We now turn to the “Lamed” section of Psalm 119 — verses 89-96. The first word of this section, le-olam, “unto forever,” sets the whole tone and opens the window on what the psalmist urges us to see. God is a forever-God.
Time has its own way of confusing us, for if God created time, time is creation. If God is outside of time, then God is not bound by time. Our participation in time is participation in God’s own eternal life. It is easy for us to think of God as eternal in beginning and forever in in the future, but it is probably more biblical to think of our participating in time as we relate to God in God’s eternality, in the life of the Trinitarian persons. LeRon Shults calls something on this order the “absolute futurity” of God. Well, having said that, here’s the psalmist:
Yahweh exists forever (119:89), and that Yahweh has established the earth and it stands (90b).
The timelessness, or absolute futurity, the Olam of God is a window into our relationship to God, into our relationship to God’s Word, and into our relationship to others in this world.
The World hangs together in the Life of God, and God’s Olam Life sustains us. Breathing in that Olam Life of God and orienting our lives into that Olam Life of God is the North Pole of human existence. As we participate in the Olam Life of God, we genuinely live.