By Joshua Cooley
Book IV
Book IV is a response to the despair of Book III. With only two psalms attributed to David, this section anchors the worshiper outside the reign of David, all the way back to creation, the exodus, and the early history of the nation of Israel.
Forever is a long time.
But it seems we often don’t fully grasp the staggering nature of forever. Sometimes we unintentionally diminish its significance by using the word to describe life’s trivialities: “This project is taking me forever,” “I’m going to be stuck in traffic forever!” “Good grief! This line at Disney is lasting forever!” (Come to think of it, that last one comes pretty close to forever.)
But when we talk about God’s forever nature, there’s nothing trivial about it. The Lord God Almighty has existed eternally. He created all things, but no one created Him. He is self-existent. No beginning, no end. Veiled in our finite nature, we humans can struggle to digest the concept of God’s eternality. It’s the deep end of the theological pool! Everything else in our experience has starting and ending points. Food is grown, and food is consumed. Movies begin, and movies end. The day starts when we wake up and ends when we fall asleep.
Yet God is eternal. In fact, not only does He exist forever, He reigns forever. As Psalm 93:1–2 says, “The LORD reigns! He is robed in majesty; the LORD is robed, enveloped in strength. The world is firmly established; it cannot be shaken. Your throne has been established from the beginning; you are from eternity.”
Simple mental assent to this truth on our part isn’t enough. We need to understand its deep significance for our lives and how to respond.
Because God reigns forever, He is the beginning and end of everything. He makes the rules, and we must submit. Even when we don’t fully understand, we can trust in the goodness of His character. We should approach Him in reverence and awe (Psalm 99:1–3). No matter what we’re going through in life, we can run to God for shelter through prayer and faith.
We can never plumb the depths of God’s greatness and goodness. This broken world is not the end of the story. One day, God will destroy all evil and redeem the righteous (Psalm 92:6–15). Our future redemption is inevitable because our all-powerful God reigns forever.
We could say much more. The glories of God’s eternal reign are, well, eternal! What should be our overall response to these amazing truths? The writer of Psalm 95 sums it up beautifully: “Come, let’s worship and bow down; let’s kneel before the LORD our Maker. For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, the sheep under his care” (Psalm 95:6–7).
The more we learn about God’s incredible nature, including his eternal rule, the more we should be inspired to worship and praise Him. May it be so, Lord!
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