Ps. 102.12 (enthroned forever)

But you / Yhwh / sit enthroned / forever
invocation of you continues / generation after generation. 

These opening lines of the second portion of the psalm represent a deliberate contrast to the psalmist’s existence. And what we are initially confronted with, and what will largely occupy the praise of Yhwh to come, is Yhwh’s ‘forever’. Yhwh, in contrast to the psalmist, dwells in perpetuity, forever, continuation and ‘generation after generation’. And his ‘forever’ is not merely one of duration; it is one of ‘enthroned forever’; it is one of ‘forever glory’. In other words, Yhwh’s forever is radiant and beautiful. This is the expression of divine power, authority and awe. It is heavenly radiance. Yhwh is, moreover, forever the object of ‘invocation’ and delight. This is significant. Yhwh is here portrayed not in splendid isolation, but rather as the object of earthly invocation. The ‘authority’ that radiates from his throne is one that is perceived and praised on earth. Perhaps more importantly, earthly invocation of Yhwh partakes of his own forever, by its continuation “generation after generation”. Yhwh’s liturgical praise is not somehow lost. It suffers no interruption. Yhwh ‘maintains a people for himself, generation after generation’. And this maintenance is, itself, an expression of, a theophany of, Yhwh’s enthroned glory. When we observe the continuity of man’s praise of Yhwh throughout the generations (from Adam to Adam) we are witnessing an expression of Yhwh himself. 

All of this stands in marked contrast to the psalmist who is in a journey to death; he dwells, utterly, not in the realm of ‘forever’, but is being consumed by the realm of death. While Yhwh’s authority and radiance emanates from himself, the psalmist is consumed from within. While Yhwh’s radiance and life resides in a “forever”, the psalmist’s “day and night” (vs. 7-8) is unalleviated pain.  If Yhwh is ‘radiant’, the psalmist is nothing but a ‘shadow’. Moreover, in the ‘social’ realm Yhwh is ‘invoked’, while the psalmist either dwells in ruin and isolation or his name is a curse. In every regard, then, the psalmist’s existence stands in complete contrast with Yhwh’s. And this is not merely a type of paradox or dialectic. It is, rather, existence lived in the wrath of Yhwh. This is key; humanity itself is not the existence of the psalmist. Rather, the psalmist’s life is an expression of Yhwh’s wrath. It is an expression of the forced exile from Yhwh’s presence. This is important because Yhwh’s presence, his ‘forever’, is precisely what the psalmist and Zion will look toward for healing and enjoyment. In other words, man and Zion are made for Yhwh’s presence; they are made to dwell in and with him. They are not merely to be a people that invoke him but with whom Yhwh resides (as we will see).