Genesis 21:22-34
22 And it came to pass at that time, that Abimelech and Phichol the chief captain of his host spake unto Abraham, saying, God is with thee in all that thou doest:
23 Now therefore swear unto me here by God that thou wilt not deal falsely with me, nor with my son, nor with my son’s son: but according to the kindness that I have done unto thee, thou shalt do unto me, and to the land wherein thou hast sojourned.
24 And Abraham said, I will swear.
25 And Abraham reproved Abimelech because of a well of water, which Abimelech’s servants had violently taken away.
26 And Abimelech said, I wot not who hath done this thing: neither didst thou tell me, neither yet heard I of it, but to day.
27 And Abraham took sheep and oxen, and gave them unto Abimelech; and both of them made a covenant.
28 And Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock by themselves.
29 And Abimelech said unto Abraham, What mean these seven ewe lambs which thou hast set by themselves?
30 And he said, For these seven ewe lambs shalt thou take of my hand, that they may be a witness unto me, that I have digged this well.
31 Wherefore he called that place Beersheba; because there they sware both of them.
32 Thus they made a covenant at Beersheba: then Abimelech rose up, and Phichol the chief captain of his host, and they returned into the land of the Philistines.
33 And Abraham planted a grove in Beersheba, and called there on the name of the LORD, the everlasting God.
34 And Abraham sojourned in the Philistines’ land many days.

Abraham was a sojourner. God had called him out to leave his home, and he had traveled around to various places, following God’s leading, journeying through Canaan, encountering many different people, and getting to know his God. Isaac, the promised son, had been born. Abraham had seen God’s faithfulness through the ups and downs of all that he had experienced. And when he finds a place to settle in for a bit, a fruitful place with water for his flocks, he calls upon El Olam, the Everlasting God. Perhaps the covenant that Abraham makes here with Abimelech, the king of the Philistines, reminds him of the covenant that God had made with him, the fruitfulness that God had promised to him, the blessings He’d already provided, and the promises yet to be fulfilled.

The Everlasting God is the God of the past, the present, and the future, the one who always exists. He thinks long-term. He creates things that are everlasting. He has made covenants that will surely be fulfilled, no matter how long we must wait for their fulfillment. To Israel He had given the promise of the land and the promise of a lineage that would lead to His own Son. He gave them His Word and His commandments that are everlasting. The statues given to the priests and for the worship of the tabernacle were everlasting, things to be kept and remembered forever. These are all things that were to have no end. God also made a covenant with David for an everlasting kingdom that stretched down to Jesus, the King of kings. And through Christ, He gives the gift of eternal life to those who believe on Him. And He’s prepared an everlasting dwelling place where we can go to be with Him forever.

Isaiah 40:6-31
6 The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field:
7 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the LORD bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass.
8 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.
9 O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!
10 Behold, the Lord GOD will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him: behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him.
11 He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.
12 Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?
13 Who hath directed the Spirit of the LORD, or being his counsellor hath taught him?
14 With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and shewed to him the way of understanding?
15 Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing.
16 And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering.
17 All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity.
18 To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him?
19 The workman melteth a graven image, and the goldsmith spreadeth it over with gold, and casteth silver chains.
20 He that is so impoverished that he hath no oblation chooseth a tree that will not rot; he seeketh unto him a cunning workman to prepare a graven image, that shall not be moved.
21 Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth?
22 It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:
23 That bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity.
24 Yea, they shall not be planted; yea, they shall not be sown: yea, their stock shall not take root in the earth: and he shall also blow upon them, and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble.
25 To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One.
26 Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth.
27 Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the LORD, and my judgment is passed over from my God?
28 Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.
29 He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.
30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:
31 But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

Since He is an everlasting God, everything about Him is everlasting, as well. His mercy endures forever, His wisdom, His power, His goodness, His grace. His faithfulness is to all generations. His Word does not return void. His glory extends beyond the bounds of time. He is always full of all those things without any lack. Part of His being everlasting is that God never diminishes in any way. He “lasts” forever. His strength doesn’t lessen. He doesn’t get tired. He never changes and He never fails. And so through Him we can find renewal. Everything in this cursed Earth withers and decays, loses life and vitality. We grow weak and weary. We expend strength. We diminish in power and ability and energy. But God exerts His energy without losing anything. What He has comes in endless supply.

And so God’s mercy can be new every morning, even though He gave us some the day before and every day before that. His love can stretch around the whole of His creation and surround each of His children and never wane in any way. He is longsuffering to endure with patience through our many stumbles and failures. His wisdom holds fast above anything we can fully know and understand ourselves. He sees the entirety of time in one glance and knows all that is and that is to come, and He’s planned it out all the way to eternity. He is everlasting. He creates everlasting things. And He shares those everlasting things with us. And when we are looking to Him and trusting in Him, resting in Him, abiding in Him, we are renewed by those things that always exist within Him.

John 4:6-14
6 Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour.
7 There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink.
8 (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.)
9 Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.
10 Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.
11 The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water?
12 Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?
13 Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again:
14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

Wells were important places in Bible times. We saw earlier Abraham’s well and the lengths to which he went in order to preserve it and to be able to utilize it for himself and his flocks. In this passage, Jesus meets a woman at a well and has an interesting conversation with her about thirst and water. He Himself was thirsty in His physical body, and surely that is a sensation with which we are all familiar. Sometimes it seems an unquenchable thirst rises up within us that can never be satisfied. It seems that was the case for this woman that Jesus encounters. But He has something much better to offer than even the life-giving water that was so precious to those without easy access to it. He offers us living water that ensures we won’t be thirsty anymore. It will be a never-ending, constant supply that, when we drink of it, gives us everlasting life. All we have to do is take it from Jesus, and He gives it to us freely.

Psalm 145:1-21
1 I will extol thee, my God, O king; and I will bless thy name for ever and ever.
2 Every day will I bless thee; and I will praise thy name for ever and ever.
3 Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable.
4 One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts.
5 I will speak of the glorious honour of thy majesty, and of thy wondrous works.
6 And men shall speak of the might of thy terrible acts: and I will declare thy greatness.
7 They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness, and shall sing of thy righteousness.
8 The LORD is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy.
9 The LORD is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.
10 All thy works shall praise thee, O LORD; and thy saints shall bless thee.
11 They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom, and talk of thy power;
12 To make known to the sons of men his mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of his kingdom.
13 Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations.
14 The LORD upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all those that be bowed down.
15 The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou givest them their meat in due season.
16 Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing.
17 The LORD is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works.
18 The LORD is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth.
19 He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him: he also will hear their cry, and will save them.
20 The LORD preserveth all them that love him: but all the wicked will he destroy.
21 My mouth shall speak the praise of the LORD: and let all flesh bless his holy name for ever and ever.

Because of all that God is and all that He does, our praise should then also be everlasting. Our great God deserves an endless amount of praise. It’s something that we can start doing right now, something we should do every day, and something that will continue for all of eternity. We are to declare these things about God, to make them known to others, and to be reminded of them ourselves. The things David mentions in this psalm are just a few of the many things for which we can praise the Lord, and yet he also considers the grand scope of an everlasting God. He is a King of an endless kingdom. He is present in every generation of people on this Earth. The greatness of His character expands ever outward. His worthiness is proven by how He treats us when we don’t really deserve any of the things He gives to us. And so when the fulness of all that He is touches us, when we consider the magnitude of what He has done for us, surely we can’t help but bless His name forever in that joyful chorus.

El Olam, the Everlasting God, the one who endures, who remains, who never fails, is with us even now. He’s always existed, and so He has been with us always. He will be with us in an uncertain future as we follow, like Abraham, the call that He has for us. If we walk with Him for any amount of time, we can’t help but see His faithfulness, His goodness, His wisdom, His power, and His truth at work all around us. If we trust in Him, He’ll never let us down. Though our path may seem long and difficult, though we falter and grow weak along the way, He can renew and uplift us and enable us to keep going. An end is in sight for the toil and trouble here, but the glorious expanse of an eternity with Him stretches before us, giving us hope and encouragement to keep going toward that day when we get to be with Him where He is forever.