They will all wear out like a garment. . . . But you remain the same, and your years will never end. (Ps. 102:26–27)
I HAVE A SHIRT that I love to wear, especially in cold weather. A pullover, it is made of heavy material. Some might call it a sweater, but it’s actually just a heavy shirt. I have owned it more than fifteen years and I wish it would never wear out. Unfortunately, I noticed not long ago that it is becoming threadbare on one cuff. That doesn’t mean I will stop wearing it, especially around the house.
That’s just what happens to garments—they wear out. The psalmist was talking about the heavens and the earth when he said, “They will all wear out like a garment.” That’s a little harder for us to grasp. Oh, to be sure, we’ve been hearing for years that the earth has a limited supply of certain resources and that we need to use them wisely. But the heavens? How are the heavens wearing out? Those are some of the mysteries we’re still discovering.
But the good news is that God will not perish. “They will perish,” the psalmist predicted, “but you remain . . . your years never end.” In other words, God is eternal.
The song poet grasped this concept when he wrote: “Change and decay in all around I see / O Thou who changest not, abide with me.”
God’s love never changes either. It is still directed toward us.
In a changing, decaying world, give thanks for God, who never changes.
Ron McClung lives in Fishers, Indiana, with his wife, Carol. They have been married for fifty-one years and have two sons and nine grandchildren.
