"...an everlasting kingdom..."

Reading Psalm 145:13

"Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
and your dominion endures through all generations.
The Lord is faithful to all his promises
and loving toward all he has made."

We live in a world of constant flux. Change is an everpresent companion and catastrophic change is both the material of the daily news and a frequent visitor to our homes or to those of our family and friends. This is what makes this verse in the Psalms stand out so dramatically. God exists in stark contrast to his fallen creation. The God of the Bible is no pantheistic personalization of the Universe. God made the world but is not dependent on it, he is self-existent. As the New Testament affirms:

"In the beginning, O Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth,
and the heavens are the work of your hands.
They will perish, but you remain;
they will all wear out like a garment.
You will roll them up like a robe;
like a garment they will be changed.
But you remain the same,
and your years will never end."
(Hebrews 1:10-12)

Think of this verse the next time you attend a funeral. As each generation departs God is as vigorous a help to the next generation as he was to the previous. God is the continuity that ties all the generations together. He knew and loved my great grandfather just as he loves and cares for me. In the end he is the one who will bring us all together again and unite us together as one family. This is the promise to all those who have trusted in Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins and have become the children of God through faith in him.

The endurance of God's rule as king over all his creation is the foundation for the statement that follows: "the Lord is faithful to all his promises." Because his authority is never shaken, nothing can hinder God's intention to be "loving to all he has made." We are the beneficiaries of the faithful love of a changeless God. This is why my constant prayer for my children is not that they would have great wealth, but that they would be rich in faith.