Psalm 102
תְּ֭פִלָּה לְעָנִ֣י כִֽי יַעֲטֹ֑ף וְלִפְנֵ֥י יְ֝הוָ֗ה יִשְׁפֹּ֥ךְ שִׂיחֽוֹ
BSB
The Prayer of the Afflicted
A prayer of one who is afflicted, when he grows faint and pours out his lament before the LORD.
1Hear my prayer, O LORD;
let my cry for help come before You.
2Do not hide Your face from me
in my day of distress.
Incline Your ear to me;
answer me quickly when I call.
3For my days vanish like smoke,
and my bones burn like glowing embers.
4My heart is afflicted, and withered like grass;
I even forget to eat my bread.
5Through my loud groaning
my flesh clings to my bones.
6I am like a desert owl,
like an owl among the ruins.
7I lie awake;
I am like a lone bird on a housetop.
8All day long my enemies taunt me;
they ridicule me and curse me.
9For I have eaten ashes like bread
and mixed my drink with tears
10because of Your indignation and wrath,
for You have picked me up and cast me aside.
11My days are like lengthening shadows,
and I wither away like grass.
12But You, O LORD, sit enthroned forever;
Your renown endures to all generations.
13You will rise up and have compassion on Zion,
for it is time to show her favor—
the appointed time has come.
14For Your servants delight in her stones
and take pity on her dust.
15So the nations will fear the name of the LORD,
and all the kings of the earth will fear Your glory.
16For the LORD will rebuild Zion;
He has appeared in His glory.
17He will turn toward the prayer of the destitute;
He will not despise their prayer.
18Let this be written for the generation to come,
so that a people not yet created may praise the LORD.
19For He looked down from the heights of His sanctuary;
the LORD gazed out from heaven to earth
20to hear a prisoner’s groaning,
to release those condemned to death,
21that they may proclaim the name of the LORD in Zion
and praise Him in Jerusalem,
22when peoples and kingdoms assemble
to serve the LORD.
23He has broken my strength on the way;
He has cut short my days.
24I say: “O my God, do not take me in the midst of my days!
Your years go on through all generations.
25In the beginning You laid the foundations of the earth,
and the heavens are the work of Your hands.
26They will perish, but You remain;
they will all wear out like a garment.
Like clothing You will change them,
and they will be passed on.
27But You remain the same,
and Your years will never end.
28The children of Your servants will dwell securely,
and their descendants will be established before You.”
Introduction
Psalms 102
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 books, Dan 9:2. Or perhaps the psalmist was himself in great affliction, which he complains of in the beginning of the psalm, but (as in Ps. 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 Psa 102:25, Psa 102:26, to Christ (Heb 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, I. A sorrowful complaint which the psalmist makes, either for himself or in the name of the church, of great afflictions, which were very pressing (Psa 102:1-11). II. Seasonable comfort fetched in against these grievances, 1. From the eternity of God (Psa 102:12, Psa 102:24, Psa 102:27). 2. From a believing prospect of the deliverance which God would, in due time, work for his afflicted church (Psa 102:13-22) and the continuance of it in the world (Psa 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.
Cross-references: Dan 9:2 · Ps 102:25 · Ps 102:26 · Heb 1:10 · Ps 102:1 · Ps 102:12 · Ps 102:24 · Ps 102:27 · Ps 102:13 · Ps 102:28