3. The church of the future. One of the most fascinating things about the transformed, global outlook of the psalmist is that it extends not only outward geographically but also forward into time. Indeed, he sees his own time relating to future time, for he is sure that what God is about to do to save and deliver his people will be recorded in writing to be a source of blessing for the future church: “Let this be written for a future generation, that a people not yet created may praise the LORD” (v. 18).
Yesterday we observed that in verse 12 the psalmist begins to focus on God. But that is not all we can observe at this important turning point in the psalm. For it is not just a case of the writer turning his reflections from himself to God, anchoring himself in God's eternity. Having done that, and thus having broken the damaging preoccupation with self that so often strangles our spiritual lives, the psalmist now finds himself thinking about other situations and other people and praying confidently for them. In them he knows that the work of God will go on.
Verse 12 is the important turning point of the psalm, so much so that Martin Luther said, "Everything that has gone before looks to this verse."1 Yes, and everything that follows builds on it also. In the previous verses the psalmist has described his frail and wasting condition. He is like smoke that vanishes. Ah, but he has a God who is not at all like that! His is the eternal, immutable God, and it is God whom he is trusting: “But you, O LORD, sit enthroned forever, your renown endures through all generations.”
At the beginning of this study I pointed out that the immediate problem facing the psalmist is that he was sick. That is not all that was bothering him; he was concerned for Jerusalem too, as I said, and he was being taunted by his enemies. These conditions enter into his lament. Nevertheless, it is chiefly his sickness, frailty and the brevity of life that trouble him and give force to his complaint. He describes his condition like this:
One of the splendid delusions of the young is that they think they are immortal. No matter how recklessly they drive, no matter how many drugs they take or physical dangers they expose themselves to, they do not believe that anything bad can happen to them. But that changes as we grow older. There come times in our lives when it dawns on us that our existence is filled with dangers and life is not at all unending.
