HEBREW WORD STUDY – FROM EVERLASTING TO EVERLASTING –  ME’OLAM V’OD ‘OLAM   מעולם עוד עולם    Men Ayin Vav Lamed Mem    Vav Ayin Daleth   Ayin Vav Lamed Mem

Psalms 103:17: “But the mercy of the LORD [is] from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children’s children;”

Everlasting to everlasting, well that makes whole bunches of sense in English. Literally, in English everlasting means no end. Therefore it sounds like you are saying; “To the end and then to the end of the end.

I’ve noticed a strange phenomenon in many worship services.  They sing the same song over and over.  I mean at least with the old hymns when we sang the same songs over and over we sang different verses and we would wait a few weeks before we would sing it again.  Now, however, the songs have only one verse of six or seven lines and they repeat the song over and over and over for forty-five minutes and sometimes the worship leader picks out one sentence and repeats that over and over. Do you ever have an annoying fly buzzing around your head with that same buzz, he never changes his tune. I don’t think I would mind flies too much if each sang a different buzz.  The last time I was in a worship service like this I could not help but think of everlasting to everlasting (will it ever end?). I got the feeling that the worship leader attended a conference where they sang the same song over and over and the Spirit of God really moved and this worship leader was trying to create the same experience. Contrary to what some quantum physicists say, I don’t believe God is a computer where you sing the right song, chant the right words like “open sesame” and poof! there is God. Alright, I’m really being hard and judgmental.  I will admit. I’m just an old coot who longs for the return of the music of Maranatha and the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir.

But I ask you about this everlasting to everlasting business.  That seems to be a long time and will we be praising God for his mercy in all these everlastings?  Can you imagine spending eternity in a worship service as we have in some churches? There will be no noon hour to end our suffering either.   I have been in some services, however,  where the worship went for three hours and it seemed like three minutes.  Then I have been in some worship services where I begin to glimpse what everlasting to everlasting really is as they drone on and on with the same song, same drum beat, same loud noise taking all the sweetness out of the by and by.   Oh, there I go again on a rant

For me personally, worship in heaven will be like that inner-city church I recently attended. They sang the same song over and over. I sort of got the feeling these folks were the ones who started this repeating business only they did not realize it, not plan it trying to create an experience as some worship leaders do. They were just celebrating joy and happiness. It was like they were on a journey, a search and what will we be searching for?   Psalms 103:17 tells us it will be chasad.  In this Hebrew, this verse reads a little differently than  His mercy is from everlasting to everlasting.  True His mercy will endure for eternity but I think there is something else in this as well.  The word everlasting is ‘olam which means continuous existence, perpetual and without end.  Isn’t that enough?  Why does the Psalmist repeat the word?  One everlasting says it all. You can’t go from one everlasting to another, there is no end to the first everlasting to pass the baton.  One rabbi explained it this way.  One everlasting is God’s heart the other everlasting is the chasad (mercy) of His heart.  From God’s eternal heart comes eternal chasad (mercy).  I say chasad because chasad has many possibilities and many more we have never even considered. Sure it means mercy, but it also means kindness, goodness, instruction in kindness, kindness to the needy, the miserable, piety, love and the many forms of love etc. etc. etc.  Another idea put forth by a rabbi was that from His everlasting chasad we will advance to a higher degree of everlasting chasad.  When the saints in that inner city church sang their song over and over and over, I did not want it to stop, I wanted it to go on for, well, everlasting. They were singing and rejoicing  over the chasad  of God over and over and over and with each and every over I was experiencing a new level of chasad and for once I was not checking my watch and anxious to move on with the program, I wanted it to go on me’olam v’od ‘olam  from everlasting to everlasting. Learning and experiencing  God’s chasad.

By the way, there is a little wordplay here for ‘olam everlasting which is spelled Ayin Vav Lamed Mem.  Change the Ayin meaning watchfulness to a Shin for the passion of God and you have from Shalom to Shalom – peace to peace. Shalom has just as many different meanings a chasad.

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