Passage

Psalms 102.26-27

Book: Psalms · NASB95

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

24. I said, O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days: Thy years are throughout all generations. 25. Of old didst thou lay the foundation of the earth; And the heavens are the work of thy hands.

26. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure; Yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; As a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed: 27. But thou art the same, And thy years shall have no end.

The children of thy servants shall continue, And their seed shall be established before thee. (Psalms 102:24-28, ASV)

WEB

24. I said, “My God, don’t take me away in the middle of my days. Your years are throughout all generations. 25. Of old, you laid the foundation of the earth. The heavens are the work of your hands.

26. They will perish, but you will endure. Yes, all of them will wear out like a garment. You will change them like a cloak, and they will be changed. 27. But you are the same. Your years will have no end.

The children of your servants will continue. Their offspring will be established before you.” (Psalms 102:24-28, WEB)

KJV

24. I said, O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days: thy years are throughout all generations. 25. Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands.

26. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed: ^{endure: Heb. stand} 27. But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end.

The children of thy servants shall continue, and their seed shall be established before thee. (Psalms 102:24-28, KJV)

YLT

24. I say, 'My God, take me not up in the midst of my days,' Through all generations [are] Thine years. 25. Beforetime the earth Thou didst found, And the work of Thy hands [are] the heavens.

26. They, They perish, and Thou remainest, And all of them as a garment become old, As clothing Thou changest them, And they are changed. 27. And Thou [art] the same, and Thine years are not finished.

The sons of Thy servants do continue, And their seed before Thee is established! (Psalms 102:24-28, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: the afflicted man of the psalm's title, unnamed: "A Prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed, and poureth out his complaint before Jehovah"
Audience: God, addressed directly; the closing verse widens to "the children of thy servants" (102:28)
Location: not stated; the psalm longs for God to "have mercy upon Zion" and "build up Zion" (102:13, 16), which places the speaker among people who grieve over the city
Time period: undated; the hope that God will rebuild Zion and "loose those that are appointed to death" (102:16, 20) has led many to place it in or after the exile

Theological reading

"They shall perish, but thou shalt endure; Yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; As a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed: But thou art the same, And thy years shall have no end." The man praying is dying. "He weakened my strength in the way; he shortened my days," he says, and "take me not away in the midst of my days" (102:23-24). He answers his own short life with the one life that has no limit.

Everything made wears out. The subject of "they shall perish" is the earth and the heavens of the verse before, "the work of thy hands" (102:25). The picture is of clothing: it ages, and its owner takes it off and puts on another. "Change" and "be changed" are the same Hebrew verb (Strong's H2498), so the world does not wear itself out and replace itself. God changes it. Isaiah uses the same image for the end of the present order: "the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment" (Isaiah 51:6).

God stands. "Thou shalt endure" is H5975, where the KJV margin gives "Heb. stand." The heavens fall; God remains standing. "Thou art the same" is, in the Hebrew, literally "thou art he," a phrase the Old Testament also puts in God's own mouth: "I, even I, am he" (Deuteronomy 32:39), "understand that I am he" (Isaiah 43:10). His years "shall have no end" (H8552, to be finished or completed). Malachi gives the same truth as the ground of Israel's survival: "For I, Jehovah, change not; therefore ye, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed" (Malachi 3:6). The psalm draws the same conclusion in its next line, "The children of thy servants shall continue" (102:28). God's sameness is not stated as an abstract property; it is the reason the people of God outlast their own frailty. See Divine Immutability.

Applied to the Son. Hebrews 1:10-12 quotes these verses, with verse 25, as words spoken "of the Son" (Hebrews 1:8), following the Greek text, which opens "Thou, Lord, in the beginning." The psalm addresses the Creator; Hebrews identifies the Son as that Creator without further argument. The same letter later says, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and to-day, yea and for ever" (Hebrews 13:8).

The world is not God. The verses draw the line that pantheism erases. The heavens age, change and perish; God does not. Whatever the universe is made of, it is the garment and not the wearer. That contrast is why God Is the Eternal Atoms Objection Defeater cites this passage: matter that wears out cannot be the God whose "years shall have no end." The image is poetry about creation's dependence and transience, not a statement of physics, though readers have long noticed its fit with a universe that runs down (see Second Law of Thermodynamics).

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word.

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Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Concepts:

Christianity, via Psalms 102.25-27
Christs Deity, via Psalms 102.25-27
Divine Immutability, via Psalms 102.25-27
Laws of the Universe as Witness to Design, via Psalms 102.25-27
Old Testament Witness to the Deity of Christ, via Psalms 102.25-27
Second Law of Thermodynamics, via Psalms 102.25-27
Two Powers in Heaven, via Psalms 102.25-27

Lexicon:

G2962 - kyrios, via Psalms 102.25-27

Notes

Your annotations.

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.