The paper studies the permutation representations of a finite general linear group, first on finite projective space and then on the set of vectors of its standard module. In both cases the submodule lattices of the permutation modules are determined. In the case of projective space, the result leads to the solution of certain incidence problems in finite projective geometry, generalizing the rank formula of Hamada. In the other case, the results yield as a corollary the submodule structure of certain symmetric powers of the standard module for the finite general linear group, from which one obtains the submodule structure of all symmetric powers of the standard module of the ambient algebraic group.