Psalm 90:1-2 — Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.
Every so often I’m overwhelmed by one or other of the mysteries of our faith.
How about this one: God was before time, and a God will be after time. I have no way to understand the notion of the time before time and the time after time. I simply believe that this infinite nature of God is what is.
One of the most awe-inspiring moments recorded in the whole Bible is, for me, that moment when God says to Moses, “I AM THAT I AM : and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.” (Exodus 3:14).
God defines Himself as just “being”. God is not created, He had no past, He has no future, He IS. That is, to me, incomprehensible.
Moses understood what he was hearing. The verses from Psalm 90 (titled “A prayer of Moses, the man of God”) make it clear. Physically, the Israelites had been wanderers, but wherever they wandered God was with them, and the awareness of that presence is what defined the dwelling place — the home — for the Israelites. Moses was confident that no matter how far he could look back into history he would find God, and no matter how far he could look into the future — from everlasting to everlasting — he would find God.
Moses compared God to the oldest and most stable, least changeable, objects he knew. Over time, even the mountains could change. All created things could change, but God would never change. He IS God.
There is something else incredible to me about God’s announcement of Himself to Moses. It is that this incomprehensible eternal being should speak at all to one of His creatures. This direct intervention in the fate of His people make it very clear that God is a God of relationships. It is an extraordinarily personal involvement that will not be matched again until Jesus walks the earth.
Moses understood what happened. Again we see it reflected in the Psalm. God is the dwelling place for His people, unchanging in His loving care for them.
Somewhere in this communication between eternal and unchanging God and His children, His creatures, I see part of what is at the heart of my Christian faith. It’s also in those other verses from Psalm 85 too:
“Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven.” (Psalm 85:10-11)
An unchanging eternal God has stepped into time because He loves, and passionately desires community with changeable finite man. His friend Moses understood it.