Happy Mother’s Day to you all!
Mother’s Day is the second-highest attendance for church nationwide, most years. People show up to church more on Mother’s Day than they do on Father’s Day. I bet you can think of some good reasons why people show up to church more on Mother’s Day than almost any day of the year. I think it’s because moms are usually one of the first people to tell us anything about God.
We continue a sermon series entitled, Hello My Name is God. This is a series devoted to exploring the character of God through the Bible’s worship book, the Psalms. When the book of Psalms tells you about the character of God, it’s not clinical. No, it’s not a dry, classroom lecture. Instead, God is a 911 kind of God. He’s the one you call when you’re in distress. God is the one you can rely on no matter what.
Imagine with me, for a moment, the magic of old Hollywood. In the 1930s, Fox Film Corporation pioneered a filmmaking trick called rear projection. Here’s how it worked: actors would sit in a car or a train car on a soundstage, perfectly still. Behind them was a giant screen showing moving footage of a city street, countryside, or bustling station. The camera would capture both the actors and the moving background, creating the illusion that they were speeding down the highway or rolling along the rails. In reality, they never left the studio. This technique brought to life countless scenes in cars, trains, and taxis, letting audiences believe in journeys that never actually happened.1 But if you looked closely, you’d notice something: the world behind the actors was constantly shifting, changing, sometimes a little out of sync. Yet, the actors themselves remained fixed, unmoving, right there on the stage. Today, we use techniques like green screens and fully immersive sound stages to create those same effects.
This brings us to Psalm 102, where the psalmist honestly pours out his heart about how everything in his world is changing. When you read Psalm 102, you’ll notice his health, circumstances, and very life feel like they’re vanishing “like smoke.” Yet, during all this change, he finds a fixed point: “but you are the same, and your years have no end” (Psalm 102:27). The world moves and shifts, but God is steady, unchanging, and faithful. God is the anchor in every storm, the fixed point in every scene.
Read Psalm 102 with me as we look toward the One who never changes.
Today’s Scripture
“Hear my prayer, O LORD;
let my cry come to you!
Do not hide your face from me
in the day of my distress!
Incline your ear to me;
answer me speedily in the day when I call!
12 But you, O LORD, are enthroned forever;
you are remembered throughout all generations.
You will arise and have pity on Zion;
it is the time to favor her;
the appointed time has come.
For your servants hold her stones dear
and have pity on her dust.
Nations will fear the name of the LORD,
and all the kings of the earth will fear your glory.
For the LORD builds up Zion;
he appears in his glory;
he regards the prayer of the destitute
and does not despise their prayer.
Let this be recorded for a generation to come,
so that a people yet to be created may praise the LORD:
that he looked down from his holy height;
from heaven the LORD looked at the earth,
to hear the groans of the prisoners,
to set free those who were doomed to die,
that they may declare in Zion the name of the LORD,
and in Jerusalem his praise,
when peoples gather together,
and kingdoms, to worship the LORD” (Psalm 102:1-2, 12-22).
This is a song of trust in God, and why you should trust in God even more than you do.
Sermon Preview
1. What He Is
2. What We Are
3. What We Need
1. What He Is
“But you, O LORD, are enthroned forever; you are remembered throughout all generations” (Psalm 102:12).
We don’t know who exactly wrote Psalm 102, and we don’t know when he lived. But we know the one who wrote was Psalm 102 in a bad way. We know that He was going through some hard times. Psalm 102 is for a time that is so tough and so rough that the title of Psalm 102 says for when a time that you want to faint.
1.1 Enthroned Forever
The psalmist says, “But you, O LORD,” as he turned his mind to God. Those four English words are a hinge moment in Psalm 102; this is a turning point. Some people turn to beer, some turn to their meds. But the only safe addiction is to turn to God. Compared to the problems we all experience in affliction, God is “enthroned forever.”
The Bible says God is enthroned. God is so kingly that: “Nations will fear the name of the LORD, and all the kings of the earth will fear your glory” (Psalm 102:15).
1.2 His Reputation is Forever
The Bible says God rules forever, and His reputation is forever: “you are remembered throughout all generations” (Psalm 102:12b).
Winston Churchill is legendary because of his leadership for Great Britian to defeat the Nazi’s. Yet, despite his incredible popularity and respect, the Brits chose another Prime Minister just three months after he had an approval rating of 83%.2 Even a leader as heroic and celebrated as Churchill couldn’t stay in power forever. Human influence fades. Psalm 102:12 reminds us that God is never voted out, never overthrown, and never forgotten. His rule is eternal, and His faithfulness spans every generation.
1.3 We Need Him, He Doesn’t Need Us
In contrast to our fragility, God is eternal. The Bible calls God a rock because He’s so dependable. This is what is called God’s independence. God does not need us or the rest of creation for anything.3 God is self-existent. Bible scholars might even use the word aseity to refer to God’s self-existence.
The Apostle Paul was sharing the gospel with a non-religious audience in Athens, the Ivy League of ancient times. To help them understand the nature of God better, Paul says this: “The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything” (Acts 17:24–25).
Essentially, God doesn’t need us, but we need Him all the time.
1.3.1 Mothers
There’s a commercial running where a young mother is out of diapers. She has a newborn at home, and it’s easy to see she’s exhausted. With a few clicks of her phone, diapers arrive on her front doorstep just in time. She’s relieved ?. She’s exhausted; God is never exhausted. Again, God is Independent. God was not created. He has no beginning and no end. He has always been, and He will always be.
1.3.2 The Persecuted Church
The apostle John thought of God’s independence when he was banished to the isle of Patmos:
“Worthy are you, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they existed and were created” (Revelation 4:11).
This evidently brought John tremendous comfort as he suffered at the hands of evil Roman rulers who sought to persecute him for being a believer. Down through the ages, brothers and sisters in Christ turn to these very words when they experience persecution.
God doesn’t have the ups and downs that you and I experience. Because God is independent, you should trust Him even more than you do.
“But you, O LORD, are enthroned forever; you are remembered throughout all generations” (Psalm 102:12).
1.4 God Is Eternal
A few verses later, the psalmist gives this memorable picture: “Of old you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you will remain; they will all wear out like a garment” (Psalm 102:25-26).
Here’s a second facet to God’s great character: Not only is God independent, but He is eternal. God is eternally independent. The Bible says the skies will perish, but God remains. Like an orchestra closes with a loud flourish, the psalmist closes with a confession of tremendous confidence. The Bible says that when you look all the way back before when time began, you’ll see an eternal God.
1.4.1 God Doesn’t Borrow
God has creative ways of reminding us of His eternal independence: “For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the hills, and all that moves in the field is mine. ‘If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are mine’” (Psalm 50:11-12).
God asks Job, “Who has first given to me, that I should repay him? Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine” (Job 41:11).
Like our friend from Psalm 102, Job was suffering. It’s as if God sarcastically says to Job, “Can you let me borrow $100 to get me through the next payday?” It’s as if God seriously says to Job, “Job, remember, I’m fine. I don’t need anything.” When you live with despair long enough, you can be demanding in your despair. Job was in despair, and God spoke to Job about His eternal independence as a mild rebuke. But it’s also because God is eternally independent that He can say to you, “I am with you always.”
1.4.2 God Never Despairs
God is not in despair over a depression in the stock market. You’ll never find Him panhandling for money because He lost His job. You’ll never see God in a memory care facility because He has lost His mind, even though He’s old.
1.5 Jesus is Eternally Independent
“Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am’” (John 8:58).
The gospel of John records this wonderful prayer where Jesus prays in depth to the Father. Jesus says, “And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. 24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world” (John 17:5, 24).
To glorify essentially means to honor or to bow before. Here, before anyone or anything else exists, is the Godhead, finding their joy and happiness in one another. Look all you want, but you’ll find no selfishness here. Look under every crack and crevice, but you’ll find no bitterness or rancor here in the Trinity.
There is only perfect love and honor for one another. The fact that God is three Persons yet one God means that there was no loneliness or lack of personal fellowship on God’s part before creation. The three persons of the Trinity have been in perfect love for all eternity. God, the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit shared a perfect love for one another from before eternity past. Scripture is clear that there is one and only one God. The three different persons of the Trinity are one not only in purpose and agreement in what they think, but they are one in essence. The Father, Jesus, and the Spirit are all eternally independent. They infinitely glorify one another, and they love one another.
God has No Battery Life. Everything we know eventually runs out — our energy, our time, our tech. Even the sun has a life span.”
But God has no battery life.He doesn’t run out, wear down, or expire. He’s eternal — always fully present, always fully powerful. God is eternally independent, and we should trust Him even more than we do!
1. What He Is
2. What We Are
“For my days pass away like smoke, and my bones burn like a furnace. My heart is struck down like grass and has withered; I forget to eat my bread” (Psalm 102:3-4).
When we turn our attention away from God to ourselves, it’s a completely different picture.
2.1 What We Are
Again, we don’t know who exactly wrote Psalm 102, and we don’t know when he lived. But we know the one who wrote was Psalm 102 in a bad way.
But a quick read of Psalm 102 tells us this person is suffering from fever, weakness, wasting, pain, sleeplessness, melancholy, rejection, and despair.4 He says, “My life is like smoke” in verse 3. He feels that he has been thrown upon the fire and that his life is vanishing like smoke. Or he changes the image in verse 4, where he says he is withering away like summer grass. He says, “I am sick” in verse 5 because his appetite is gone. He’s been reduced to skin and bones. Next, he mentions he is lonely and isolated in verses 6 and 7. He says his enemies are mocking him in verse 8. Lastly, he cannot explain his suffering in verse 10. He’s not sure what he’s done to deserve all of God’s anger. You might say, “Pastor, that’s not me. I feel good. I am fine.” What we are doesn’t impact just a few of us, but all of us.
Let me show you.
2.2 The Anxious Generation
Some of you have been reading an important book recently that describes the age we live in, called The Anxious Generation. The constant connectivity of smartphones was heralded as a tremendous breakthrough, but now teens are constantly bombarded by a digital storm. Because they are plugged in 24/7, they don’t experience the natural breaks of school ending, the weekend coming, and summer vacation arriving. They live in a world where constant pings, endless scrolling, and a never-ending stream of digital content are overwhelming our brains. Emma is sixteen years old, as she says, “I don’t know how to feel. I’m constantly anxious, and I don’t even know why. It’s like my brain is always running, but I’m stuck.”5
Generation Z (Gen Z), the generation born after 1995, is often called the anxious generation. The author of the book says teens are overprotected in the real world and underprotected in the virtual world. Moms, do your children a tremendous service and take the smartphone away from them until they're eighteen. What we are doesn’t impact just a few of us, but all of us.
2.3 Lonely Birds
“I am like a desert owl of the wilderness, like an owl of the waste places; I lie awake; I am like a lonely sparrow on the housetop” (Psalm 102:6-7).
When he’s like “a desert owl” in verse 6, the Hebrew word refers to some type of bird that was typically found near ruins. I think of our vulture here in Texas. Not a pretty picture.
Generation Z (18-22) and Millennials (23-37) have the highest rate of loneliness. A recent report by the health insurer, Cigna, found a nearly thirteen percent rise in loneliness since 2018, when the survey was first conducted.6 One in six Baby Boomers lives alone.7 The New York Times featured a study on loneliness and declared that our society is experiencing a “loneliness epidemic.” In fact, the sense of feeling alone or left out has become a global epidemic. According to former U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, it can shorten a person’s lifespan by as much as fifteen years. He stated, “During my years caring for patients, the most common pathology I saw was not heart disease or diabetes; it was loneliness.”8
2.4 God is a Fixed Point
Think back to the Old Hollywood story I shared with you a few minutes ago to see the comparison. The actors never leave the studio, but the moving background made it seem like they were moving. God is this fixed point that we turn to for eternal healing and eternal hope.
“You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away, but you are the same, and your years have no end” (Psalm 102:26b-27).
Our God doesn’t change. Bible scholars refer to this as God’s immutability. We change; God doesn’t.
1. What He Is
2. What We Are
3. What We Need
“The children of your servants shall dwell secure; their offspring shall be established before you” (Psalm 102:28). For all the pain this man is in, he ends his song with tremendous confidence. Where does he get this confidence?
3.1 God is Our Solid Foundation
He says, “God’s children live securely in God’s presence.” “You are what we need,” he says. “It’s only in you that we find healing for our hurts, and it’s only in you, God, that we are secure.”
There is a place in Hebrews 11 where it says, “For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God” (Hebrews 11:10). The Bible says there are no foundations here on earth. There is nothing firm here on this earth; there’s nothing solid. There’s nothing you can put your feet on and trust in. There’s no physical foundation because everything here, even the mountains and the stars, is going to eventually go away.
Mavrick City’s worship song that we sing at 11 am is called “Firm Foundation (He Won’t).”
Christ is my firm foundation
The Rock on which I stand
When everything around me is shaking
I've never been more glad
That I put my faith in Jesus
'Cause He's never let me down
He's faithful through generations
So why would He fail now?
He won't9
We need God as our firm foundation.
3.2 He’s Good
“he regards the prayer of the destitute and does not despise their prayer” (Psalm 102:17).
The NET Translation says God, “responds to the prayer of the destitute, and does not reject their request” (Psalm 102:17b).
God is sure to turn to the prayer of those who have no resources. He will not despise their prayer. When you combine God’s incredible goodness with His unchanging nature, you have exactly what you need. If God could change (in His being, perfections, purposes, or promises), then any change would be either for the better or for the worse. But if God changed for the better, then He was not the best possible being when we first trusted Him.
What if God could change for the worse (in His very being), then what kind of God might He become? What if He became, for instance, a little bit evil rather than perfectly good? I need an unchanging, good God in my life. I rely on an unchanging, good God in my life.
The Bible says, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change” (James 1:17).
I need an unchanging, good God in my life. Say that with me, “I need an unchanging, good God in my life.”
3.3 Alma
I want to close with the story of a wonderful mother. A number of years ago, a pastor met a woman on an airplane by the name of Alma. The two struck up a conversation, and the pastor found out that Alma was a believer. She had actually committed her life to Christ in 1939. When she was sixteen years old she became pregnant. She was about to become an unwed mother, and she related to me how, back then, it was much more of a shame than it is today. All of her former friends deserted her, was ostracized from society, much of her family turned their backs on her. She was a social outcast, and she felt so alone. She said, “Loneliness was literally killing me.” Alma said that she was contemplating suicide one day, and a voice spoke to her out of the blue that said, “Alma, you are not alone if you have me.” That is all the voice kept saying, ‘‘Alma, you are not alone if you have me.’’
She said it was at that point in her life that she began to honestly and diligently seek the Lord. She got on her knees, and she asked Jesus Christ to come into her heart. She then looked at the pastor, and said this, “Pastor, that has been over fifty years ago, and I realize today that as long as I have Jesus, I am never alone.” There is no one in this life so wise enough, so strong enough, so powerful enough that you can guarantee you will never experience the feeling that you are completely alone. The fact is, the moment you come to know God through his son, Jesus Christ, you will never be alone again.11
Jesus is an unchanging good God who loves you and died for your sins.
Endnotes
1 https://nofilmschool.com/2017/05/rear-projection-movie-magic-hokey-homage; accessed May 7, 2025.
2 https://winstonchurchill.hillsdale.edu/election-loss-1945/; accessed May 11, 2025.
3 Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine, Second Edition (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Academic, 2020), 190.
4 Derek Kidner, Psalms 73–150: An Introduction and Commentary, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1975), 394.
5 Sandra Norgate, The Anxious Generation on the Edge: The Digital Storm Behind the Youth Mental Health Crisis (New York: Penguin Press, 2024) 4.
6 https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7321652/; accessed May 11, 2025.
7 https://www.biooneraleigh.com/the-loneliest-generation-americans-more-than-ever-are-aging-alone/?utm_source; accessed May 11, 2025.
8 https://www.vivekmurthy.com/post/2017/10/10/work-and-the-loneliness-epidemic-harvard-business-review; accessed May 8, 2025.
9 https://genius.com/Cody-carnes-firm-foundation-he-wont-lyrics; accessed May 11, 2025.
10 Grudem, 198.
11 Thanks to Pastor James Merrit for this story: https://www.sermonsearch.com/sermon-outlines/158938/never-alone-9-of-10/; accessed May 11, 2025.
