468. Be unto our God unto the ages of the ages.- Signifies to the Lord to eternity; for by our God is meant "He who sitteth on the throne and the Lamb," and the Lord alone is meant by both; by him who sitteth on the throne, the Lord as to Divine Good, and by the Lamb, the Lord as to Divine Truth, as shown above (n. 460); and "unto the ages of the ages," when stated of the Lord, signifies eternity. The reason why the expression "to eternity," is not used, but "unto the ages of the ages," is, that ages of ages is a natural, and eternity a spiritual, expression, and the sense of the letter of the Word is natural, and the internal sense spiritual, and the latter is contained in the former. There is the same distinction in other places in the Word; thus in Daniel:
To the son of man "there was given dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, his dominion the dominion of an age which shall not pass away" (vii. 14).
And in Isaiah:
"Trust ye in Jah Jehovah, a rock of ages" (xxvi. 4).
Again, in the same:
"Israel is saved by Jehovah with the salvation of ages: they shall not be ashamed unto everlasting ages" (xlv. 17).
And again:
"My salvation shall be unto an age, and my justice shall not be abolished. My justice shall be unto an age, and my salvation unto generation and generation" (li. 6, 8).
So in David:
"Before the mountains were brought forth, and the earth and the world were formed, from age even to age thou art God" (Psalm xc. 2).
Again:
"The mercy of Jehovah is from age to age upon them that fear him" (Psalm ciii. 17).
And in the Apocalypse:
"To him be might unto the ages of the ages. Behold I am alive unto the ages of the ages" (i. 6, 18).
And again:
"Unto him that sitteth on the throne and unto the Lamb be blessing, and honour, and glory, and dominion unto the ages of the ages, and they worshipped him that liveth unto the ages of the ages" (v. 13, 14).
Again:
"He swore by him who liveth unto the ages of the ages, who created the heaven" (x. 6).
Again:
"The kingdoms of the world have become of our Lord and his Christ, and he shall reign unto the ages of the ages" (xi. 15),
and in many other places besides. Moreover also, in the Word, "an age," signifies time from of old; also, time even to the end; and also the same as "the world"; but concerning these significations of an age we shall speak elsewhere.
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