Time&Eternity

No Concept of Time without Narrated Time 45
into eternity. 228 That God, as Wallin said, has placed God’s throne high
above time, emphasizes that God’s being is unalterable, unchangeable, and
unending. 229 The same God, however, arranges a coming and going in
earthly reality, as well as a succession of different ages, and God’s grace is
new each and every morning. 230 The thought that the daily newness of
grace actually presupposes a discontinuous relationship with what has gone
on before—which in turn must stand in a certain contradiction to God’s
unchanging nature—does not bother Wallin. His explanation in the final
stanza of the hymn says merely:
.l.l. han alltid allt allen förmår .l.l. 231
That God’s throne was established from the beginning of time and that
God has existed since all eternity has remarkable consequences for the
world. A free rendering of Psalm 93 says: “Before him, the world stands unchangeable,
since it is held in his hand.” 232 It is not necessary for God to intervene
in order to silence the powers that fill all living things with mortal
fear—a mere glance at the highly elevated Lord makes them sink into oblivion.
233 In the power of divine majesty from all eternity, God guarantees
steadfastness and the continuation of world order, as well as the constancy
of the divine Word. 234 All of science cannot shake God’s majesty, because
“science’s remotest probe feels but the fringes of your robe.” 235
A significant part of this train of thought is the often-asserted foreknowledge
attributed to God. The God who existed before time and who
“beyond all changes [is] still the same,” 236 who thought “mit Erbarmen
schon an mich von Ewigkeit” (of me with compassion from time immemorial);
237 even before our birth, God knew our names; 238 and God sees the
worlds of which we as yet know nothing. 239 “God everlasting through eternity,”
240 “the First, the Last, beyond all thought his timeless years” 241 —formulations
of the eternal sovereignty of God can be found in great variation.
The Trinity is also included here:
Laud and honour to .l.l.
ever Three and ever One,
consubstantial, co-eternal,
while unending ages run. 242
If, on the one hand, God’s foreknowledge precedes human life, then, on
the other hand, communion with God beyond time and space is enticing:
Där får till sist vi svar på alla frågor,
vi blickar in i Guds mysterium,
och efter ensamhet och död vi lever
i hans gemenskap bortom tid och rum. 243