Psalms 72:5

They shall fear Thee as long as the sun and moon endure, throughout all generations.

The perpetuity and imperishable nature of the religion of Christ

The grand doctrine brought before us in these words is the perpetuity of the Church of Christ upon the earth; or the imperishable and indestructible character of His religion. We conceive that the same doctrine that is taught in this text is taught in such passages of Scripture as the following: “The gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church--one generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts--of the increase of the government of the Messiah there shall be no end; my salvation shall be from generation to generation.” And notwithstanding all the vicissitudes of the Church of Christ, that Church has been preserved through them all. In the reign of Solomon the Church in Israel seemed likely that men would always fear the Lord. But we know what apostasy began in his reign, and went on with scarcely an interruption till the days of the captivity. And then from the time of our Lord there have been seasons of decay, but revival has ever followed. All attempts to efface Christianity have failed, numerous, varied, and severe though they have been. We conclude, therefore, that the Church can never perish so long as time shall endure. (James Smith, M. A.)

The perpetuity and beneficence of Christ’s reign

Like the treacherous signal-boats that are sometimes stationed by the wreckers off an iron-bound coast, the shifting systems of false religion are continually changing their places. Like them, they attract only to bewilder, and allure only to destroy. The unwary mariner follows them with a trembling uncertainty, and only finds out where he is when he feels his ill-fated vessel crashing into a thousand fragments on the beach. But how different to these floating and delusive systems is that unchanging Gospel of Christ, which stands forth like the towering lighthouse of Eddystone, with its beacon blaze streaming far out over the midnight sea. It moves not, it trembles not, for it is founded upon a rock. Year by year the storm-stricken mariner looks out for its star-like light as he sweeps in through the British Channel. It is the first object that meets his eye as he returns on his homeward voyage; it is the last he beholds long after his native land has sunk beneath the evening wave. So is it with the unchanging Gospel of Christ. While other systems rise and fall, and pass into nothingness, this Gospel, like its immutable Author, is the same “yesterday, to-day, and for ever.” While other false and flashing lights are extinguished, this, the true light, ever shineth. (T. L. Cuyler, D. D.)

Christ’s perpetuity

Leslie Stephen says, “It takes a very powerful voice and a very clear utterance to make a man audible to the fourth generation.” That is very true, yet there is quite a galaxy of men who have spoken the clear utterance with a powerful voice, and have been heard through many centuries; but there is but one man, the man Christ Jesus, concerning whom it could be said, “They shall fear Thee as long as the sun and moon endure, throughout all generations.”