Psalm 102:12 NKJV
But You, O Lord, shall endure forever,
And the remembrance of Your name to all generations.
Spurgeon
Now the writer’s mind is turned away from his personal and relative troubles to the true source of all consolation, namely, the Lord himself, and his gracious purposes towards his own people.
“But thou, O Lord, shalt endure forever.” I perish, but thou wilt not, my nation has become almost extinct, but thou art altogether unchanged. The original has the word “sit,”—”thou, Jehovah, to eternity shalt sit:” that is to say, thou reignest on, thy throne is still secure even when thy chosen city lies in ruins, and thy peculiar people are carried into captivity. The sovereignty of God in all things is an unfailing ground for consolation; he rules and reigns whatever happens, and therefore all is well.
Firm as his throne his promise stands,
And he can well secure,
What I have committed to his hands.
Till the decisive hour.
“And thy remembrance unto all generations.” Men will forget me, but as for thee, O God, the constant tokens of thy presence will keep the race of man in mind of thee from age to age. What God is now he always will be, that which our forefathers told us of the Lord we find to be true at this present time, and what our experience enables us to record will be confirmed by our children and their children’s children. All things else are vanishing like smoke, and withering like grass, but over all the one eternal, immutable light shines on, and will shine on when all these shadows have declined into nothingness.
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Enduring Word
But You, O LORD, shall endure forever: The previous lines spoke of the psalmist’s frailty and the fleeting nature of life. The present line gives a sharp and wonderful contrast. Man may have days like shadows or wither away like grass, but Yahweh shall endure forever. The psalmist can therefore reject all self-reliance and hold on to a true reliance upon God. (Guzik)
i. We note the contrast between the first 11 verses, which were filled with personal references (I, me, and my) and verses 12 and following. With the words, but You, the focus changes and is set on God. (Guzik)
ii. “This, then, is the light which banishes darkness – the sense of the eternity of God. Then all life is seen as being under His control, and therefore conditioned in the wisdom and intention which include far more than the passing moment, taking into account all the ages.” (Morgan)
The remembrance of Your name to all generations: Not only would the Lord Himself endure, but His influence and greatness would be declared to all generations, never passing away. (Guzik)
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Barnes
But thou, O Lord, shalt endure forever – Though my condition has been changed, though I have been cast down from an exalted position, though kingdoms rise and fall, yet thou art unchanged. Thy purposes will abide. Thy promises will be fulfilled. Thy character is the same. As thou hast been the hearer of prayer in past times, so thou art now. As thou hast interposed in behalf of thy people in other ages, so thou wilt now. As thy people in affliction have been permitted to come to thee, so they may come to thee now. The psalmist here brings to his own mind, as an encouragement in trouble, as we may at all times, the fact that God is an unchanging God; that he always lives; that he is ever the same. We could have no ground of hope if God changed; if he formed purposes only to abandon them; if he made promises only to disregard them; if today he were a Being of mercy and goodness, and tomorrow would be merely a Being of justice and wrath. This argument is enlarged upon in Psalms 102:25-28.
And thy remembrance unto all generations – Thy memory; or, the remembrance of thee. My days are like a shadow. I shall pass away, and be forgotten. No one will recollect me; no one will feel any interest in remembering that I have ever lived (see the notes at Psalms 31:12). But while one knows that this must be so in regard to himself and to all other people – that he and they are alike to be forgotten – he may also feel that there is One who will never be forgotten. God will never pass away. He will be always the same. All the hopes of the church – of the world – are based on this. It is not on man – on any one individual – on any number of people – for they will all alike pass away and be forgotten; but one generation of people after another, to the end of time, may call on God, and find him an ever-living, an unchanged and unchangeable protector and friend.
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John Gill
But thou, O Lord, shalt endure forever,…. This address is made to Christ, as is clear from Psalm 102:25, compared with Hebrews 1:10, who is a divine Person, endures forever, is from everlasting to everlasting, unchangeably the same in his love, power, wisdom, faithfulness, &c. and though he died as man, he will die no more; he is alive, and lives for evermore; and because he lives, his people shall live also; and he will come again to take them to himself: and, as Mediator, he is King for ever; always continues, as such, to rule over, protect, and defend his people; and is a Priest for ever, and ever lives to make intercession for them; and his blood, righteousness, and sacrifice, have a constant virtue in them, to take away sin, and secure from it: the consideration of the perpetuity of Christ, in his person and offices, was a comfort to the psalmist under his troubles, and in a view of his own declining state: the Targum is, “but thou, O Lord, thy habitation continues for ever in heaven:”
and thy remembrance to all generations; the remembrance of his name Jehovah, or Jesus, or Immanuel, or any other, is sweet and precious to his saints in all ages; and so the remembrance of his works, of what he has done and suffered, especially the great work of redemption; for the remembrance of which the ordinance of the Lord’s supper is appointed to be continued till his second coming; and his Gospel is an everlasting one, which will transmit the memory of him to men in every age, to the end of the world; and though all flesh is as grass, and every man dies, even the ministers of the word, yet that itself lives forever.
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Matthew Henry
We are dying creatures, and our interests and comforts are dying, but God is an everliving everlasting God (v. 12): “My days are like a shadow; there is no remedy; night is coming upon me; but, thou, O Lord! shalt endure forever. Our life is transient, but thine is permanent; our friends die, but thou our God diest not; what threatened us cannot touch thee; our names will be written in the dust and buried in oblivion, but thy remembrance shall be unto all generations; to the end of time, nay, to eternity, thou shalt be known and honored.” A good man loves God better than himself and therefore can balance his own sorrow and death with the pleasing thought of the unchangeable blessedness of the Eternal Mind. God endures forever, his church’s faithful patron and protector; and, his honor and perpetual remembrance being very much bound up in her interests, we may be confident that they shall not be neglected.
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Geneva Bible 1560
Psalm 102:12
12 But thou, ô Lord, doest i remain for ever, & thy remembrance from generation to generation.
i Howsoever we be frail: yet your promise is sure & the remembrance thereof shall confirm us forever.
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“The Lord bless you and keep you; The Lord make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace.”
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