In this part of Psalm 102, we reach the conclusion of the psalm. Up to this point, the psalmist described the depth of distress and exile, his days fading like a lengthening shadow, and his fear that he might not live to witness the salvation. From here on, he turns toward consolation: the prayers preserved in the storehouse of the Holy One, blessed be He; His looking down and gazing upon the earth; the gathering of nations to serve Hashem; and finally, the vast contrast between a transient, ever-changing world and the eternal, unchanging Creator - and between the two: the everlasting endurance of the children of His servants.
תִּכָּתֶב זֹאת לְדוֹר אַחֲרוֹן וְעַם נִבְרָא יְהַלֶּל־יָהּ׃ - Let this be recorded for the final generation, and a people to be created shall praise the Lord.
Rashi explains that those who will merit to witness the salvation will say: Let this salvation be recorded for the final generation, in order to depict for them the redemption that we merited. "And a people to be created" - a nation that will be as though newly created at the time of salvation, going forth from servitude to freedom and from darkness to great light, and they will praise Hashem, blessed be He.
Radak explains that they will say at that time: Let the salvation be written down for a final generation. That is to say, the speaker here laments over himself, that his days are like a passing shadow and he fears he will not live to see the salvation, but he says that the salvation will be recorded for the generation that comes after the generation in whose days the redemption occurs. Those who did not see the salvation with their own eyes will at least see the written account of the salvation, and how many wonders took place within it, and then they will praise Hashem for the miracles He performed for their ancestors - "and a people to be created shall praise the Lord." And this is what Chazal said: "As in the days when you came out of the land of Egypt, I will show him wonders" - in the future salvation, there will be wonders just like the days of the Exodus from Egypt. This salvation will be so extraordinary that it will be recorded for a future generation to show how wondrous it was, just as the redemption of the Exodus from Egypt was recorded in the Torah.
The Malbim explains differently: "Let this be recorded for the final generation" - the Holy One, blessed be He, commands the angels that the prayer we pray during the destruction be written down before Him for the final generation. "And a people to be created" - then a nation will be created that will praise the Lord. And this is what we have learned: prayers are preserved in the treasure house of the Holy One, blessed be He; they take effect and accomplish their purpose even if we do not see their impact right now. They are inscribed and preserved for the final generation, for that nation that will be worthy of redemption, and that nation will be created and will merit redemption through the power of the prayers of all the generations - and for this it will praise and glorify Hashem, Who redeemed us from the hand of the foe.
כִּי־הִשְׁקִיף מִמְּרוֹם קׇדְשׁוֹ יְהֹוָה מִשָּׁמַיִם אֶל־אֶרֶץ הִבִּיט׃ - For He looked down from His holy height; Hashem gazed from heaven to earth.
Radak explains: Hashem looked down from on high and gazed from heaven to the earth to see the troubles and the poverty of His people, as it is stated, "For though Hashem is high, He regards the lowly" - because Hashem is exalted, He observes and sees what is happening down here among the humble.
The Malbim explains that this looking down is in order to hear the prayers offered to Him during the exile, and the clauses of the verse parallel one another: "For He looked down from His holy height" parallels "To hear the groaning of the prisoner"; the prisoner in exile groans in pain, and Hashem looks down from His holy height to hear his cry. "Hashem gazed from heaven to earth" parallels "To release those condemned to death"; with this gaze, He brings out those doomed to die and frees them from confinement and the distress in which they are held.
And there is a profound insight here: the Divine Presence of the Holy One, blessed be He, is above the cosmic system - the celestial constellations through which divine bounty descends and cascades from high above. The bounty emanates from Him, blessed be He, from "His holy height," and from there it descends to the stars, into the natural celestial system, and from there down to earth. Hashem hears the prayer from His holy height, above the system, but the action is required here in the physical realm. Therefore, "to release those condemned to death" corresponds to "from heaven" - for the heavens, stars, and clouds are part of the physical cosmic system. The Holy One, blessed be He, looked down from on high to hear the prayer, and then through heaven - the celestial systems that are closer to the physical world - He acts here on earth: to release and deliver the people who are in the status of prisoners, orchestrating their salvation through natural channels. For this reason, the verse says "from heaven" rather than "from His holy height," because His holy height pertains to hearing the prayer, whereas the mode of action is always an earthly process, unless the Holy One, blessed be He, performs miracles that transcend nature. Here, the verse speaks of salvation through the course of nature, through "heaven," which is still linked to the natural order.
The Malbim explains the difference between hishkif (looking down) and hebit (gazing/observing): A mashkif is one who looks through a window or a lattice, and generally, hashkafah is from top to bottom. Chazal taught that every instance of hashkafah in Scripture portends harm or judgment, except for "Look down (hashkifah) from Your holy abode, from heaven" - which is said regarding the one who gives tithes, where they look down upon him from Heaven to bestow good upon him. But here, the Malbim notes, pay attention: after the hashkafah comes habbatah - He begins by looking down from His holy height, and from there He gazes. The rule is that whenever hashkafah is followed by an act of seeing and gazing, it is for good; when it is not followed by a verb of seeing, it denotes harm.
The Yosef Tehillot explains this based on the words of Chazal regarding why Rabbi Akiva was answered in his prayer during a drought while Rabbi Eliezer was not. The Gemara explains: not because one was greater than the other, but because one was forgiving of his personal grievances (ma'avir al middotav) and the other was not. We have already learned that this was not to his discredit; rather, "he was a Shamuti" - his approach followed the path of Beit Shammai, with no shortcuts, no concessions, letting strict justice pierce the mountain.
Rashi explains on the verse "And the earth stands forever" - these are the humble, the lowly, who bring themselves down to the earth; the modest and humble people are the ones who endure forever. This is what the verse means: "For He looked down (hishkif) from His holy height" - and every hashkafah portends harm, with a decree looming, heaven forbid; yet "Hashem gazed (hebit) from heaven to earth" - the Holy One, Blessed be He, gazes toward the "earth," toward the humble who view themselves like dust of the earth, and through their merit He has mercy upon us. To one who is humble - "to hear the groaning of the prisoner" - Hashem answers the prayer of the humble.
In the book Or Zarua LaTzaddik, a question is raised: If every hashkafah portends harm and every habbatah portends good, why is a double phrasing used here - "He looked down from His holy height" for harm, and "from heaven to earth He gazed" for good? According to what we explained based on the Yosef Tehillot, this is understood beautifully: initially there was a hashkafah portending harm, but once He saw the humble, He showed mercy, and thereby the gaze turned to good.
He further explains: when the Holy One, Blessed be He, weighs our deeds against the sublime holiness of Hashem, woe to us. If they were to examine how worthy and fitting we are relative to the greatness of Hashem - we who are formed of clay, dependent upon Him every single moment, receiving of His goodness, and yet despite all this defying His word - we could not survive. This is what we say: "You have set our iniquities before You, our hidden sins before the light of Your countenance." Woe to us if You set our iniquities before You, meaning, if You examine us against Your standard; the sins in which I defy the word of Hashem relative to the great, exalted King - how did I dare? And "our hidden sins" are our secret offenses; if they stand before the light of Your countenance, we have no remedy.
Yet in His lovingkindness, the Holy One, Blessed be He, remembers that we are dust, as we say: "Remember that we are dust," "our soul is bowed down to the dust." If Hashem looks down from the height of His sanctuary, according to His exalted stature - woe to us, the looking down portends harm. But in His abundant kindness, "from heaven to earth He gazed" - He gazes and sees that we are dust from the earth, coarse and physical. He does not judge us according to how things are perceived in the spiritual realm, where one defies the King's word, but rather relates to our deeds according to our human condition, according to the state of the generation and the general lowly state. He does not judge us by heavenly parameters, for then who could stand, but according to the reality and the trials here on earth.
We saw this with those angels, Uzza and Azael: according to heavenly parameters and standards, they argued, "Master of the Universe, why do You not destroy them? They commit such grave sins!" What did the Holy One, Blessed be He, do to them? He brought them down here to earth, and immediately "they took wives for themselves from all whom they chose" - things seen from there are not seen from here. Therefore, the Name of Havayah is mentioned here, the Attribute of Mercy: "He gazed to the earth" - He sees that we are dust, we are earth, we are physical, and through this He judges us with the Attribute of Mercy.
In these words lies immense encouragement for our generation. Already in the generation of the Ari z"l, Rabbi Chaim Vital asked: How can we rectify something that even in the era of the Tannaim and the Prophets was not rectified? The Ari gave him a profoundly encouraging reply: Know that through a small deed done in this generation, one can rectify what in the era of the Prophets required many years and numerous rectifications. For impurity has descended into the world and the spiritual decline is vast; therefore, with a small effort one rectifies what back then required immense exertion. And the holy Ari said this in a generation when people still walked modestly dressed in the street - what shall we say in our generation, where with every guarding of one's eyes, a person can rectify what once required extensive fasts and afflictions!
This is what the verse means when it says: "Let this be written for the final generation, and a people to be created shall praise Hashem, for He looked down from His holy height; Hashem gazed from heaven to earth." What will encourage us in the final generation, in such a spiritually low generation where we wonder: what are we really accomplishing compared to previous generations? What are our spiritual rectifications, what are our attainments, how much Torah do we learn? Regarding this it is said, "Let this be written for the final generation" - this is the generation that needs encouragement, and then "a people to be created shall praise Hashem." To be sure, if someone looks down from His holy height upon our generation, woe to us; but "He gazed from heaven to earth" - He gazes at our lowly reality and judges us accordingly, not by the unchanging standards of Heaven, but according to what can realistically be achieved in such a generation.
And this is the meaning of the teaching that the Holy One, blessed be He, showed Adam each and every generation and its sages, each generation and its judges, each generation and its prophets. It is told that Rabbi Naftali of Ropshitz would ask: Why was it necessary to show "each generation and its sages, each generation and its judges"? He answered: If they were to show him Naftali alone, Adam would say, "What, is Naftali also among the sages? Is Naftali also among the righteous?" But when they show him the generation as well, he says, "Well, for this generation, fine, even Naftali is considered a tzaddik." Thus, the Holy One, blessed be He, measures things relative to the generation, and therefore "He gazed from heaven to earth" - and consequently, this looking is for the good, not a stern looking down that portends harm.
לִשְׁמֹעַ אֶנְקַת אָסִיר לְפַתֵּחַ בְּנֵי תְמוּתָה׃ - To hear the groaning of the prisoner, to release those condemned to death.
The Radak explains: To hear the Jewish people, who are in exile like prisoners, and are "condemned to death." The intention here is not merely mortal humans subject to death in the usual sense, but those who are already close to demise, like those about to be led to execution, on the verge of death from immense suffering and grief. Then Hashem hears their groaning and unties them, releasing them from their imprisonment - this is "to release those condemned to death," as they would untie prisoners from their bonds.
לְסַפֵּר בְּצִיּוֹן שֵׁם יְהֹוָה וּתְהִלָּתוֹ בִּירוּשָׁלָ͏ִם׃ בְּהִקָּבֵץ עַמִּים יַחְדָּו וּמַמְלָכוֹת לַעֲבֹד אֶת־יְהֹוָה׃ - To recount the name of Hashem in Zion, and His praise in Jerusalem; when nations gather together, and kingdoms, to serve Hashem.
The Malbim explains: "To release those condemned to death," as mentioned - the Holy One, blessed be He, frees and unties the prisoner from his place of confinement, bringing us out of exile. All this is so that afterward they will recount the name of Hashem in Zion and His praise in Jerusalem. This will take place in the future to come, when nations and kingdoms gather to serve Hashem.
And what is "the name of Hashem"? It is the approach of the Malbim to explain that the name of Hashem refers to the public revelation of His name throughout the world, that His name become known, and that those who did not recognize the name of Hashem will come to know it. This will be recounted in Zion. "Zion" - as is known, the Malbim distinguishes between Zion and Jerusalem: Zion is the higher, elevated place, the Temple Mount and the Sanctuary, the seat of the sages and the Kohanim, where they know Hashem. "And His praise" - in terms of the ways and attributes through which Hashem guides His world and His children, merciful and gracious - this will also be known in Jerusalem, by the general populace in Jerusalem. The deeper perception, however, is grasped by the sages, and it is spoken in Zion, the seat of the Sanhedrin and the Kohanim, the elevated elite among the people.
"When nations gather together" - as the Radak cites from the prophecy of Zechariah: "And many nations shall join themselves to Hashem," and from Zephaniah: "That they may all call upon the name of Hashem, to serve Him with one accord." And further in Zechariah: "Many peoples and mighty nations shall come to seek Hashem of hosts in Jerusalem, and to entreat the favor of Hashem" - the nations will come to Jerusalem seeking Godliness. And likewise: "Thus says Hashem of hosts: In those days, ten men from all the languages of the nations shall take hold, and they shall take hold of the corner of a Jewish man's garment, saying: We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you." It will become clear to them that all the nonsense - Christianity, Islam - is entirely futile, and they will come and cling to us. Yet for that, one needs a corner: "They shall take hold of the corner" - one who wears tzitzit has something to hold onto; for someone who walks without tzitzit, the gentile will come and see there is nothing to grasp, no hold at all.
עִנָּה בַדֶּרֶךְ כֹּחִי קִצַּר יָמָי׃ - He weakened my strength along the way; He shortened my days.
Radak explains that the psalmist returns to speak of the people in exile. Just as he said earlier, "My days are like a declining shadow," he describes how difficult our reality is and how much suffering exists in exile. Each member of the exile yearns to see the salvation and fears that he will die prematurely and not live to see it. Regarding this he says: the enemy has weakened my strength along the way - they exile him from place to place, and he thinks that elsewhere things will be better for him, and so he wanders the roads, and the toil of the road shortens one's days. A person who is constantly on the road and toiling - this shortens days; whereas one who sits settled in his place enjoys a life that is calmer, quieter, and longer. Therefore he says: I am afraid that I will die prematurely because of the affliction along the way.
אֹמַר אֵלִי אַל־תַּעֲלֵנִי בַּחֲצִי יָמָי בְּדוֹר דּוֹרִים שְׁנוֹתֶיךָ׃ - I say: My God, do not take me away in the midst of my days; Your years endure throughout all generations.
Malbim explains that his meaning is: although I have already despaired of living long enough to see the salvation, since "He weakened my strength along the way" and these wanderings shorten my life - nevertheless, I ask: "Do not take me away in the midst of my days." Rashi explains: Do not remove us to destroy us from the earth in the days of our enemies in the midst of our days; and what are our days? "Your years endure throughout all generations" - You promised to preserve us before You throughout all generations, for all eternity, as it says, "and Your years will have no end" and "their seed shall be established before You." If so, we have a promise that we will endure forever - therefore, do not remove me from the world in the midst of my days. Radak explains "do not take me away [al ta'aleini]" - do not cut me off, from the expression "like the harvesting [k'alot] of a stack of grain in its season" and "the layer of dew lifted [vata'al]". And Ibn Ezra explains that "take me away" refers to the soul ascending to depart from the body - that my soul should not depart from my body in the midst of my days, but rather that we may merit the years of generations upon generations.
Malbim delves deeper: "Do not take me away in the midst of my days - Your years endure throughout all generations." The Holy One, Blessed be He, is above time, and it is impossible to say that He has years or days; as we have already explained, He is called Atik Yomin (the Ancient of Days) because He is detached (ne'etak) from the framework of days, and the very concept of days does not apply to Him at all. Even so, since the Holy One, Blessed be He, guides the generations, and the generations unfold according to the rhythm of time that He created - as it is said, "and Your remembrance is from generation to generation" - the generations are related to the Holy One, Blessed be He, like years.
And the comparison is as follows: man's years are counted according to the solar cycles - a solar cycle is 365 days (and a lunar cycle is 354), and this repeating count is called a shanah (year), from the root of repetition (chazarah and shinun). So too, the generations are like the years of man. When one wants to say that a person is thirty years old, people say: thirty springs, thirty winters have passed over him. In this way, as it were, the years of Hashem are counted according to the number of generations: each and every generation is like a year, and in each generation there is a new cycle, a new year, a new divine providence. Therefore, the one who prays asks: "Do not take me away in the midst of my days" - let not the supernal year, meaning the generation, be cut short, but grant me full days, so that I may merit living out the days of an entire generation. And "do not take me away" [al ta'aleini] can be understood literally - the ascent of the soul to heaven, as in "and the spirit returns to God Who gave it."
לְפָנִים הָאָרֶץ יָסַדְתָּ וּמַעֲשֵׂה יָדֶיךָ שָׁמָיִם׃ - Of old You laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands.
He said, "Your years endure throughout all generations," and now he continues: just as You exist forever, You are the One Who made heaven and earth. Radak explains: not like the opinion of the ancients who said that the universe is eternal (kadmon), that it existed forever and the Holy One, Blessed be He, merely acts within His world; rather, we believe and know that Hashem created His world anew at a specific point in time. As we have already discussed, this is a point that scientists have also arrived at: in the past they thought the universe was eternal, meaning that it had been here forever - a trillion years back, as much as you like - whereas today not a single scientist would say the universe is eternal; all agree that at a specific point in time, the universe began.
Hence we are not alarmed by the passing theories of scientists, for their knowledge comes from research, and empirical research can be flawed: if the underlying assumption is mistaken, all the conclusions are mistaken. In contrast, the history we know does not come from research, but from the Torah of truth that was handed down to us - generation after generation from Adam, who was created by the Holy One, Blessed be He. Today there is no scientific proof whatsoever of a world older than some 5,700 years; even if you count tree rings and run every conceivable test - there is no proof, there are only theories. The theory of carbon-14 decay is flawed, for who says the rate of decay today is the same as the rate of decay then, and who says the level of radiation today is the same as the level of radiation then? And if you take into account that there was a Deluge, this fundamentally changes all the foundations of nature, and all conclusions apply only to the reality after the Flood - and who can say what existed prior to that?
Malbim already noted: when they discover bones and say that according to their appearance they are ancient - take a bone, boil it for a week, and give it to a scientist to examine, and he will tell you that it is an extremely ancient bone, because it looks decayed. And the Flood was indeed a boiling process, for it is written that boiling, scalding water issued from the earth, and the entire creation underwent a process of cooking. Furthermore, there were changes in radiation levels, and without doubt the reality of summer and winter, autumn and spring, existed only after the Flood. Our Sages state - and in this scientists agree as well - that before the Flood, the Earth was not tilted on its axis, and what creates the seasons of the year is the tilt created by two meteor strikes that hit the Earth and tilted it on its side; this too is described by our Sages, who said that He took two stars from the constellation Kimah. It turns out that all the systems of nature changed. To come and claim that what you observe today was the same back then is like someone who measures how much a person grows from age zero to twenty and multiplies that rate for every twenty years; he will end up with Og! Certainly, the foundational assumption is flawed.
הֵמָּה יֹאבֵדוּ וְאַתָּה תַעֲמֹד וְכֻלָּם כַּבֶּגֶד יִבְלוּ כַּלְּבוּשׁ תַּחֲלִיפֵם וְיַחֲלֹפוּ׃ - They will perish, but You will endure; all of them will wear out like a garment; like clothing You will change them, and they will pass away.
Just as You brought the world into being at a specific point in time, so too can You bring it to an end if You wish - everything is in Your hands. The Radak explains: Some of the philosophers say that the world has a defined end and timeframe, and that it will return to chaos and void (tohu va'vohu) and nonexistence as it was before, though they dispute among themselves how long the world will endure. Others say that the world has no end or destruction, even though it had a beginning. According to the first interpretation: "They will perish, but You will endure" - You exist forever; "and all of them will wear out like a garment" - like clothing that one person takes off and another puts on, so You change and alter as You please, and You even replace the world with other people, and no one can defy Your word. And some say that "they will perish" refers to individuals, whereas the collective endures forever - like a community where some die and some are born, these perish and those arise, while the world as a whole continues to exist.
In Chazal, we find the concept of chad charuv ("one [millennium] desolate"): the world exists for six thousand years, and in the seventh millennium there is an aspect of destruction - meaning that physical reality will be dismantled and give way to a more spiritual reality. Yet in all these matters, we have only the words of the Rambam, who wrote that regarding these things, we do not know how they will unfold until they happen, and there is no added wisdom in obsessing over them - for what practical difference does it make? When they happen, we will know how and in what form.
The Malbim explains that we see that all of physical reality is subject to time, and no single moment is identical to the next - not a single second is like the one before it. This is the meaning of "the earth which You founded of old," and the heavens which are the work of Your hands: the earth serves as the foundation of the building and the heavens as its roof, encompassing the entire world that is subject to the system of time, which possesses no absolute, enduring reality of its own.
First: "They will perish, but You will endure" - whatever has a beginning has an end, as it says, "I have seen an end to all limits." Here it is worth noting: when we say Ein Sof, Baruch Hu ("the Infinite, blessed be He"), seemingly we ought to say Ein Techilah, Baruch Hu ("He Who has no beginning"), since whatever has no end also has no beginning. However, Ein Sof is not a definition of His essence, blessed be He, but rather a description of our comprehension: we have a beginning of comprehension of Him, blessed be He, from what He has revealed to us to comprehend of His Godliness, but we have no end to our comprehension of Him - as it is written, "Can you find the depth of God? Can you find the ultimate limit of the Almighty?" Therefore, He is termed Ein Sof, Baruch Hu, because we can never reach the end of comprehending Him, even though we have a starting point in our understanding. In any case, whatever has a beginning has an end, whereas the Holy One, blessed be He, endures without change.
Second, the Malbim says: Even during the time creations exist, they do not possess absolute existence - "they will wear out like a garment." The hiyuli (prime matter) constantly divests itself of one form and takes on another. Hiyuli is the term used by ancient philosophers for the raw matter of the universe; today we might call it the atom, for everything in nature is composed of atoms. And as the Ramban writes, on the first day the Holy One, blessed be He, created the chomer hiyuli (primeval matter), and from it He subsequently fashioned everything He created throughout the six days of Creation; according to how these atoms combine and rearrange, physical matter changes form.
There are two parables in the verse: "They will wear out like a garment" - leave an object on its own, and it will decay by itself. Store a garment away for twenty years, and when you take it out you will see that decay has begun in it naturally, without you ever wearing it, for anything composite will ultimately break down into its components. Furthermore: "Like clothing You will change them, and they will pass away" - prime matter sheds one form and assumes another. For instance, if you burn a garment it turns to ash, and so forth. After all, there are laws of conservation of mass and conservation of energy: one cannot take anything from the world and turn it into nothing; if you burn it - it was matter, it became gases, it became ash. It is impossible to make anything vanish completely from creation; rather, it is conserved, shedding one form and assuming another. But You, Master of the Universe, exist eternally without any change.
The Malbim notes the precise distinction between beged (garment) and levush (special apparel): beged refers to ordinary, standard garments that one wears on a regular basis; whereas levush refers to special attire - such as wedding garments or royal robes, which are meant to be changed, for no one walks around in wedding clothes all the time. Therefore it says, "Like clothing (levush) You will change them, and they will pass away." This was also the case with Rav Ovadia Yosef regarding his robe: normally he wore a frock coat and a Homburg hat, and when he went to special events - to officiate at a wedding, attend a gathering, or deliver a shiur - he would put on his robe. People said of him that whenever they helped him into the robe, he would remark: "One must put on one's work clothes." That is to say: I would prefer to sit and learn, but there is now an interruption, I must go here and there - these are the work clothes. In any case, it is the nature of special attire to be changed constantly: one puts it on for the occasion and takes it off afterward.
וְאַתָּה־הוּא וּשְׁנוֹתֶיךָ לֹא יִתָּמּוּ׃ - But You are He, and Your years will not end.
Rashi comments: You are the One Who endures and exists. And the Radak adds: Whether Your creations perish or do not perish, You alone exist, and there is no Master beside You. "And Your years will not end" - as we explained, His years are the constantly renewing generations; and these will never cease, but will continue forever. Physical matter, however, decays of its own accord like a garment, and also sheds one form and takes on another, like attire that is repeatedly put on and taken off.
בְּנֵי־עֲבָדֶיךָ יִשְׁכּוֹנוּ וְזַרְעָם לְפָנֶיךָ יִכּוֹן׃ - The children of Your servants shall dwell, and their seed shall be established before You.
"The children of Your servants shall dwell" - as it is written, "But the lovingkindness of Hashem is from everlasting to everlasting upon those who fear Him, and His righteousness unto children's children"; not only will the servants endure, but their children as well. The Radak explains: They will dwell forever in the Holy Land after returning to it at the time of the Redemption, and will never be exiled from it again. And what is the reason? "And their seed shall be established before You" - they will attain the standing of being "before You." Until now, they strayed from Hashem's path, which brought about exile and distance; but at the time of the Redemption, all will serve Him shoulder to shoulder, and then they will be "before You." This is like the verse, "Oh that Yishmael might live before You!", where Rashi comments: "in fear of You" - meaning, like one who constantly stands and ministers before Hashem. In the same way, at the time of the Redemption, they will be before You and will serve You all their days.
The Malbim explains: "The children of Your servants" are the children of the righteous, and they shall dwell. Even if all of existence were nullified, the generation of the righteous, who are a part of God from above - and who are related to the Holy One, Blessed be He, just as His years are, and for whose sake He effects changes and revolutions in the world - will endure forever, without destruction and without ruin. And even when the world is destroyed, "their seed shall be established before You": "shall be established" - in the World of Souls. For the Malbim explains that every composite creation that has a beginning also has an end, and even when the world dissolves and enters the state of "one thousand years desolate," when material reality ceases and a purely spiritual reality commences, this does not affect the children of Your servants, the righteous, at all; they will stand before You in the World of Souls, basking in the light of the countenance of the living King.
The conclusion of the psalm is a narrative of consolation: The prayers we offer in exile are recorded and preserved for the final generation, and by their virtue a nation worthy of redemption will be created to praise Hashem. The Holy One, Blessed be He, looks down from the height of His sanctuary to hear the groaning of the prisoner, and gazes from heaven to earth - not by heavenly standards, for who could then withstand judgment, but according to our own condition and according to the generation. This is the great encouragement for our generation: that through a small deed today, one can accomplish what once required immense exertion. In the Redemption, the Name of Hashem will be declared in Zion and His praise in Jerusalem, and nations and kingdoms will gather to serve Hashem and grasp the hem of a Jewish man's garment. Finally, the verse establishes the contrast: heaven and earth are created entities, bound by time, wearing out of their own accord, shedding and assuming form - "They shall perish, but You shall endure"; while the Holy One, Blessed be He, exists changelessly, and His years will not end, and with Him the children of His servants and their seed stand established before Him forever.
With this, we have completed Chapter 102 of Tehillim.