Psalm 102:28
The children of your servants will live in your presence;
their descendants will be established before you. (NIV)
Today’s Reading: Psalm 102 and Colossians 1:15-23
Wrapping up Psalm 102 today, we have traveled through the emotional last days of Jesus. The psalmist writing from the perspective of Jesus shows us the great emotional distress that Jesus was under leading up to the cross. We then see the psalmist turn to the great victory that is coming because of the sacrifice Jesus will make. Jesus will appear in his glory (vs 16) and we will respond with praise and worship.
We have an interesting dialogue taking place at this point in the psalm. The Father and Son are conversing. We can also lean on the author of Hebrews in this section because he quotes Psalm 102:25-27 in chapter one. The first chapter of Hebrews is laying the foundation for the rest of the letter by establishing Jesus as the Son of God, superior to the angels and in fact equal with God. So the Hebrews author is using Psalm 102 as proof.
Jesus is essentially asking, “Are my days to be cut short and my life end in weakness?” (vs. 23-24). Will this be another tragic story of a life full of promise that ends before he is able to accomplish great things? Jesus pleads with God that his life not be wasted. However, the answer is yes. He will be cut down in the prime of his life. But the future is glorious.
It seems to me that because the author of Hebrews quotes these next verses as describing Jesus, verses 25 through 28 should be read as God’s reply to His son. Jesus is the eternal creator who laid the foundations of the earth and made the heavens (vs. 25). Heaven and earth will perish but Jesus is everlasting and his years will have no end (vs 26-27). There will be a new earth populated with children of God who will live side by side with him (vs 28).
Jesus told his disciples this very thing, “Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live” (John 14:19). The disciples obviously didn’t understand what was happening at the time. However, after his resurrection, all the Old Testament scriptures became clear to them that this was always the plan.
Paul wrote in his letter to the Colossians, “The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Col 1:15-17). Jesus is God in the flesh. He was there at Creation and without him everything would fall apart.
Jesus didn’t come as an earthly king to rule over the nation of Israel. That vision of the Messiah was too small. Jesus came to establish himself as king over all creation and claim his people for all of eternity. He came to “reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross” (Col 1:20).
So now because of Jesus, “The children of your servants will live in your presence; their descendants will be established before you” (Ps 102:28). Paul puts it this way: “And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus” (Eph 2:6-7).
Christ in the Old Testament 
Leave a comment