Fathers

Psalms 102

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Hear my prayer, Yahweh! Let my cry come to you. Don’t hide your face from me in the day of my distress. Turn your ear to me. Answer me quickly in the day when I call. For my days consume away like smoke. My bones are burned as a torch. My heart is blighted like grass, and withered, for I forget to eat my bread. By reason of the voice of my groaning, my bones stick to my skin. I am like a pelican of the wilderness. I have become as an owl of the waste places. I watch, and have become like a sparrow that is alone on the housetop. My enemies reproach me all day. Those who are mad at me use my name as a curse. For I have eaten ashes like bread, and mixed my drink with tears, because of your indignation and your wrath; for you have taken me up and thrown me away. My days are like a long shadow. I have withered like grass. But you, Yahweh, will remain forever; your renown endures to all generations. You will arise and have mercy on Zion; for it is time to have pity on her. Yes, the set time has come. For your servants take pleasure in her stones, and have pity on her dust. So the nations will fear Yahweh’s name, all the kings of the earth your glory. For Yahweh has built up Zion. He has appeared in his glory. He has responded to the prayer of the destitute, and has not despised their prayer. This will be written for the generation to come. A people which will be created will praise Yah. For he has looked down from the height of his sanctuary. From heaven, Yahweh saw the earth; to hear the groans of the prisoner; to free those who are condemned to death; that men may declare Yahweh’s name in Zion, and his praise in Jerusalem; when the peoples are gathered together, the kingdoms, to serve Yahweh. He weakened my strength along the course. He shortened my days. I said, “My God, don’t take me away in the middle of my days. Your years are throughout all generations. Of old, you laid the foundation of the earth. The heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you will endure. Yes, all of them will wear out like a garment. You will change them like a cloak, and they will be changed. But you are the same. Your years will have no end. The children of your servants will continue. Their offspring will be established before you.”

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What the Fathers say

Psalms 102:26

Western Saints

Augustine of Hippo

"They shall perish, but Thou shalt endure" [Psalm 102:26]. The Apostle Peter saith this openly: "By the word of God the heavens were of old," etc. He hath said then that the heavens have already perished by the flood: and we know that the heavens perished as far as the extent of this atmosphere of ours. For the water increased, and filled the whole of that space in which birds fly; thus perished the heavens that are near the earth; those heavens which are meant when we speak of the birds of heaven. …

Exposition on Psalm 102 ↗

Ambrose of Milan

But when a man falls asleep, he does not rise until the heaven is sewn. This seems to indicate that until the heaven is renewed; for there will be a new heaven and a new earth, as it is written. For what is sewn is old: what is old will be changed. Lastly, listen to David saying: In the beginning you founded the earth, O Lord, and the works of your hands are the heavens. They will perish: but you endure, and all will grow old like a garment, and you will change them as a covering, and they will be changed. …

Interrogation of Job and David ↗

Bonaventure

That the divine being is immutable is shown by authority. The Psalm: You shall change them, and they shall be changed, but You are the selfsame; the Gloss says: "immutable." For inasmuch as it is simple, it is immutable from itself: for it has nothing that is not its own essential being, which indeed "is not an accident, but a subsistent truth," as Hilary says. Inasmuch as it is immense, it is not mutable in another or by another: for nothing else can transfer it, since it is everywhere whole. …

Quaestiones Disputatae, De Mysterio Trinitatis, Question 6 ↗