God is our refuge and strength." (Psalm 46:1)
In heavenly love abiding,
No change my heart can fear;
And safe is such confiding.
For nothing changes here.
The storm may roar without me,
My heart may low be laid;
But God is round about me;
And can I be dismayed?
--Anna L. Waring, Hymn: In Heavenly Love Abiding, 1850.
--Present Truth, October 12, 1899--Psalm 90:1-4.