Psalms 102:26 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Psalms 102:26
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:
properly · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
endure
תַ֫עֲמֹ֥דta.'a.Mod
H5975
to stand · verb, qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular
old
יִבְל֑וּyiv.Lu
H1086
to fail · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
garment
כַּבֶּ֣גֶדka.Be.ged
H899
a covering · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
vesture
כַּלְּב֖וּשׁka.le.Vush
H3830
a garment (literally or figuratively) · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
change
תַּחֲלִיפֵ֣םta.cha.li.Fem
H2498
properly · verb, hiphil imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
changed
וְֽיַחֲלֹֽפוּVe.ya.cha.Lo.fu
H2498
properly · conjunction + verb, qal, 3rd person masculine plural
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Isaiah 51:6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old…
Matthew 24:35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.
Luke 21:33 Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.
Isaiah 34:4 And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as…
Revelation 20:11 And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for…
Isaiah 66:22 For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the LORD, so shall your seed and your name remain…
Psalms 102:12 But thou, O LORD, shalt endure for ever; and thy remembrance unto all generations.
Isaiah 65:17 For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Psalms 102:23–end
We may here observe,
I. The imminent danger that the Jewish church was in of being quite extirpated and cut off by the captivity in Babylon (Psa 102:23): He weakened my strength in the way. They were for many ages in the way to the performance of the great promise made to their fathers concerning the Messiah, longing as much for it as ever a traveller did to be at his journey's end. The legal institutions led them in the way; but when the ten tribes were lost in Assyria, and the two almost lost in Babylon, the strength of that nation was weakened, and, in all appearance, its day shortened; for they said, Our hope is lost; we are cut off for our parts, Eze 37:11. And then what becomes of the…
They shall perish,.... Both the heavens and the earth, though so well founded, and so firmly made; they shall be dissolved, melt, and pass away; not as to the substance, but as to the quality of them: or, as R. Judah Ben David says, whom Aben Ezra on the place cites, and calls the first grammarian in the west, not as to generals, but as to particulars:
but thou shalt endure; as the eternal God, from everlasting to everlasting; and, even as man, he will die no more; and, as Mediator, will ever remain; he will be King for ever; his throne is for ever and ever; his kingdom is an everlasting one; he is a priest for ever, after the order of Melchizedek; his sacrifice is of an eternal efficacy, a…
Psalm 102:23-28
23. He hath afflicted my strength in the way; and shortened my days. 24. I said, O my God! Cut me not off in the midst of my days: for [155] thy years are from generation to generation. 25. Thou hast aforetime founded the earth; and the heavens are the work of thy hands. 26. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: and 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, [156] and thy years shall not fail. [157] 28. The children of thy servants shall dwell, and their seed shall be established before thee.
23. He hath afflicted my strength in the way Some improperly restrict this complaint to th…
The Church Fathers
If, however, they do not say "so impure" but "so weak," we agree entirely. And that is why Christ is our strength, because he was not changed by our weakness. Here I recognize the aptness of the prophet's words, "You will change them, and they shall be changed; but you yourself are the same, and your years shall not fail." Not only did the weakness of the flesh not change him for the worse, but by him it was changed for the better.
Suppose they say, though, that the Lord's own divine substance is not the same when he is with the Father as it was when he wished to show himself on earth without taking a body, then what else have the poor fools committed themselves to, but saying that the divine substance is subject to change in place and time? They do not want to read, or they find it difficult to understand, what is said by the prophet, "They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. Like clothing you will change them, and they will be discarded. But you remain the same, and your years will never end"; and what is written in the book of divine Wisdom about Wisdom: "While remaining in herself, she renews all things."
For this very reason, a certain one of the interpreters seems to me to have handed over beautifully and accurately the same thought through another title, saying, "For the lilies," in place of, "For them that shall be changed." He thought that it was appropriate to compare the transitoriness of human nature with the early death of flowers. But, since this word has been inflected in the future tense (it is said: "For them that shall be changed," as if at some time later this change will be shown to us), let us consider whether there is suggested to us the doctrine of the resurrection, in which a change will be granted to us, but a change for something better and something spiritual. "What is sown in corruption," he says, "rises in incorruption." Do you see the change? "What is sown in weakness rises in power; what is sown a natural body rises a spiritual body," when every corporeal creature will change together with us. Also, "The heavens shall grow old like a garment, and as a robe" God "shall change them, and they shall be changed." Then, according to Isaiah, "The sun will be sevenfold, and the moon like the present size of the sun."
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
God — (A.S. and Dutch God; Dan. Gud; Ger. Gott), the name of the Divine Being. It is the rendering (1) of the Hebrew ’El, from a word meaning to be strong; (2) of ’Eloah_, plural _’Elohim. The singular…
Christ Is God · As the Eternal God and Creator — As the Eternal God and Creator
Earth · General references — General references
Garments · Grew old and wore out — Grew old and wore out
God · Is declared to be: Immutable — Is declared to be: Immutable
Immortality · 2:11; — 2:11;
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
On the way (ב as in Psa 110:7) - not "by means of the way" (ב as in Psa 105:18), in connection with which one would expect of find some attributive minuter definition of the way - God hath bowed down his strength (cf. Deu 8:2); it was therefore a troublous, toilsome way which he has been led, together with his people. He has shortened his days, so that he only drags on wearily, and has only a short distance still before him before he is entirely overcome. The Chethb כחו (lxx ἰσχύος αὐτοῦ) may be understood of God's irresistible might, as in Job 23:6; Job 30:18, but in connection with it the designation of the object is felt to be wanting. The introductory אמר (cf. Job 10:2), which announ…
In contrast with the permanence of the Creator, the created order will wear out like a piece of clothing (see Isa 40:28). • The writer to the Hebrews describes this passage as having been addressed to Jesus, the Son (Heb 1:10-12).
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 102:26
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:
They shall perish, but thou shalt endure. The power which made them shall dissolve them, even as the city of thy love was destroyed at thy command; yet neither the ruined city nor the ruined earth can make a change in thee, reverse thy purpose, or diminish thy glory. Thou standest when all things fall. Yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed. Time impairs all things, the fashion becomes obsolete and passes away. The visible creation, which is like the garment of the invis…
