I Am Unchanging Series

We live in a world that is changing every single second. We can’t keep up. But the consequences of not keeping up are frightening. Business leader Jack Welch predicted that if the rate of change on the outside exceeds the rate of change on the inside, the end is near. In other words, if the world keeps changing faster and faster, it will reach a point where we can no longer keep up with it and we could find ourselves in a situation like the movie “Terminator” where the machines and the people who build them and control them will rule the world, so to speak. He may be more correct than he realizes. I think we’re already beginning to see that happen, amen? According to the Prophet Daniel, the last days will be filled with people running to and fro seeking knowledge … not realizing that we’re rushing headlong into the last days (Daniel 12:4).

All of this could be quite overwhelming … frightening even … if it weren’t for … say it with me … God. Our stability in a world filled with instability is this … “Deus semper idem” … “God is always the same.” God is immutable. He never changes. When astronaut Alan Shepherd was getting ready to go into space for the first time, a reporter asked him: “What are you depending on in this flight?” I love his answer! “I’m depending upon the fact that God’s laws will not change.”

The poor poet of Psalm 102 would agree that Alan Shepherd is spot on. I say “poor” because Psalm 102 is, as it says at the top of the psalm, “a prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed and pours out his compliant before the Lord.” Can you relate? Ever been there? Afflicted … overwhelmed … ready to pour out your complaint to the Lord?

This poor soul begins his prayer by asking God to hear his cry in the day of his troubles. He is very ill. His bones burn with pain (v. 3). His heart is stricken and withered like grass (v. 4). He is alone in his suffering. He compares himself to an owl in the wilderness. An odd comparison but owls are solitary birds who hunt at night. An image of solitude. He compares himself to a lonely sparrow on a roof top, who usually fly in flocks (v. 6-7). Again … an image of loneliness … of being abandoned. He can’t sleep. His enemies are circling around him, ready to take advantage of his weakened condition and attack him at any moment (v. 8). His misery and suffering are so great that he can’t stop crying. Death, he fears, is knocking at his door.

But in verse 12, his tone and his attitude change. He reminds himself that the One he is praying to is the immutable, unchangeable God of Israel. “But You, O Lord,” he rejoices … rejoices! … “shall endure forever.” In verses 25 to 27 … the ones we read earlier … he speaks about how the earth may pass and everyone living on it, but God, “Deus semper idem” … who is always the same … from everlasting to everlasting … will always be the same and His years will have no end.

In other words, what the psalmist realizes is that he changes but God does not! When we are afflicted …. overwhelmed ... complaining … unable to sleep … and surrounded by our troubles … we must turn our eyes and our hearts to God, who is “Deus semper idem” … God, who is always the same … whose years have no end.