Psalms 102

Psalms 102:1-28
¹Hear my prayer, O Lord! And let my cry for help come to You.
²Do not hide Your face from me in the day of my distress; Incline Your ear to me; In the day when I call answer me quickly.
³For my days have been consumed in smoke, And my bones have been scorched like a hearth.
⁴My heart has been smitten like grass and has withered away, Indeed, I forget to eat my bread.
⁵Because of the loudness of my groaning My bones cling to my flesh.
⁶I resemble a pelican of the wilderness; I have become like an owl of the waste places.
⁷I lie awake, I have become like a lonely bird on a housetop.
⁸My enemies have reproached me all day long; Those who deride me have used my name as a curse.
⁹For I have eaten ashes like bread And mingled my drink with weeping
¹⁰Because of Your indignation and Your wrath, For You have lifted me up and cast me away.
¹¹My days are like a lengthened shadow, And I wither away like grass.
¹²But You, O Lord, abide forever, And Your name to all generations.
¹³You will arise and have compassion on Zion; For it is time to be gracious to her, For the appointed time has come.
¹⁴Surely Your servants find pleasure in her stones And feel pity for her dust.
¹⁵So the nations will fear the name of the Lord And all the kings of the earth Your glory.
¹⁶For the Lord has built up Zion; He has appeared in His glory.
¹⁷He has regarded the prayer of the destitute And has not despised their prayer.
¹⁸This will be written for the generation to come, That a people yet to be created may praise the Lord.
¹⁹For He looked down from His holy height; From heaven the Lord gazed upon the earth,
²⁰To hear the groaning of the prisoner, To set free those who were doomed to death,
²¹That men may tell of the name of the Lord in Zion And His praise in Jerusalem,
²²When the peoples are gathered together, And the kingdoms, to serve the Lord.
²³He has weakened my strength in the way; He has shortened my days.
²⁴I say, “O my God, do not take me away in the midst of my days, Your years are throughout all generations.
²⁵Of old You founded the earth, And the heavens are the work of Your hands.
²⁶Even they will perish, but You endure; And all of them will wear out like a garment; Like clothing You will change them and they will be changed.
²⁷But You are the same, And Your years will not come to an end.
²⁸The children of Your servants will continue, And their descendants will be established before You.

Study

Some think that David penned this psalm at the time of Absalom’s rebellion;
others that Daniel, Nehemiah, or some other prophet, penned it for the use of the church, when it was in captivity in Babylon, because it seems to speak of the ruin of Zion and of a time set for the rebuilding of it, which Daniel understood by the books, Daniel 9:2.
Or perhaps the psalmist was himself in great affliction, which he complains of in the beginning of the psalm, but (as in Psalms 77, and elsewhere) he comforts himself under it with the consideration of God’s eternity, and the church’s prosperity and perpetuity, how much soever it was now distressed and threatened.

But it is clear, from the application of Psalms 102:25,26, to Christ (Hebrews 1:10-12), that the psalm has reference to the days of the Messiah, and speaks either of His affliction or of the afflictions of His church for His sake.

In the psalm we have, 

● A sorrowful complaint which the psalmist makes, either for himself or in the name of the church, of great afflictions, which were very pressing (Psalms 102:1-11).

● Seasonable comfort fetched in against these grievances,

▪︎ From the eternity of God (Psalms 102:12,24,27).
▪︎ From a believing prospect of the deliverance which God would, in due time, work for his afflicted church (Psalms 102:13-22) and the continuance of it in the world (Psalms 102:28).

In singing this psalm, if we have not occasion to make the same complaints, yet we may take occasion to sympathize with those that have, and then the comfortable part of this psalm will be the more comfortable to us in the singing of it.

A prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed, and poureth out his complaint before the Lord.

OVERVIEW.

SUBJECT.

This is a patriot’s lament over his country’s distress.
▪︎ He arrays himself in the griefs of his nation as in a garment of sackcloth, and casts her dust and ashes upon his head as the ensigns and causes of his sorrow.
▪︎ He has his own private woes and personal enemies,
▪︎ he is moreover sore afflicted in body by sickness,
but the miseries of his people cause him a far more bitter anguish, and this he pours out in an earnest, pathetic lamentation.

However, not without hope does the patriot mourn; he has faith in God, and looks for the resurrection of the nation through the omnipotent favour of the Lord; this causes him to walk among the ruins of Jerusalem, and to say with hopeful spirit, “No, Zion, thou shalt never perish.

Thy sun is not set for ever; brighter days are in store for thee.” It is in vain to enquire into the precise point of Israel’s history which thus stirred a patriot’s soul, for many a time was the land oppressed, and at any of her sad seasons this song and prayer would have been a most natural and appropriate utterance.

TITLE.

A prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed, and poureth out his complaint before the Lord.

This Psalm is a prayer far more in spirit than in words.
The formal petitions are few, but a strong stream of supplication runs from beginning to end, and like an under-current, finds its way heavenward through the moanings of grief and confessions of faith which make up the major part of the Psalm.

It is a prayer of the afflicted, or of “a sufferer,” and it bears the marks of its parent age; as it is recorded of Jabez that “his mother bore him with sorrow,” so may we say of this Psalm; yet as Rachel’s Benoni, or child of sorrow, was also her Benjamin, or son of her right hand, so is this Psalm as eminently expressive of consolation as of desolation.

It is scarcely correct to call it a penitential Psalm, for the sorrow of it is rather of one suffering than sinning. It has its own bitterness, and it is not the same as that of Psalms 51.

The sufferer is afflicted more for others than for himself, more for Zion and the house of the Lord, than for his own house. When he is overwhelmed, or sorely troubled, and depressed.

The best of men are not always able to stem the torrent of sorrow.
Even when Jesus is on board, the vessel may fill with water and begin to sink. And poureth out his complaint before the LORD.
When a cup is overwhelmed or turned bottom over, all that is in it is naturally poured out; great trouble removes the heart from all reserve and causes the soul to flow out without restraint; it is well when that which is in the soul is such as may be poured out in the presence of God, and this is only the case where the heart has been renewed by divine grace.

The word rendered “complaint” has in it none of the idea of fault-finding or repining, but should rather be rendered “moaning,” — the expression of pain, not of rebellion.
To help the memory we will call this Psalm THE PATRIOT’S PLAINT.

DIVISION.

▪︎ In the first part of the Psalm, Psalms 102:1-11 , the moaning monopolizes every verse, the lamentation is unceasing, sorrow rules the hour.
▪︎ The second portion, from Ps 102:12-28, has a vision of better things, a view of the gracious Lord, and his eternal existence, and care for his people, and therefore it is interspersed with sunlight as well as shaded by the cloud, and it ends up right gloriously with calm confidence for the future, and sweet restfulness in the Lord.

The whole composition may be compared to a day which, opening with wind and rain, clears up at noon and is warm with the sun, continues fine, with intervening showers, and finally closes with a brilliant sunset.

× 0 ×

A Prayer of the afflicted, &c.
The general terms seem to denote the propriety of regarding the Psalm as suitably expressive of the anxieties of any one of David’s descendants, piously concerned for the welfare of the Church. It was probably David’s composition, and, though specially suggested by some peculiar trials, descriptive of future times. 

Overwhelmed
(compare Psalms 61:2 ). 

Poureth out
Pouring out the soul ( Psalms 62:8). 

Complaint (Psalms 55:2).
The tone of complaint predominates, though in view of God’s promises and abiding faithfulness, it is sometimes exchanged for that of confidence and hope.

Twitter: @SchoemakerHarry
Website 1: https://devotionals.harryschoemaker.nl
Website 2: http://bijbelplaatjes.nl

About Author