“The promise God gave for a thousand generations.” (105:8)

A thousand generations is approximately 20,000 years, four times longer than recorded human history. In essence, then, God’s promise is eternal. In contrast, our word is often easily broken. Sometimes we go back on promises because of circumstances outside of our control, sometimes they become too inconvenient or expensive, and sometimes we simply forget. The Psalmist is giving us a high bar to live up to — the idea that we can be better at only making promises when we can deliver, that we should consider our words, once uttered, to have the longevity of all human history.