Hear my prayer, Yahweh! Let my cry come to you.
Don’t hide your face from me in the day of my distress. Turn your ear to me. Answer me quickly in the day when I call.
For my days consume away like smoke. My bones are burned as a torch.
My heart is blighted like grass, and withered, for I forget to eat my bread.
By reason of the voice of my groaning, my bones stick to my skin.
I am like a pelican of the wilderness. I have become as an owl of the waste places.
I watch, and have become like a sparrow that is alone on the housetop.
My enemies reproach me all day. Those who are mad at me use my name as a curse.
For I have eaten ashes like bread, and mixed my drink with tears,
because of your indignation and your wrath; for you have taken me up and thrown me away.
My days are like a long shadow. I have withered like grass.
But you, Yahweh, will remain forever; your renown endures to all generations.
You will arise and have mercy on Zion; for it is time to have pity on her. Yes, the set time has come.
For your servants take pleasure in her stones, and have pity on her dust.
So the nations will fear Yahweh’s name, all the kings of the earth your glory.
For Yahweh has built up Zion. He has appeared in his glory.
He has responded to the prayer of the destitute, and has not despised their prayer.
This will be written for the generation to come. A people which will be created will praise Yah.
For he has looked down from the height of his sanctuary. From heaven, Yahweh saw the earth;
to hear the groans of the prisoner; to free those who are condemned to death;
that men may declare Yahweh’s name in Zion, and his praise in Jerusalem;
when the peoples are gathered together, the kingdoms, to serve Yahweh.
He weakened my strength along the course. He shortened my days.
I said, “My God, don’t take me away in the middle of my days. Your years are throughout all generations.
Of old, you laid the foundation of the earth. The heavens are the work of your hands.
They will perish, but you will endure. Yes, all of them will wear out like a garment. You will change them like a cloak, and they will be changed.
But you are the same. Your years will have no end.
The children of your servants will continue. Their offspring will be established before you.”
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 23, 24, 25, 28 1 O Jehovah! hear my prayer This earnestness shows,…
1 O Jehovah! hear my prayer This earnestness shows, again, that these words were not dictated to be pronounced by the careless and light-hearted, which could not have been done without grossly insulting God. In speaking thus, the captive Jews bear testimony to the severe and excruciating distress which they endured, and to the ardent desire to obtain some alleviation with which they were inflamed. No person could utter these words with the mouth without profaning the name of God, unless he were, at the same time, actuated by a sincere and earnest affection of heart. We ought particularly to attend to the circumstance already adverted to, that we are thus stirred up by the Holy Spirit to the duty of prayer in behalf of the common welfare of the Church. Whilst each man takes sufficient care of his own individual interests, there is scarcely one in a hundred affected as he ought to be with the calamities of the Church. We have, therefore, the more need of incitements, even as we see the prophet here endeavoring, by an accumulation of words, to correct our coldness and sloth. I admit that the heart ought to move and direct the tongue to prayer; but, as it often flags or performs its duty in a slow and sluggish manner, it requires to be aided by the tongue. There is here a reciprocal influence. As the heart, on the one hand, ought to go before the words, and frame them, so the tongue, on the other, aids and remedies the coldness and torpor of the heart. True believers may indeed often pray not only earnestly but also fervently, while yet not a single word proceeds from the mouth. There is, however, no doubt that by crying the prophet means the vehemence into which grief constrains us to break forth.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 23, 26, 28 Whereby is signified, that albeit we be in never…
Whereby is signified, that albeit we be in never so great miseries, yet there is ever place left for prayer.
He declareth that in our prayer we must lively feel that, which we desire, and steadfastly believe to obtain.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–28 Psa 102:1 « A Prayer of the afflicted, when…
Psa 102:1 « A Prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed, and poureth out his complaint before the LORD. » Hear my prayer, O LORD, and let my cry come unto thee.
A Prayer of the afflicted] Or, for the afflicted, made by Daniel, or some other prophet, not long before the return out of Babylon, where they suffered much but prayed little, as Daniel confesseth, Dan 9:13. Here, therefore, they are taught to take unto them words, and say, "Hear my prayer, O Lord," &c. In greatest afflictions there is place left for prayer, Psa 130:1, and something God will yield to it, when most bitterly bent against a people, Mat 24:20-21.
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When he is overwhelmed] Pressed out of measure above strength, 2Co 1:8, ad deliquium animae, till heart faint and faith seem to fail, bowing down through weight of grief, ac si pars una corporis alia esset operta; for so the word here used signifieth, saith Kimchi, as if one part of the body were overcovered with another. Estque pulchra collatio in verbis gnataph et shaphac, quae naturam fidei depingunt, saith Mollerus; faith may be under a cloud for a season, but it will recover, and pour out its complaint before the Lord.
Ver. 1. Hear my prayer, O Lord] O Lord Christ, for so this psalm is to be understood, as the apostle showeth, Heb 1:6
And let my cry] Which is, that thou wouldest be pleased to bring us poor exiles back to our own country; and so this prayer is answerable to that of Dan 9:1-27
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28 Like smoke; which passeth away in obscurity, and swiftly,…
Like smoke; which passeth away in obscurity, and swiftly, and irrecoverably. Or, into smoke; as wood or any combustible matter put into the fire wasteth away in smoke and ashes.
My bones; the most strong and solid parts of my body, which seemed safest from the fire.
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Are burnt as an hearth; either as an hearth is heated or burnt up by the coals which are laid upon it; or as the hearth, being so heated, burns up that which is put upon it.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv1, 12, 23 The title of this psalm is very observable; it…
The title of this psalm is very observable; it is a prayer of the afflicted. It was composed by one that was himself afflicted, afflicted with the church and for it; and on those that are of a public spirit afflictions of that kind lie heavier than any other. It is calculated for an afflicted state, and is intended for the use of others that may be in the like distress; for whatsoever things were written aforetime were written designedly for our use. The whole word of God is of use to direct us in prayer; but here, as often elsewhere, the Holy Ghost has drawn up our petition for us, has put words into our mouths. Hos 14:2, Take with you words. Here is a prayer put into the hands of the afflicted: let them set, not their hands, but their hearts to it, and present it to God. Note, 1. It is often the lot of the best saints in this world to be sorely affected. 2. Even good men may be almost overwhelmed with their afflictions, and may be ready to faint under them. 3. When our state is afflicted, and our spirits are overwhelmed, it is our duty and interest to pray, and by prayer to pour out our complaints before the Lord, which intimates the leave God gives us to be free with him and the liberty of speech we have before him, as well as liberty of access to him; it intimates also what an ease it is to an afflicted spirit to unburden itself by a humble representation of its grievances and griefs. Such a representation we have here, in which,
I. The psalmist humbly begs of God to take notice of his affliction, and of his prayer in his affliction, Psa 102:1, Psa 102:2. When we pray in our affliction, 1. It should be our care that God would graciously hear us; for, if our prayers be not pleasing to God, they will be to no purpose to ourselves. Let this therefore be in our eye that our prayer may come unto God, even to his ears (Psa 18:6); and, in order to that, let us lift up the prayer, and our souls with it. 2. It may be our hope that God will graciously hear us, because he has appointed us to seek him and has promised we shall not seek him in vain. If we put up a prayer in faith, we may in faith say, Hear my prayer, O Lord! "Hear me," that is, (1.) "Manifest thyself to me, hide not thy face from me in displeasure, when I am in trouble. If thou dost not quickly free me, yet let me know that thou favourest me; if I see not the operations of thy hand for me, yet let me see the smiles of thy face upon me." God's hiding his face is trouble enough to a good man even in his prosperity (Psa 30:7, Thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled); but if, when we are in trouble, God hides his face, the case is sad indeed. (2.) "Manifest thyself for me; not only hear me, but answer me; grant me the deliverance I am in want of and in pursuit of; answer me speedily, even in the day when I call." When troubles press hard upon us, God gives us leave to be thus pressing in prayer, yet with humility and patience.
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II. He makes a lamentable complaint of the low condition to which he was reduced by his afflictions. 1. His body was macerated and emaciated, and he had become a perfect skeleton, nothing but skin and bones. As prosperity and joy are represented by making fat the bones, and the bones flourishing like a herb, so great trouble and grief are here represented by the contrary: My bones are burnt as a hearth (Psa 102:3); they cleave to my skin (Psa 102:5); nay, my heart is smitten, and withered like grass (Psa 102:4); it touches the vitals, and there is a sensible decay there. I am withered like grass (Psa 102:11), scorched with the burning heat of my troubles. If we be thus brought low by bodily distempers, let us not think it strange; the body is like grass, weak and of the earth, no wonder then that it withers. 2. He was very melancholy and of a sorrowful spirit. He was so taken up with the thoughts of his troubles that he forgot to eat his bread (Psa 102:4); he had no appetite to his necessary food nor could he relish it. When God hides his face from a soul the delights of sense will be sapless things. He was always sighing and groaning, as one pressed above measure (Psa 102:5), and this wasted him and exhausted his spirits. He affected solitude, as melancholy people do. His friends deserted him and were shy of him, and he cared as little for their company (Psa 102:6, Psa 102:7): "I am like a pelican of the wilderness, or a bittern (so some) that make a doleful noise; I am like an owl, that affects to lodge in deserted ruined buildings; I watch, and am as a sparrow upon the house-top. I live in a garret, and there spend my hours in poring on my troubles and bemoaning myself." Those who do thus, when they are in sorrow, humour themselves indeed; but they prejudice themselves, and know not what they do, nor what advantage they hereby give to the tempter. In affliction we should sit alone to consider our ways (Lam 3:28), but not sit alone to indulge an inordinate grief. 3. He was evil-spoken of by his enemies, and all manner of evil was said against him. When his friends went off from him his foes set themselves against him (Psa 102:8): My enemies reproach me all the day, designing thereby both to create vexation to him (for an ingenuous mind regrets reproach) and to bring an odium upon him before men. When they could not otherwise reach him they shot these arrows at him, even bitter words. In this they were unwearied; they did it all the day; it was a continual dropping. His enemies were very outrageous: They are mad against me, and very obstinate and implacable. They are sworn against me; as the Jews that bound themselves with an oath that they would kill Paul; or, They have sworn against me as accusers, to take away my life. 4. He fasted and wept under the tokens of God's displeasure (Psa 102:9, Psa 102:10): "I have eaten ashes like bread; instead of eating my bread, I have lain down in dust and ashes, and I have mingled my drink with weeping; when I should have refreshed myself with drinking I have only eased myself with weeping." And what is the matter? He tells us (Psa 102:10): Because of thy wrath. It was not so much the trouble itself that troubled him as the wrath of God which he was under the apprehensions of as the cause of the trouble. This, this was the wormwood and the gall in the affliction and the misery: Thou hast lifted me up and cast me down, as that which we cast to the ground with a design to dash it to pieces; we lift up first, that we may throw it down with the more violence; or, "Thou hast formerly lifted me up in honour, and joy, and uncommon prosperity; but the remembrance of that aggravates the present grief and makes it the more grievous." We must eye the hand of God both in lifting us up and casting us down, and say, "Blessed be the name of the Lord, who both gives and takes away." 5. He looked upon himself as a dying man: My days are consumed like smoke (Psa 102:3), which vanishes away quickly. Or, They are consumed in smoke, of which nothing remains; they are like a shadow that declines (Psa 102:11), like the evening-shadow, or a forerunner of approaching night. Now all this, though it seems to speak the psalmist's personal calamities, and therefore is properly a prayer for a particular person afflicted, yet is supposed to be a description of the afflictions of the church of God, with which the psalmist sympathizes, making public grievances his own. The mystical body of Christ is sometimes, like the psalmist's body here, withered and parched, nay, like dead and dry bones. The church sometimes is forced into the wilderness, seems lost, and gives up herself for gone, under the tokens of God's displeasure.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–27 Hear my prayer, O Lord,.... The prayer of a…
Hear my prayer, O Lord,.... The prayer of a poor, destitute, and afflicted one; his own, and not another's; not what was composed for him, but composed by him; which came out of his own heart, and out of unfeigned lips, and expressed under a feeling sense of his own wants and troubles; and though dictated and inwrought in his heart by the Spirit of God, yet, being put up by him in faith and fervency, it is called his own, and which he desires might be heard:
and let my cry come unto thee; he calls his prayer cry, because it was uttered in distress, and with great vehemency and importunity; and he prays that it might come unto God, even into his ears, and be regarded by him, and not shut out: prayer comes aright to God, when it comes through Christ, and out of his hands, perfumed with the incense of his mediation.
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(e) "pauperis", V. L. Pagninus, Vatablus, Amama; "inopis", Cocceius. (f) "convolveretur", Munster; "obtegitur", Gejerus, so Michaelis. (g) "meditationem suam", Junius & Tremellius, Gejerus, so Ainsworth.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 5, 6, 9, 10, 12, 13, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 26, 28 A complaint of pressing afflictions, ver. 1-11. Motives of…
A complaint of pressing afflictions, ver. 1-11. Motives of comfort, ver. 12-28. A prayer of the afflicted when he is overwhelmed, and poureth out his complaint before the LORD. Title of the psalm. Complaint - This psalm contains a prayer for the use of all true Israelites, in the name and behalf of the church of Israel. It seems to have been composed in the time of their captivity, and near the end of it, ver. 13, 14.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28 The complaint and miserable state of the poor captives,…
PSALM CII
The complaint and miserable state of the poor captives, 1-11;
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the expectation of deliverance, 12-14;
the conversion of the heathen, 15-18;
the termination of the captivity, 19-22;
the great frailty of man, 23, 24;
the unchangeableness of God, 25-27;
the permanence of the Church, 28.
NOTES ON PSALM CII
The Hebrew, and nearly all the Versions, give the following title to this Psalm: A prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed, and pours out his sighing before the Lord. There seems to be little doubt that this is the prayer of the captives in Babylon, when, towards the end of the captivity, they were almost worn out with oppression, cruelty, and distress. The Psalm has been attributed to Daniel, to Jeremiah, to Nehemiah, or to some of the other prophets who flourished during the time of the captivity. The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews has applied the twenty-fifth, twenty sixth, and twenty-seventh verses to our Lord, and the perpetuity of his kingdom.
Verse 1. Hear my prayer] The chief parts of the Psalm answer well to the title: it is the language of the deepest distress, and well directed to Him from whom alone help can come.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 4, 8, 9, 11, 13, 15, 16, 19, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28 Title. A prayer of the afflicted, &c. — It…
Title. A prayer of the afflicted, &c. — It was composed by one who was himself afflicted, afflicted with the church of God, and for it; and it is calculated for an afflicted state, and intended for the use of others that maybe in similar distress. It is the fifth of those Psalms styled Penitential.
Psa 102:3. My days are consumed like smoke — Which passeth away in obscurity, and swiftly, and irrecoverably. Hebrew, בעשׁן, into, or, in smoke. As wood, or any combustible matter put into the fire, wasteth away in smoke and ashes, so are my days wasted away. Or, as some interpret the words, “My afflictions have had the same effect on me as smoke has on things which are hung up in it, that is, have dried me up, and deformed me.” And my bones — The most strong and solid parts of my body, which seemed least likely to suffer any injury by my trouble; are burned as a hearth — Either as a hearth is heated, or burned up by the coals which are laid upon it; or, as the hearth, being so heated, burns up that Which is put upon it. But כמוקד, here translated, as a hearth, may be rendered, (as it is by many,) as a fire-brand, or, as dry wood, which seems most applicable to the subject here spoken of. For, as Dr. Horne observes, “The effects of extreme grief on the human frame are here compared to those which fire produces upon fuel. It exhausts the radical moisture, and by so doing consumes the substance. A man’s time and his strength evaporate in melancholy, and his bones, those pillars and supports of his body, become like wood, on which the fire hath done its work, and left it without sap, and without cohesion.”
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 28 Hear my prayer, O Lord - The prayer which…
Hear my prayer, O Lord - The prayer which I offer in view of my personal trials; the prayer which I offer as one of an afflicted people. Compare Psa 4:1; Psa 17:1; Psa 18:6.
And let my cry come unto thee - My prayer, accompanied with an outward expression of my earnestness. It was not a silent, or a mental prayer; it was a loud and earnest cry. Psa 5:2; Psa 18:6, Psa 18:41; Psa 30:2; Psa 72:12; Job 35:9; Job 36:13.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 Psalms 102
Psalms 102
A Prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed, and poureth out his complaint before the Lord
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2 Hear my prayer, O Lord,
And let my cry come unto thee.
3 Hide not thy face from me in the day when I am in trouble;
Incline thine ear unto me: in the day when I call
Answer me speedily.
4 For my days are consumed like smoke,
And my bones are burned as a hearth.
5 My heart is smitten, and withered like grass;
So that I forget to eat my bread.
6 By reason of the voice of my groaning
My bones cleave to my skin.
7 I am like a pelican of the wilderness:
I am like an owl of the desert.
8 I watch,
And am as a sparrow alone upon the housetop.
9 Mine enemies reproach me all the day;
And they that are mad against me are sworn against me.
10 For I have eaten ashes like bread,
And mingled my drink with weeping,
11 Because of thine indignation and thy wrath:
For thou hast lifted me up, and cast me down.
12 My days are like a shadow that declineth;
And I am withered like grass.
13 But thou, O Lord, shalt endure for ever;
And thy remembrance unto all generations.
14 Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion:
For the time to favor her,
Yea, the set time, is come.
15 For thy servants take pleasure in her stones,
And favor the dust thereof.
16 So the heathen shall fear the name of the Lord,
And all the kings of the earth thy glory.
17 When the Lord shall build up Zion,
He shall appear in his glory.
18 He will regard the prayer of the destitute,
And not despise their prayer.
19 This shall be written for the generation to come:
And the people which shall be created shall praise the Lord.
20 For he hath looked down from the height of his sanctuary;
From heaven did the Lord behold the earth;
21 To hear the groaning of the prisoner;
To loose those that are appointed to death;
22 To declare the name of the Lord in Zion,
And his praise in Jerusalem;
23 When the people are gathered together,
And the kingdoms, to serve the Lord.
24 He weakened my strength in the way;
He shortened my days.
25 I said, O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days:
Thy years are throughout all generations.
26 Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth:
And the heavens are the work of thy hands.
27 They shall perish, but thou shalt endure
Yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment;
As a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed.
28 But thou art the same,
And thy years shall have no end.
29 The children of thy servants shall continue,
And their seed shall be established before thee.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Contents and Superscription. In this superscription there are given, contrary to the usual custom, not the historical cirumstances by which the contents might be explained, and which occasioned the utterance of the Psalm, but the circumstances under which it might be employed. Accordingly, the superscription may have been affixed at a later time, when the collection of Psalms had come to be employed, not merely as a book of devotion for liturgical purposes, but also for private use, like other books of hymns (Hupfeld). This, however, is not decisive; for the contents and tone of this prayer, which is throughout of a subjective character, are pervaded by historical and personal allusions. These exclude the supposition that a poet, perhaps David, had composed it for his descendants (Hengst.), or that a prophet, having in view the future misery of the people (Calvin), had written it for the use of the class of sufferers which it describes, when their sufferings should begin, by transferring himself to their mental position, or drew up a model of prayer or formulary for employment in such circumstances. The suppliant speaks from personal experience of distress actually pressing upon him. But this distress has not an individual character, but is of that general kind which is felt under national calamities and misfortunes. He prays for himself, but at the same time affords help in prayer to those who not only are in like circumstances with himself, who also are in a like frame of soul. The time shortly before the end of the Exile may be recognized as indicated in Psa_102:14-15. With this also agree the many points of coincidence with the prophecies of the second part of Isaiah, with which, also, passages from other Psalms, e.g.,Psalms 22, 69, 79, and from Job, are united. Yet the Psalm is not without individuality, and is marked some times by a lofty poetic strain and by expressions which are as beautiful in language as they are sublime in conception. The strophical structure is rather irregular, so that only smaller and larger groups are distinguishable. After a request to be heard, expressed in general terms (vers.2, 3), there follows, first, a description of the distressed situation of the suppliant in three sections (Psa_102:4-13). To this there is attached an expression of the confident assurance that Jehovah, the eternal Sovereign and gracious Hearer of prayer, would soon fulfil His deecree of mercy to Zion (vers.13–15), for the manifestation of His glory, in the presence of which the heathen would be affrighted (vers.16–18), while the redeemed would praise the Lord, recount His deeds for succeeding ages, and so proclaim His glory, that even heathen nations, converted to Jehovah, should worship in Zion (Psa_102:19-23). Then follows the confession, that humiliation has come from the hand of the Lord. This passes over into an entreaty, that the supplicant may not be snatched a way before his time. Finally, God is praised as the Eternal, who remains ever the same, and who will also grant perpetuity to the generation of His servants (vers.24–29).
Psa_102:4-7. Hearth.—This signification is established by the Arabic (Delitzsch, Hitzig), so that we need not translate: brand = fire (most), or = twigs (Sept. and others). The hearth, however, may be regarded as embracing what lies upon it (Isa_33:14; Num_4:2).—Persons in deep grief ate nothing (1Sa_1:7; 1Sa_20:34; 2Sa_12:16; 2Ki_21:4). The pelican (Psa_102:7) is mentioned as an inhabitant of moors and desert places (Num_11:18; Deu_14:17; Isa_24:17; Zep_2:14. Comp. Oedmann, Vermischte Sammlungen, Part 3, Chap. 6). Along with this קָאַת in Num_11:17, כּוֹם is also mentioned as an unclean bird, which in its etymology is connected with a bottle or cup, and therefore might signify the pelican (Bochart); but it has always been explained as the night-owl or nightraven.
Psa_102:9-12. Swearing by one (Psa_102:9), means: to make his name a by-word of execration, or an example of cursing (Isa_65:15; Jer_29:22; Jer_42:18). The ashes (Psa_102:10), allude to the custom of those in deep sorrow, of sitting in ashes and dust, and strewing them upon their heads and garments. We are not to suppose that the bread of the Psalmist was actually defiled. It is a figurative expression, like: dust is their bread (Isa_65:25; comp. Gen_3:14; Psa_72:9). The lifting up and casting down [Psa_102:11] is a figure borrowed from a tempestuous wind (Job_32:21; Job_30:22; Isa_64:5; Eze_3:14), vividly representing how the people first lost their fatherland, and were then cast among strangers. In Psa_102:12 life is compared to a shadow, not as passing, or quickly vanishing (Psa_145:4; comp Psa_39:7), but as growing towards its end (Psa_109:23), lengthening in the evening (Jer_4:4), after a figure taken from the declining of the day (Jdg_19:9). There is nothing to indicate an allusion to a leaning wall which threatens to fall, Psa_62:4 (Hengstenberg).
Psa_102:13-18. Thy remembrance.—Instead of וִכְרְךָ several codices, known already to Aben Ezra, read כִסְאְַךָ, thy throne, evidently a correction after Lam_5:19 (Kimchi), but made unnecessarily, for the passage before us rests upon Exo_3:15, and corresponds with the references just made to God’s sitting upon His throne, that is, reigning (Psa_9:8; Psa_29:10.)—The timeמוֹעֵד (Psa_102:14) determined in God’s counsels (Psa_75:3; Isa_40:2) is often understood too definitely of the seventy years’ exile (Jer_25:11 f.; Jer_29:10).—The stones [Psa_102:15] are not those intended for rebuilding (Isa_54:11), but, as being parallel to dust = debris. (Neh_4:4), are the stones of Zion in ruins (Jer_4:1; Neh. 3:34). The loving devotion here described is, therefore, not that of longing after the future, but, as the parallelism also demands, that of sympathetic attachment, unaffected by the destruction of the city.—The restoration of Jerusalem and the appearing of Jehovah’s glory [Psa_102:17] go together (Isa_40:1-5), and are to be the means of the conversion of the world. The people of the Exile are called in Psa_102:18 destitute and homeless, powerless, unhonored, and despised by men (Del.).
[Psa_102:22. Alexander: “This, according to the laws of Hebrew syntax, does not necessarily denote an act of God Himself, as the similar construction in the preceding verse does, but may have a vague sense, equivalent to saying, that his name may be declared in Zion. To recount God’s name is to recount the mighty deeds which constitute it, and the celebration of which constitutes His praise. Zion is still represented as the great scene of Jehovah’s triumphs, not, however, as the capital of Israel or Judah merely, but as the radiating centre of religious light and influence to all the earth.”—J. F. M.]
Psa_102:24-28. My strength.—It is evidently in accordance with the parallel expression: my days, to read the suffix of the first person (Syr., Chald. and many codices) instead of the usual third person = is strength (Sept. and most). But it is doubtful whether we should translate: on the way (Psa_110:7), or: by reason of the way (Psa_105:18). The Sept. gives a complete subversion of the sense: it was said to me on the way of his strength: show me the shortness of my days.—-Although the heavens and the mountains are termed everlasting with reference to the lasting duration of the order of things (Gen_8:20; Gen_9:9; Psa_72:6; Psa_148:6), preserved from decay (Isa_48:13), yet, when contrasted with God, they are not merely transitory and mutable (Psa_72:7; Job_14:12), but will undergo a change by the power of God (Isa_34:4; Isa_1:9; Isa_51:6; Isa_65:17; Isa_66:22). In view of the contrast to this change to which the world will be subjected, אַתָּה הוּא (Psa_102:28) is not to be understood as referring, according to the analogy of אְַגִי הוּא (Deu_32:39; Isa_43:10; Isa_43:13; comp. 11; Psa_48:12; Psa_52:6), to the fact that God is the only Being who can lay claim to the Divine name, but, as in Job_3:19; Isa_41:4; Isa_46:4, to the immutability in which God ever manifests Himself as the same. The Messianic application of this passage in Heb_1:10 ff. has its justification in the context, which points to the time of fulfilment. The concluding sentence asserts that the generation of God’s servants will not perish, but will ever have a seed, and thereby be preserved until the period of consummation. [Perowne: “It is by no means easy to understand why the words of this Psalm should have been quoted, as it does not seem at first sight to be a Messianic Psalm. It may be observed, however, (1) that it is in this sense Messianic, that it looks forward to Israel’s redemption from captivity, and the future glory of Zion; (2) that .... there are two great lines of Messianic hope running through the Psalms, the one human, the other Divine; in the one of which the reign of the Son of David, in the other of which the advent of Jehovah is the great end and object. Here the Psalmist is occupied with the latter, the appearing of Jehovah in His glory. (3) This identification of the Jesus of the New Testament with the Jehovah of the Old is what we find elsewhere. Comp. Joh_12:41 with Isaiah 6. (Isaiah sees the glory of Jehovah, John says it was the glory of Christ), and Joh_19:37, which in Zec_12:10 is language used directly of Jehovah. ... (4) Not only the revelation, the appearing of Jehovah in Zion, but also the creation of the world, Psa_102:26, would point to the great Mediator, the Eternal Word, as the Person here spoken of, and on this last ground especially, the quotation in the Epistle to the Hebrews seems to rest.”—J. F. M.]
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. In great sorrow of heart even the body declines. One in deep affliction loses his relish even for food and drink. He who is inwardly tempted feels himself also outwardly weakened, and passing away like a shadow to his end. Then it is necessary above every thing else to be firmly fixed in God, the Eternal, the Abiding, the Immutable, to gain and maintain that immovable ground, into which faith strikes root, and from which the expectation of answer to prayer grows up with life and vigor. Then the earthly sources of happiness may be lost, its outward supports be resigned, the temporal means of its preservation and restoration be dispensed with, yes, everything which otherwise would be precious to men may be stripped away, and the sufferer may wander a homeless stranger over the earth, and yet he will not be lost. He, who in his distress makes God his refuge, remains shielded in Him, though forsaken by the whole world.
2. But to make God our refuge in such circumstances is not so easy as some suppose it to be. For, in the first place, faith is not the gift of every one. We have besides this to take into special account the pressure which distress exerts upon the soul, and which thus overcasts the mind, weakens the love of prayer, paralyzes the powers generally, and obstructs the upward looking and rising of the soul to God. To this feeling of weariness, feebleness, and exhaustion there is then added the experience of loneliness, when we are not only forsaken but shunned, and be come the object not of sympathy but of abhorrence, contempt, and execration. But worst of all is the burden of the Divine wrath, whose awful severity we have to bear in those fearful judgments. The turning point of deliverance is indeed gained, when the chastened one remembers that his sufferings are the merited chastisement of his sins. But he, who is sincere in such confession, is also conscious that he cannot with all his sufferings remove his guilt or atone for his sins, and thus falls into a deep gloom, which would consume him if he were to long for God in vain.
3. But the longing for God already contains in itself germs of faith, both in God’s power, and in His willingness to pardon, comfort, and deliver. Moreover, in order that these seeds may not be blighted, but gain vigor and develop, God permits His people to behold manifestations of His power, goodness, and faithfulness, and provides that the events by which they are made known be proclaimed in the Church from generation to generation, and through the Church come to the knowledge of the heathen, and that thus all the world be called to conversion, and the means of salvation be afforded it. The preservation, therefore, of God’s Church in the world, and the means of grace within the Church, form an object on the one hand, of the cares, prayers, and hopes of believers, and on the other of the providential care, the love, and the effectual working of God, as the unchangeable Creator, Preserver, and Governor of the Church, as well as the world, who will cause His glory to appear, when the time is fulfilled, and will preserve the seed of His servants, while the world is passing away.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
He who would not pine away in distress must seek revival from God’s countenance, and, therefore, not merely pour out his complaint before Him, but also cast his cares upon Him and hope for the consolation of Israel.—The more strongly we feel our frailty and helplessness, and the more clearly we recognize the perishableness and impotence of the world, the more firmly fixed must we be in God, the more implicitly must we hope in Him, and the more cheerfully take what comes from His hand.—We care best for our own welfare, when we are concerned for God’s honor, the salvation of the world, and the prosperity of the Church.—The security for the preservation of the Church does not lie (1) in the impotence of the hostile world, but in the indestructible dominion of the Almighty; nor (2) in the virtues of its members, but in His unchangeable faithfulness; nor (3) in the strength of temporal institutions, but in the invincible power of the means of grace.—The glory of the world sets with the rising of the glory of God: well for him who can resign the one and hope in the other!—Suffering and love are not counterparts, but they are quite compatible with one another. Let us recognize, feel, and testify to this in the afflictions of the Church as well as in personal trials.—God has fixed in the Church the remembrance of His name for His own glory, for the building of the Church, and for the conversion of the heathen.—God has not resigned His power over the world, even if He permits it to last for a time, and restrains His judgments: let us then trust in His power, and, that we may not need to dread His judgments, let us serve Him faithfully as our King.
Luther: A Psalm of devotion, wherein the dear saints of old, weary of the law, of sin, and of dying, yearn thus fervently after God, and call for the kingdom of grace promised in Christ.—Calvin: The more lamentable the desolation of the Church, the less should we allow ourselves to become alienated from love to her.—Starke: True penitence does not soon cease; it is not exercised with laughter on the lips.—It does not so much grieve the pious that they are chastened by God, as that they have offended Him, and have thereby brought upon themselves His anger and chastisement.—A penitent heart distrusts its own strength, and knows that it has as little strength as a shadow, and as little sap as the withered grass.—It is the beginning of true repentance, when the stony heart, smitten by the rod of the law, overflows in a flood of tears; from this sowing in tears there grows the stately and fruitful harvest of joy.—In the world, every one turns his eyes away from him who is forsaken and despised; but God does the opposite. He turns to listen to the entreaties of those who are forsaken by the world and its comfort.—There are few among men who have part in God’s mercy, because they do not groan as prisoners, or know that they are children of death.—Beware lest thou shorten thy days by an intemperate and unchaste life, needless anxiety, anger, and other evils; abide rather in God’s fear, for that will lengthen thy days.—We shall have lived long enough, when we shall have gained a true knowledge of Christ, and have been well confirmed therein; if we have this, we cannot after that die at an inconvenient time.—The world must always leave a little room for the citizens of Christ’s kingdom, and if they do not find it on earth, they have an eternal abiding place in heaven.—Selnecker: That is a beautiful and comforting promise, that God will hear all those who believe and fear Him, and that the Church of Christ will ever endure, and extol and praise the great blessings of its Redeemer.—Menzel: For what end are the people created? To praise the Lord.—Arndt: Though God the Lord knows all thy troubles, yet He will have thee lament them to Him; (1) that in thy spirit there should be no guile; (2) and that from the heart thou shouldst know thy sin; (3) that thou shouldst show the Lord thy wound which pains thee, that He may heal it.—Rieger: We indeed have proofs that we are not in heaven, but that we are suspended all alone, by our faith, between the life of theworld and the life eternal. But it will yet be the lot of the world to utter a more bitter cry than the pelicans. Ah, how much better would it be to weep here with and over Zion!—Guenther: Though it may seem sometimes as if death must be near, and the night of hell must conquer and triumph over the few righteous in a city or in a nation, yet it must remain true of them, what the Lord Himself has said, that none should snatch them out of His hand, and that the gates of hell should not prevail against them.—Diedrich: If all thy desire is really after the living God, He will speedily vouchsafe His presence to thee most richly; but worldlings and hypocrites desire not God, but always the world, even when they pray.—Taube: While believers under the Old Covenant sought and gained Christ in God, the God of salvation in the God of creation, the children of the New Covenant proclaim God in Christ, who became flesh, of whom, by whom, and to whom are all things, blessed to eternity.
[Matth. Henry: If God by His providence declare His name, we must by our acknowledgment of it declare His praise, which ought to be to us an echo of His name.—Barnes: An indication of a coming revival of religion is often manifested—by tenderness, pity, and compassion in view of abounding desolations, the coldness of the Church, and the prevalence of iniquity—by a conscious returning love in their hearts for all that pertains to religion, however unimportant it may be in the eyes of the world, or however it may be despised.—J. F. M.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28 1. Hear my prayer—The invocation of Psa_102:1-2 is replete…
1. Hear my prayer—The invocation of Psa_102:1-2 is replete with those familiar forms which appear often in the Davidic psalms, and which are common, also, to all earnest, agonizing prayers. See Psa_18:6; Psa_27:9; Psa_39:12; Psa_143:7
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, 28 1, 2. The Psalmist’s prayer is not the less…
1, 2. The Psalmist’s prayer is not the less real because it is expressed in familiar phrases from older Psalms. Hear my prayer, Jehovah, is from Psa_39:12; and let my cry for help come unto thee is suggested by Psa_18:6. Hide not thy face from me is taken from Psa_27:9, in the day of my distress from Psa_59:16; incline thine ear unto me from Psa_31:2; in the day when I call from Psa_56:9, answer me speedily from Psa_69:17.
1–11. The Psalmist supplicates for a speedy hearing, pleading the extremity of his distress.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 20, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28 (1) Prayer.—Like love and all emotion, prayer has its…
(1) Prayer.—Like love and all emotion, prayer has its own language, and this assumes here the forms of expression that meet us in other psalms. (See, e.g., in addition to the reference in margin, Psa_31:2; Psa_39:12; Psa_56:9; Psa_59:16; Psa_143:7.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28 THE "title" of this psalm is altogether peculiar, being…
THE "title" of this psalm is altogether peculiar, being "a Prayer for the afflicted, when he faints, and pours out his complaint before Jehovah." This is clearly a general direction for the use of the psalm by afflicted persons, either universally, or, at any rate, when in circumstances resembling those of the writer. The writer appears to have belonged to the period of the Captivity, and probably to the later portion of it (ver. 13). It has been conjectured that he is Daniel; but there are no sufficient grounds for assigning the composition to any special individual. It is the voice of a representative sufferer in Babylon, mourning over his own afflictions and those of his nation.
The psalm consists of three main portions: first, a complaint, prefaced by an appeal to God for aid (vers. 1-11); secondly, a confident expression of an assured hope and trust in a speedy deliverance (vers. 12-22); and thirdly, a contrast between human weakness and God"s strength and unchangeableness, resulting in a conviction that, whatever becomes of the writer, the seed of Israel will be preserved and established before God forever (vers. 23-28).
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Hear my prayer, O Lord, and let my cry come unto thee. (comp. Psa_27:7 Psa_39:12 Psa_54:2 Psa_55:1, etc.) "Stereotyped expressions," but the fittest to express a sufferer"s urgent need.
Vers. 1-11. Affliction.
"Many are the afflictions of the righteouseven of the righteous, and sometimes these are almost, if not altogether, overwhelming. We expect to find suffering and sorrow among the guilty, but experience teaches us that it is
I THE OCCASIONAL PORTION OF THE GODLY. Seldom, indeed, is the good man reduced to such distress as that described in the text; yet it does occur; troubles do sometimes accumulate where they seem least deserved or least necessary. But if not found in this degree, yet they are found in company with:
1. Bodily pain (ver. 3), or weakness, or lingering disease, or some form of physical privation. There may be associated:
2. Depression of spirit; so that food is distasteful (ver. 4), and the simple comforts of life bring no enjoyment; fair scenes give no pleasure to the eye, sweet sounds have no charm for the ear. There may be added:
3. Loneliness; either because friends have lost faith, and have deserted; or because the dejected spirit declines all human fellowship, and retires to a disconsolate obscurity (vers. 6, 7).
4. Added to these may be positive enmity and opposition (ver. 8). Perhaps the evil which is hardest to be borne is the accusation or the insinuation of misconduct made by former friends, who are now the most cruel of enemies, and who use the language of reproach or innuendo. Beside all this is:
5. A painful sense of departure (vers. 3, 11). The mind is oppressed by the thought that, like the lessening shadow, life is going; the opportunity for clearing reputation, for doing good work, for taking a good position, for reaping any of the fruits of toil, is rapidly being consumed; it will soon be gone, and then the best of life will have been lost. It is the servant of God who is sometimes called upon to "eat ashes like bread," and to "mingle his drink with his tears "( ver. 9). But even in the midst of his distress and of his perplexity there will be
II A DEVOUT REFERENCE TO THE WILL OF GOD. The sufferer is a man who has mens conscia recti; he is the victim of injustice; he wonders why he is thus assailed, thus brought low; but he does not question the presence or the ordering of Divine providence. God has allowed it all: "Thou hast lifted me up, and cast me down." The Christian man in similar distress has learnt of Christ that calamity is not always a sign of Divine displeasure; (Luk_13:1-5) he does not therefore speak about "thy wrath and anger." Moreover, he has learnt of his Master that persecution is often the highest honour; (Mat_5:10-12) and from his apostle that affliction is often not punitive at all, but curative; the evidence, not of Divine anger, but of Fatherly love and wisdom. (Heb_12:3-11) He therefore accepts what he suffers as the will of God concerning him, assured that it has a gracious purpose, and will work a spiritual and eternal good that will more than outweigh the physical and temporal distress.
III THE APPEAL TO GOD. (Vers. 1, 2)
1. It is a real relief to utter his thought in the conscious presence of God; the very recital of his griefs in God"s ear brings some comfort. To tell all our troubles to a sympathetic friend, even when we do not expect him to be able to help us, is a relief to us; how much mere to breathe them into the ear of him who has the most perfect sympathy with every one of his people! (Mat_8:17 Heb_4:15)
2. We may confidently count on our heavenly Father"s" help. It is the natural, and therefore the right, thing for us, in our moment of spiritual agitation, to use the language of earnest, if not agonizing entreaty, and to let earnestness pass into importunity ("hear me speedily"); it is altogether wise and right to continue in prayer for Divine succour when that seems to be delayed; but it is needful, for true sonship and perfect service, to rest calmly assured that God does always hear our prayer, and that he will help us, either by delivering us from our evil condition, sooner or later, here or hereafter, or by so multiplying his sustaining grace that we shall positively triumph in our endurance. (2Co_2:14 2Co_9:10, 2Co_9:11)
HOMILIES BY S. CONWAY Vers. 1-28. Light arising in darkness.
The authorship and therefore the date of this psalm cannot be certainly fixed, or whether it be a national or an individual utterance; probably it is the latter. The alternations of thought and feeling are very noteworthy. We have
I EARNEST PRAYER. (Vers. 1, 2) There is an ascending scale, reaching to a climax.
1. That the Lord would hear. "Hear, O Lord.
2. For close access. "Let my cry come unto thee." Do not hear me from afar, but come near to me.
3. For gracious hearing. "Hide not thy face," etc.; when I see thee, let not thy face be averted, but graciously turned to me.
4. For attentive hearing. "Incline thine ear;" as one anxious to hear bends down his ear, that he may more easily hear what is said.
5. For prompt reply. "Answer me speedily;" let there be no long delay. It is a blessed thing when our troubles and distresses lead us to God in prayer, and in prayer thus earnest and believing.
II SAD COMPLAINT. There are nine verses of this (vers. 3-11). They tell of:
1. The swift approach of death. (Ver. 3) As fuel in fierce heat and flame is swiftly consumed, so is it with his life.
2. Of his bitter sorrow. (Ver. 4) All its strength and joy smitten, as is the grass with the sun-stroke, so that he cares not to live, forgets to eat bread.
3. His wasted form. He is worn as a skeleton, his bones cleave to his flesh.
4. His utter loneliness. (Ver. 6) As the cormorant of the wilderness, (Zep_2:14 Isa_34:11) and as the owl. The owl is called in Arabic, "mother of the ruins.
5. His cruel enemies. (Ver. 8) These, when they curse, point to him as an example of misery; when they would imprecate vengeance on any, they ask that those whom they curse may be wretched as the psalmist.
6. His abiding and unrelieved sorrow. (Ver. 9) It mingles with all his food.
7. The cause of it. The Divine displeasure. "God"s wrath has seized and hurled him aloft, only to cast him, as worthless, away". (cf. Isa_22:18)
8. The result of it all. Death is close at hand. Not improbably some exile dying far away in Babylon poured forth this bitter complaint. As the groans of a sick man are a relief, so is the outpouring of our trouble to God a relief to the burdened heart. It is ever well so to do. But now, out of these depths comes
III DIVINE COMFORT. There are eleven verses of this (vers. 12-22). And this comfort is drawn:
1. From the remembrance of the eternal God. (Ver. 12) God does not die, though man does; God lives to carry on his work when men pass away.
2. The conviction that Zions redemption is at hand. (Ver. 13) He gathers this from the fact that the minds of the people of God were turned to the fallen Jerusalem. (cf. Ne 1-2:3) There were probably many conferences and much interest and prayer in regard to Zion (ver. 14); and the psalmist recognizes in all this one of the evidences that God"s set time to be gracious to Zion has come.
3. The anticipation of the blessed results that shall follow on Zion"s restoration. (Vers. 15, 16) This is ever the harbinger of the world"s conversion.
4. His grateful sense of the exceeding goodness of God which is to be made manifest (vers. 17-22). He thinks of the destitute, of the prisoner groaning in his misery, of those appointed unto death, and of the blessed help and deliverance that shall come to them all, and his heart leaps up in praise. But next we see
IV SADNESS SEEKING TO COME BACK AGAIN. (Ver. 23) As is the way of sadness, it haunts the soul, and, though banished awhile, it will return. It was so with the psalmist. The remembrance of his own sore trouble comes over him again, and he bursts out in this piteous lament, "He weakened my strength in the way," etc., and he cries, "O my God, take me not away," etc. But God does not leave him; such holy troubled souls never are left. We next see
V SADNESS AGAIN DRIVEN AWAY. (Vers. 25-28) His trust is restored; for:
1. He remembers the eternal God. This had been his comfort before (vers. 1, 2); and now it comes to his help once more. "Thou art the same, and thy years," etc. (ver. 27). And then he thinks of:
2. His children. They shall be established before God (ver. 28). And so the light again ariseth in the darkness. S.C.
HOMILIES BY R. TUCK Ver. 1. The prayer of the afflicted.
It is uncertain whether in this psalm we have an expression of personal feeling in a time of personal suffering, or an idealizing of the afflicted nation. If we take the former view, personal and national views must be regarded as blended. If we take the latter view, we may give heed to Bishop Wordsworth"s suggestion, that the psalm was composed by Nehemiah when he went by night to examine the walls of Jerusalem, and was so deeply affected by the ruinous condition which he found. Bible writers prefer to associate the psalm with the later days of the Exile, when the sufferings of the Lord"s people had become almost unendurable, and the time prophesied for the length of the Exile was nearly completed. It is the prayer of a patient sufferer for himself, and for the Jerusalem that lies in ruins. The sorrow of the psalmist has in it no touch of doubt or repining. But he does feel the difficulty and mystery of the Divine delays. That is, indeed, one of our gravest sources of anxiety. If God is acting, we are well assured and comforted. He is manifestly present; we feel his presence that is enough. But when he delays, we easily get the impression that he is holding aloof; that he is indifferent; that he is not heeding our prayer. Then, with the psalmist, we begin prayer by praying to be heard and heeded.
I THE PRAYER OF THE AFFLICTED SHOULD BE A CONFIDENTIAL UNFOLDING, NOT A COMPLAINT. Complaint of God must always be wrong and unworthy. No pious man can ever be placed in any circumstances of distress in which he gains the right to complain of God. No pious man keeps his piety and ever wishes to complain. Submission to the infinitely wise, strong love is absolutely essential to piety. "Thy will be done," and borne. But the pious soul is invited to the fullest confidences with God. He may speak out his feelings fully and freely. Great relief comes in times of trouble by giving our confidence to a trustworthy friend; and God permits us freely to complain to him.
II THE PRAYER OF THE AFFLICTED SHOULD BE A SIGN OF FAITH, NOT OF FEAR. The faith should assure
(1) of God"s attention;
(2) of God"s sympathy;
(3) of God"s ability to help;
(4) of God"s wisdom in delaying his intervention.
1. Fear would be a dishonour to our past of Divine deliverances.
2. Fear would tell of our circumstances mastering our souls.
3. Fear would show suspicion of the Divine power and promise.
We ask God to "hear our prayer," because we know that is just what he is doing. R.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain On vv1–28 This is a patriot's lament over his country's distress.…
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. Not, however, 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.
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 the Fifty-first. 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.
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In the first part of the Psalm, Ps 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.
Ver. 1. Hear my prayer, O LORD. Or O JEHOVAH. Sincere supplicants are not content with praying for praying's sake, they desire really to reach the ear and heart of the great God. It is a great relief in time of distress to acquaint others with our trouble, we are eased by their hearing our lamentation, but it is the sweetest solace of all to have God himself as a sympathizing listener to our plaint. That he is such is no dream or fiction, but an assured fact. It would be the direst of all our woes if we could be indisputably convinced that with God there is neither hearing nor answering; he who could argue us into so dreary a belief would do us no better service than if he had read us our death-warrants. Better die than be denied the mercy-seat. As well be atheists at once as believe in an unhearing, unfeeling God.
And let my cry come unto thee. When sorrow rises to such a height that words become too weak a medium of expression, and prayer is intensified into a cry, then the heart is even more urgent to have audience with the Lord. If our cries do not enter within the veil, and reach to the living God, we may as well cease from prayer at once, for it is idle to cry to the winds; but, blessed be God, the philosophy which suggests such a hideous idea is disproved by the facts of every day experience, since thousands of the saints can declare, "Verily, God hath heard us."
Title. A prayer, etc. The prayer following is longer than others. When Satan, the Law-Adversary, doth extend his pleas against us, it is meet that we should enlarge our counter pleas for our own souls; as the powers of darkness do lengthen aud multiply their wrestlings, so must we our counter wrestlings of prayer. Eph 6:12, 18. Thomas Cobbet, 1667.
Title. When he... poureth out, etc. Here we have the manner of the church's prayer suitable to her extremity illustrated by a simile taken from a vessel overcharged with new wine or strong liquor, that bursts for vent. Oh the heart-bursting cries she sends out all the day! Here is no lazy, slothful, lip labour, stinted forms of prayer, no empty sounds of verbal expressions, which can never procure her a comfortable answer from her God, or the least ease to her burdened soul; but poured-out prayers as Hannah, 1Sa 1:15, and Jeremy, La 2:12, pressed forth with vehemence of spirit and heart pangs of inward grief: thus the Lord deals with his church and people; ere he pour out cups of consolation they must pour out tears in great measure. Finiens Canus Vove.
Title.
This is the mourner's prayer when he is faint,
And to the Eternal Father breathes his plaint. John Keble.
Whole Psalm. The psalm has been attributed to Daniel, to Jeremiah, to Nehemiah, or to some of the other prophets who flourished during the time of the captivity. The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews has applied Ps 102:25-27 to our Lord, and the perpetuity of his kingdom. Adam Clarke.
Whole Psalm. I doubt whether, without apostolic teaching, any of us would have had the boldness to understand it; for in many respects it is the most remarkable of all the Psalmsthe Psalm of "THE AFFLICTED ONE" while his soul is overwhelmed within him in great affliction, and sorrow, and anxious fear. Adolph Saphir, in "Expository Lectures on the Epistle to the Hebrews."
Ver. 1. Hear my prayer, O LORD, and let my cry come unto thee. When, at any time we see the beggars, or poor folks, that are pained and grieved with hunger and cold, lying in the streets of cities and towns, full of sores, we are somewhat moved inwardly with pity and mercy; but if we our own selves attend and give ear to their wailings, cryings, and lamentable noises that they make, we should be much more stirred to show our pity and mercy on them; for no man else can show the grief of the sick and sore persons, so well and in so pathetic a manner as he himself. Therefore, since the miserable crying and wailing of those that suffer bodily pain and misery can prevail so much upon the hearts of mortal creatures; I doubt not, Good Lord, but thou, who art all merciful, must needs be inclined to exercise thy mercy, if my sorrowful cry and petition may come unto thine ears, or into thy presence. John Fisher (1459-1535) in "A Treatise concerning the fruitful Sayings of David, "1714.
Ver. 1. My prayer. His own, and not another's; not what was composed for him, but composed by him; which came out of his own heart, and out of unfeigned lips, and expressed under a feeling sense of his own wants and troubles; and though dictated and inwrought in his heart by the Spirit of God, yet, being put up by him in faith and fervency, it is called his own, and which he desires might be heard. John Gill.
Ver. 1. My cry. Lest my praying should not prevail, behold, O God, I raise it to a cry; and crying, I may say, is the greatest bell in all the ring of praying: for louder than crying I cannot pray. O, then, if not my prayer, at least let my cry come unto thee. If I be not heard when I cry, I shall cry for not being heard; and if heard when I cry, I shall cry to be heard yet more; and so whether heard or not heard, I shall cry still, and God grant I may cry still; so thou be pleased, O God, to "hear my prayer, "and to "let my cry come unto thee." Sir R. Baker.
Ver. 1-2. This language is the language of godly sorrow, of faith, of tribulation, and of anxious hope: of faith, for the devout suppliant lifts up his heart and voice to heaven, "as seeing him who is invisible, "(Heb 11:27) and entreats him to hear his prayer and listen to his crying: of tribulation, for he describes himself as enduring affliction, and unwilling to lose the countenance of the Lord in his time of his trouble: of anxious hope, for he seems to expect, in the midst of his groaning, that his prayers, like those of Cornelius, will "go up for a memorial before God" who will hear him, "and that right soon." Charles Oxenden, in "Sermons on the Seven Penitential Psalms, " 1838.
Ver. 1-2. The Lord suffereth his babbling children to speak to him in their own form of speech, (albeit the terms which they use be not fitted for his spiritual, invisible, and incomprehensible majesty); such as are, "Hear me, ""hide not thy face, ""incline thine ear to me, "and such like other speeches. David Dickson.
Ver. 1-2. Note, David sent his prayer as a sacred ambassador to God. Now there are four things requisite to make an embassy prosperous. The ambassador must be regarded with favourable eye: he must be heard with a ready ear: he must speedily return when his demands are conceded. These four things David as a suppliant asks from God his King. Le Blanc.
Title.
1. Afflicted men may pray.
2. Afflicted men should pray even when overhelmed.
3. Afflicted men can prayfor what is wanted is a pouring out of their complaint, not an oratorical display.
4. Afflicted men are accepted in prayerfor this prayer is placed on record.
Ver. 1-2. Five steps to the mercy-seat. The Psalmist prays for,
1. Audience: "Hear my prayer."
2. Access: "Let my cry come before thee."
3. Unveiling: "Hide not thy face."
4. An intent ear: "Incline thine ear."
5. Answer. C. Davis.
Ver. 1, 17, 19-20. An interesting discourse may be founded upon these passages.
1. The Lord entreated to hearPs 102:1.
2. The Promise given
that he will hearPs 102:17.
3. The Record that the Lord has heardPs 102:19-20.
Psalms 102:2*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv1, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 24, 26, 27, 28 Hear my prayer, O Lord, and let my cry…
Psa_102:1-28
Hear my prayer, O Lord, and let my cry come unto Thee.
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Thoughts of comfort and complaint
I. Thoughts of complaint (Psa_102:1-11).
1. Concerning bodily sufferings.
(1) The physical anguish of life (verse 3).
(2) The terrible brevity of life (verse 11).
2. Concerning mental sufferings. I am in trouble. My heart is smitten, etc. His mental anguish destroyed his appetite for food, made his bones cleave to his skin, and to mingle his drink with tears. Such is the connection between the mind and the body that a suffering mind will soon bring the body to decay and death. One dark thought has often struck down a stalwart frame.
3. Concerning social sufferings (verse 8). The coldness, the calumny, the envy and jealousy of our fellow-men cannot fail to strike anguish into the heart.
4. Concerning religious sufferings (verse 10). Moral suffering is the soul of all suffering. A wounded spirit who can bear?
II. Thoughts of comfort (Psa_102:12-28). These thoughts refer to God.
1. His existence amidst all the changes of earth (verse 12).
2. His anticipated interposition on behalf of mankind (Psa_102:13-18).
(1) It is fixed--a set time.
(2) It is conditional (verse 14). Seek, and ye shall find, etc.
(3) It is glorious (verse 15).
(4) It is prayer-answering (verse 19).
(5) It is always rememberable (verse 18).
3. His past kindness towards the suffering (Psa_102:19-22).
4. His unchangeableness amidst all the mutations of the universe.
(1) Men change, but He remains the same (verses23, 24).
(2) The universe changes, but He remains the same (Psa_102:25-27).
The universe had an origin and is destined to have a dissolution. It had an origin. Of old hast Thou laid, etc. This account of the origin of the universe contradicts atheistic eternalists and sceptical evolutionists. It will have a dissolution. It shall perish. Dissolution, in fact, is a law of the organized universe. Both the origin and dissolution of the universe are attributable to One Personality. Of old hast Thou laid. The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews applies this to Christ, therefore to him Christ was Eternal God. One Being created all, one Being will dissolve all. This One Personality remains unalterable from the origin to the dissolution of the universe. (Homilist.)
The conditions of acceptable prayer
1. There must be a holy respect for the character and ways of God. We must come looking at all His attributes. They must fill all the eye, and ravish all the heart.
2. As we are social beings, the mode of our approach must show that we are not praying alone, that we belong to a praying family; and we should wish to get near to His presence, and not pray at a distance. The child would choose to come where the father was, if he could speak to him, and not stand at a distance, as if he were praying by proxy to an absent father.
3. Our prayers must go up with sincerity before him, and with that open frankness that love is accustomed to generate. And we should really desire the blessing we need, and not some other that we are afraid to ask for, as if we were held in the attitude of foreigners, who were supplicating mercies which we not only did not deserve, but had no reason to expect.
4. We must have our eyes filled with the precious Mediator: He must be to us the chief among ten thousands, and altogether lovely.
5. We must approach Him with a spirit of submission. This, however, will not imply indifference. There can be no resignation, unless the heart desires earnestly the blessing it supplicates.
6. We must come with a spirit of humility and penitence. The suppliant who can for one single moment forget that he is a suppliant will deserve to be repulsed in the very prayer he makes.
7. It would be natural and indispensable that we remember that we have received blessings from the same hand before, and there is no part of our plea that is more efficacious than where we tell of the mercies received in days gone by. (D. A. Clark.)
Earnest prayer alone succeeds
Not very long ago I was staying at Matlock, and some one in Manchester wanted to call me up on the telephone. Speaking through the telephone is a thing to which I am unaccustomed. I could hear the voice at the other end asking me if I were there. I shouted that I was, I bellowed that I was, but still I heard the question, Are you there? In despair I put the instrument-down and went to the porter. With a pitying smile be took the instrument, and spoke through it as quietly as possible. He was heard. I said, Why cant I make him hear? Because, he said, you forget one very simple thing. You do not take hold of the receiver firmly. Oh, how often in our appeals to high Heaven we ask and receive not because we forget to take a firm hold. (R. J. Campbell, M. A.)
God will hear my prayer
There is Christ, as most of us, I suppose, believe, Lord of all creatures, administering the affairs of the universe; the steps of His throne and the precincts of His court are thronged with dependents whose eyes wait upon Him, who are fed from His stores; and yet my poor voice may steal through that chorus-shout of petition and praise, and His ear will detect its lowest note, and will separate the thin stream of my prayer from the great sea of supplication which rolls to His seat, and will answer me. (A. Maclaren, D.D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v1 Psalms 102
Psalms 102
Psa_102:13-14 show that the psalm was written when Zion was in ruins and the time of her restoration at hand. Sadness shot with hope, as a cloud with sunlight, is the singers mood. The pressure of present sorrows points to the time of the Exile; the lightening of these, by the expectation that the hour for their cessation has all but struck, points to the close of that period. There is a general consensus of opinion on this, though Baethgen is hesitatingly inclined to adopt the Maccabean date, and Cheyne prefers the time of Nehemiah, mainly because the references to the "stones" and "dust" recall to him "Nehemiahs lonely ride round the burned walls," and "Sanballats mocking at the Jews for attempting to revive the stones out of heaps of rubbish" ("Orig. of Psalt.," p. 70). These references would equally suit any period of desolation; but the point of time indicated by Psa_102:13 is more probably the eve of restoration than the completion of the begun and interrupted reestablishment of Israel in its land. Like many of the later psalms, this is largely coloured by earlier ones, as well as by Deuteronomy, Job, and the second half of Isaiah, while it has also reminiscences of Jeremiah. Some commentators have, indeed, supposed it to be his work.
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The turns of thought are simple. While there is no clear strophical arrangement, there are four broadly distinguished parts: a prelude, invoking God to hearken (Psa_102:1-2); a plaintive bemoaning of the psalmists condition (Psa_102:3-11); a triumphant rising above his sorrows, and rejoicing in the fair vision of a restored Jerusalem, whose Temple courts the nations tread (Psa_102:12-22); and a momentary glance at his sorrows and brief life, which but spurs him to lay hold the more joyously on Gods eternity, wherein he finds the pledge of the fulfilment of his hopes and of Gods promises (Psa_102:23-28).
The opening invocations in Psa_102:1-2 are mostly found in other psalms. "Let my cry come unto Thee" recalls Psa_18:6. "Hide not Thy face" is like Psa_27:9. "In the day of my straits" recurs in Psa_59:16. "Bend to me Thy ear" is in Psa_31:2. "In the day when I call "is as in Psa_56:9. "Answer me speedily" is found in Psa_69:17. But the psalmist is not a cold-blooded compiler, weaving a web from old threads, but a suffering man, fain to give his desires voice, in words which sufferers before him had hallowed, and securing a certain solace by reiterating familiar petitions. They are none the less his own, because they have been the cry of others. Some aroma of the answers that they drew down in the past clings to them still, and makes them fragrant to him.
Sorrow and pain are sometimes dumb, but, in Eastern natures, more often eloquent; finding ease in recounting their pangs. The psalmists first words of self-lamentation echo familiar strains, as he bases his cry for speedy answer on the swiftness with which his days are being whirled away, and melting like smoke as it escapes from a chimney. The image suggests another. The fire that makes the smoke is that in which his very bones are smouldering like a brand. The word for bones is in the singular, the bony framework being thought of as articulated into a whole. "Brand" is a doubtful rendering of a word which the Authorised Version, following some ancient Jewish authorities, renders hearth, as do Delitzsch and Cheyne. It is used in Isa_33:14 as =" burning," but "brand" isrequired to make out the metaphor. The same theme of physical decay is continued in Psa_102:4 with a new image struck out by the ingenuity of pain. His heart is "smitten" as by sunstroke (compare Psa_121:6, Isa_49:10, and for still closer parallels Hos_9:16, Jon_4:7, in both of which the same effect of fierce sunshine is described as the sufferer here bewails). His heart withers like Jonahs gourd. The "For" in Psa_102:4 b can scarcely be taken as giving the reason for this withering. It must rather be taken as giving the proof that it was so withered as might be concluded by beholders from the fact that he refused his food (Baethgen). The psalmist apparently intends in Psa_102:5 to describe himself as worn to a skeleton by long-continued and passionate lamentations. But his phrase is singular. One can understand that emaciation should be described by saying that the bones adhered to the skin, the flesh having wasted away, but that they stick to the flesh can only describe it, by giving a wide meaning to "flesh," as including the whole outward part of the frame in contrast with the internal framework. Lam_4:8 gives the more natural expression. The psalmist has groaned himself into emaciation. Sadness and solitude go well together. We plunge into lonely places when we would give voice to our grief. The poets imagination sees his own likeness in solitude-loving creatures. The pelican is never now seen in Palestine but on Lake Huleh. Thomson ("Land and Book," p. 260: London, 1861) speaks of having found it there only, and describes it as "the most sombre, austere bird I ever saw." "The owl of the ruins" is identified by Tristram ("Land of Israel," p. 67) with the small owl Athene meridionalis, the emblem of Minerva, which "is very characteristic of all the hilly and rocky portions of Syria." The sparrow may be here a generic term for any small song bird, but there is no need for departing from the narrower meaning. Thomson (p. 43) says: "When one of them has lost his mate-an everyday occurrence-he will sit on the housetop alone and lament by the hour."
The division of Psa_102:7 is singular, as the main pause in it falls on "am become," to the disruption of the logical continuity. The difficulty is removed by Wickes ("Accentuation of the Poetical Books," p. 29), who gives several instances which seem to establish the law that, in "the musical accentuation, there is "an apparent reluctance to place the main dividing accent after the first, or before the last, word of the verse." The division is not logical, and we may venture to neglect it, and arrange as above, restoring the dividing accent to its place after the first word. Others turn the flank of the difficulty by altering the text to read, "I" am sleepless and must moan aloud" (so Cheyne, following Olshausen).
Yet another drop of bitterness in the psalmists cup is the frantic hatred which pours itself out in voluble mockery all day long, making a running accompaniment to his wail. Solitary as he is, he cannot get beyond hearing of shrill insults. So miserable does he seem, that enemies take him and his distresses for a formula of imprecation, and can find no blacker curse to launch at other foes than to wish that they may be like him. So ashes, the token of mourning, are his food, instead of the bread which he had forgotten to eat, and there are more tears than wine in the cup he drinks.
But all this only tells how sad he is. A deeper depth opens when he remembers why he is sad. The bitterest thought to a sufferer is that his sufferings indicate Gods displeasure; but it may be wholesome bitterness, which, leading to the recognition of the sin which evokes the wrath, may change into a solemn thankfulness for sorrows which are discerned to be chastisements, inflicted by that Love of which indignation is one form. The psalmist confesses sin in the act of bewailing sorrow, and sees behind all his pains the working of that hand whose interposition for him he ventures to implore. The tremendous metaphor of Psa_102:10 b pictures it as thrust forth from heaven to grasp the feeble sufferer, as an eagle stoops to plunge its talons into a lamb. It lifts him high, only to give more destructive impetus to the force with which it flings him down, to the place where he lies, a huddled heap of broken bones and wounds. His plaint returns to its beginning, lamenting the brief life which is being wasted away by sore distress. Lengthening shadows tell of approaching night. His day is nearing sunset. It will be dark soon, and, as he has said (Psa_102:4), his very self is withering and becoming like dried-up herbage.
One can scarcely miss the tone of individual sorrow in the preceding verses; but national restoration, not personal deliverance, is the theme o/the triumphant central part of the psalm. That is no reason for flattening the previous verses into the voice of the personified Israel, but rather for hearing in them the sighing of one exile, on whom the general burden weighed sorely. He lifts his tear-laden eyes to heaven, and catches a vision there which changes, as by magic, the key of his song-Jehovah sitting in royal state {compare Psa_9:7; Psa_29:10} forever. That silences complaints, breathes courage into the feeble and hope into the despairing. In another mood the thought of the eternal rule of God might make mans mortality more bitter, but Faith grasps it, as enfolding assurances which turn groaning into ringing praise. For the vision is not only of an everlasting Some One who works a sovereign will, but of the age-long dominion of Him whose name is Jehovah; and since that name is the revelation of His nature, it, too, endures forever. It is the name of Israels covenant making and keeping God. Therefore, ancient promises have not gone to water, though Israel is an exile, and all the old comfort and confidence are still welling up from the Name. Zion cannot die while Zions God lives. Lam_5:19 is probably the original of this verse, but the psalmist has changed "throne" into "memorial," i.e. name, and thereby deepened the thought. The assurance that God will restore Zion rests not only on His faithfulness, but on signs which show that the sky is reddening towards the day of redemption. The singer sees the indication that the hour fixed in Gods eternal counsels is at hand, because he sees how Gods servants, who have a claim on Him and are in sympathy with His purposes, yearn lovingly after the sad ruins and dust of the forlorn city. Some new access of such feelings must have been stirring among the devouter part of the exiles. Many large truths are wrapped in the psalmists words. The desolations of Zion knit true hearts to her more closely. The more the Church or any good cause is depressed, the more need for its friends to cling to it. Gods servants should see that their sympathies go toward the same objects as Gods do. They are proved to be His servants, because they favour what He favours. Their regards, turned to existing evils, are the precursors of Divine intervention for the remedy of these. When good men begin to lay the Churchs or the worlds miseries to heart, it is a sign that God is beginning to heal them. The cry of Gods servants can "hasten the day of the Lord," and preludes His appearance like the keen morning air stirring the sleeping flowers before sunrise.
The psalmist anticipates that a rebuilt Zion will ensure a worshipping world. He expresses that confidence, which he shares with Isaiah 40-46, in Psa_102:15-18. The name and glory of Jehovah will become objects of reverence to all the earth, because of the manifestation of them by the rebuilding of Zion, which is a witness to all men of His power and tender regard to His peoples cry. The past tenses of Psa_102:16-17 do not indicate that the psalm is later than the Restoration. It is contemplated as already accomplished because it is the occasion of the "fear" prophesied in Psa_102:15, and consequently prior in time to it. "Destitute," in Psa_102:17 is literally naked or stript. It is used in Jer_17:6 as the name of a desert plant, probably a dwarf juniper, stunted and dry, but seems to be employed here as simply designating utter destitution. Israel had been stripped of every beauty and made naked before her enemies. Despised, she had cried to God, and now is clothed again with the garments of salvation, "as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels."
A wondering world will adore her delivering God. The glowing hopes of psalmist and prophet seem to be dreams, since the restored Israel attracted no such observance and wrought no such convictions. But the singer was not wrong in believing that the coming of Jehovah in His glory for the rebuilding of Zion would sway the world to homage. His facts were right, but he did not know their perspective, nor could he understand how many weary years lay, like a deep gorge hidden from the eye of one who looks over a wide prospect, between the rebuilding of which he was thinking, and that truer establishment of the city of God, which is again parted from the period of universal recognition of Jehovahs glory by so many sad and stormy generations. But the vision is true. The coming of Jehovah in His glory will be followed by a worlds recognition of its light.
That praise accruing to Jehovah shall Be not only universal, but shall go on sounding, with increasing volume in its tone, through coming generations. This expectation is set forth in Psa_102:18-22 which substantially reiterate the thought of the preceding, with the addition that there is to be a new Israel, a people yet to be created. {Psa_22:31} The psalmist did not know "the deep things he spoke." He did know that Israel was immortal, and that the seed of life was in the tree that had cast its leaves and stood bare and apparently dead. But he did not know the process by which that new Israel was to be created, nor the new elements of which it was to consist. His confidence teaches us never to despair of the future of Gods Church, however low its present state, but to look down the ages, in calm certainty that, however externals may change, the succession of Gods children will never fail, nor the voice of their praise ever fall silent.
The course of Gods intervention for Israel is described in Psa_102:19-20. His looking down from heaven is equivalent to His observance, as the all-seeing Witness and Judge, {compare Psa_14:2; Psa_33:13-14, etc.} and is preparatory to His hearing the sighing of the captive Israel, doomed to death. The language of Psa_102:20 is apparently drawn from Psa_79:11. The thought corresponds to that of Psa_102:17. The purpose of His intervention is set forth in Psa_102:21-22 as being the declaration of Jehovahs name and praise in Jerusalem before a gathered world. The aim of Jehovahs dealings is that all men, through all generations, may know and praise Him. That is but another way of saying that He infinitely desires, and perpetually works for, mens highest good. For our sakes, He desires so much that we should know Him, since the knowledge is life eternal. He is not greedy of adulation nor dependent on recognition, but He loves men too well not to rejoice in being understood and loved by them, since Love ever hungers for return. The psalmist saw what shall one day be, when, far down the ages, he beheld the world gathered in the temple courts, and heard the shout of their praise borne to him up the stream of time. He penetrated to the inmost meaning of the Divine acts, when he proclaimed that they were all done for the manifestation of the Name, which cannot but be praised when it is known. If the poet was one of the exiles, on whom the burden of the general calamity weighed as a personal sorrow, it is very natural that his glowing anticipations of national restoration should be, as in. this psalm, enclosed in a setting of more individual complaint and petition. The transition from these to the purely impersonal centre Of the:psalm, and the recurrence to them in Psa_102:23-28, are inexplicable, if the "I" of the first and last parts is Israel, but perfectly intelligible if it is one Israelite. For a moment the tone of sadness is heard in Psa_102:23; but the thought of his own afflicted and brief life is but a stimulus to the psalmist to lay hold of Gods immutability and to find rest there. The Hebrew text reads "His strength," and is followed (by, the LXX, Vulgate, Hengstenberg, and Kay He afflicted on the "way with His power"); but the reading of the Hebrew margin, adopted above and by most commentators, is preferable, as supplying an object for the verb, which is lacking in the former reading, and as corresponding to "my days" in b.
The psalmist has felt the exhaustion of long sorrow and the shortness of his term. Will God do all these glorious things of which he has been singing, and he, the singer, not be there to see? That would mingle bitterness in his triumphant anticipations; for it would be little to him, lying in his grave, that Zion should be built again. The hopes with which some would console us for the loss of the Christian assurance of immortality, that the race shall march on to new power and nobleness, are poor substitutes for continuance of our own lives and for our own participation in the glories of the future. The psalmists prayer, which takes Gods eternity as its reason for deprecating his own premature death, echoes the inextinguishable confidence of the devout heart, that somehow even its fleeting being has a claim to be assimilated in duration to its Eternal Object of trust and aspiration. The contrast between Gods years and mans days may be brooded on in bitterness or in hope. They who are driven by thinking of their own mortality to clutch, with prayerful faith, Gods eternity, use the one aright, and will not be deprived of the other.
The solemn grandeur of Psa_102:25-26 needs little commentary, but it may be noted that a reminiscence of Isaiah 11 runs through them both in the description of the act of creation of heaven and earth, {Isa_48:13; Isa_44:24} and in that of their decaying like a garment. {Isa_51:6; Isa_54:10} That which has been created can be removed. The creatural is necessarily the transient. Possibly, too, the remarkable expression "changed," as applied to the visible creation, may imply the thought which had already been expressed in Isaiah, and was destined to receive such deepening by the Christian truth of the new heavens and new earth-a truth the contents of which are dim to us until it is fulfilled. But whatever may be the fate of creatures, He who receives no accession to His stable being by originating suffers no, diminution by extinguishing them. Mans days, the earths ages, and the aeons of the heavens pass, and still "Thou art He," the same Unchanging Author of change. Measures of time fail when applied to His being, whose years have not that which all divisions of time have-an end. An unending year is a paradox, which, in relation to God, is a truth.
It is remarkable that the psalmist does not draw the conclusion that he himself shall receive an answer to his prayer, but that "the children of Thy servants shall dwell" i.e., in the land, and that there will always be an Israel "established before Thee." He contemplates successive generations as in turn dwelling in the promised land (and perhaps in the ancient "dwelling place to all generations," even in God); but of his own continuance he is silent. Was he not assured of that? or was he so certain of the answer to his prayer that he had forgotten himself in the vision of the eternal God and the abiding Israel? Having regard to the late date of the psalm, it is hard to believe that silence meant ignorance, while it may well be that it means a less vivid and assured hope of immortality, and a smaller space occupied by that hope than with us. But the other explanation is not to be left out of view, and the psalmists oblivion of self in rapt gazing on Gods eternal being-the pledge of His servants perpetuity-may teach us that we reach the summit of Faith when we lose ourselves in God.
The Epistle to the Hebrews quotes Psa_102:25-27 as spoken of "the Son." Such an application of the words rests on the fact that the psalm speaks of the coming of Jehovah for redemption, who is none other than Jehovah manifested fully in the Messiah. But Jehovah whose coming brings redemption and His recognition by the world is also Creator. Since, then, the Incarnation is, in truth, the coming of Jehovah, which the psalmist, like all the prophets, looked for as the consummation, He in whom the redeeming Jehovah was manifested is He in whom Jehovah the Creator "made the worlds." The writer of the Epistle is not asserting that the psalmist consciously spoke of the Messiah, but he is declaring that his words, read in the light of history, point to Jesus as the crowning manifestation of the redeeming, and therefore necessarily of the creating, God.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v1 It is impossible to determine on what occasion and…
INTRODUCTION
It is impossible to determine on what occasion and by whom this Psalm was composed. Prof. Alexander and Hengstenberg regard it as a composition of David. But from internal evidence, especially in Psa_102:13-22, we should conclude that it was written during the Babylonian exile, and probably near its close, when the faithful were animated by hopes of returning shortly to their own land. It has been attributed to Nehemiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, and others of the prophets of the period of the captivity. But attempts to determine the authorship of the Psalm are vain. Perowne points out that the “Psalm is clearly individual, not national, and must have been intended for private rather than liturgical use, as the inscription seems designed to inform us. This inscription is peculiar; it stands quite alone among the titles prefixed to the Psalms, and marks the circumstances under which it should be used. In all other instances the inscriptions are either musical or historical.” In the Epistle to the Hebrews, Psa_102:25-27 of this Psalm are quoted as addressed to the Messiah.
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THE AFFLICTIONS OF LIFE AND THE RESOURCE OF THE GODLY
The Superscription
The superscription to this Psalm suggests the following observations,—
I. Human life is characterised by great afflictions. The text speaks of “the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed.” We are sometimes sorely distressed—
1. In ourselves, by reason of physical disease and suffering, mental depression and conflict, &c.
2. In our families, by the sinful lives of some of its members, e.g., the prodigal son; by sorely straitened circumstances, by the bereavements of death, &c.
3. In our social circle, by the unfaithfulness of professed friends, &c.
4. In the Church, when its vitality and power seem to decline, &c.
5. In the nation, by reason of national sins, or calamities, or judgments, e.g., the Jews in Babylon.
We do not speak of ordinary or trifling afflictions, but of exceptional and severe ones. The Psalmist speaks of himself as “overwhelmed.” He was, as it were, “covered with darkness, affliction, grief. His soul was enshrouded in gloom and sorrow.” From such sufferings the true and good are not exempt. Job, David, Paul, et al., are examples.
II. Great afflictions are characterised by great needs. The Psalmist in his sufferings felt a great need of utterance of his trouble. He indicates this by the words: “poureth out his complaint.” His soul was full of affliction, like “vessel overcharged with new wine or strong liquor, that bursts for vent.” Great sorrows must find expression, or the brain would reel into madness, and the heart would break or sink into despair. The prayer of the Poet was the cry of a bursting heart. In great affliction we have need of patience, of trust in God, of sustaining grace, &c. We obtain these by prayer.
“My ending is despair,
Unless I be relieved by prayer;
Which pierces so, that it assaults
Mercy itself, and frees all faults.”
—Shakespeare.
III. In great afflictions the godly man has a great resource. He pours out his complaint before the Lord in prayer.
1. The Lord hears the complaint of His people (Psa_4:3; Psa_34:4).
2. The Lord hears the complaint of His people sympathetically. “The Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy.”
3. The Lord graciously responds to the complaint of His people. “Call upon Me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee,” &c. His ear is ever open; His heart always sympathetic; His grace always all-sufficient. Therefore, “Trust in Him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before Him God is a refuge for us.”
THE LAMENT OF A DISTRESSED PATRIOT
(Psa_102:1-11)
In these verses we have the wail of a sadly troubled soul. Let us consider the miseries of the Poet as they are expressed in this bitter cry to the Lord.
I. His distress was very great. This appears throughout the whole of the lamentation. Every feature of the distress makes manifest its intensity. The more prominent of these features we shall call attention to. In the superscription he speaks of himself as “overwhelmed” with trouble, and in Psa_102:9, he says, “I have eaten ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping.” He is smitten down to the ground by the greatness of his grief, or, like Job in his sore afflictions, he prostrates himself in dust and ashes by reason of his great distress, and as an expression of that distress. Persons in great grief are frequently represented as seated or prostrate on the ground.
“My grief’s so great,
That no supporter but the huge firm earth
Can hold it up: here I and sorrow sit.”
—Shakespeare.
He uses another figure to express the intensity of his misery. So full was his heart of sorrow that his tears fell copiously and constantly, so that they were mingled with his drink. By his posture and his tears he expresses the depth of his distress.
II. His distress was absorbing. “I forget to eat my bread.” Many are the recorded instances of persons in great grief being altogether oblivious of mealtime or of hunger. Grief takes away the appetite for food. But that is not the meaning of the Psalmist here. He was so absorbed in grief, his distress so completely engrossed his attention, that everything else was forgotten (1Sa_1:7-8; 1Sa_20:34; Job_33:20; Psa_107:18; Dan_6:18). His “sorrow is so intentive to that it sorrows for, that it cannot intend to think anything else.” Great sorrows are so absorbing as to cause those who are experiencing them to be forgetful even of the needs of life.
III. His distress was consuming. The Psalmist expresses this by several figures. “My days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned as an hearth.” Hengstenberg and Perowne: “As a firebrand.” “The point of comparison with the smoke is the fleeing past, the disappearing.” The bones are mentioned as the most substantial part of the body, and they were being consumed as the brand is when placed on the fire. “My heart is smitten and withered like grass.” Adam Clarke: “The metaphor here is taken from grass cut down in the meadow. It is first ‘smitten’ with the scythe, and then ‘withered’ by the sun. Thus the Jews were smitten with the judgments of God; and they are now withered under the fire of the Chaldeans.” “By reason of the voice of my groaning, my bones cleave to my skin.” Hengstenberg and Perowne, literally: “My bone cleaveth to my flesh.” The expression describes a state of weakness and relaxation of the bones, brought on by severe pain, in which they lose their force and power of vigorous motion (Job_19:20). The Psalmist uses one other expression to set forth the consuming nature of his distress. “My days are like a shadow that declineth.” His time of life seemed to him like the lengthening shades of evening, which show the near approach of night. The figure beautifully and pathetically suggests the nearness of advancing death. To the Poet it seemed that life was fast passing away under his heavy afflictions.
IV. His distress was isolating. “I am like a pelican of the wilderness, I am like an owl of the desert,” &c. (Psa_102:6-7). The pelican is a bird which dwells in solitude far from the habitations of men; it is most sombre and austere in disposition, and is a most expressive illustration of solitude and melancholy. The “owl of the ruins” is also a striking emblem of desolation.
“From yonder ivy-mantled tower,
The moping owl does to the moon complain
Of such as, wand’ring near her secret bower,
Molest her ancient solitary reign.”—Gray.
“Sparrow” is not in this place a good rendering of צִפּוֹר. The sparrow is not a solitary melancholy bird. Naturalists state that the Blue Thrush is the particular צִפּוֹר, which sits alone on the house-top. This bird is of a dark blue colour. More than a pair of them are scarcely ever seen together. It is fond of sitting alone upon the house-top, uttering its note, which to a human ear is monotonous and melancholy. Thus the Poet represents the isolating power of his miseries. Deep-rooted sorrow is naturally reserved. “A small grievance makes us beside ourselves; a great sorrow makes us retire within ourselves.”—Richter.
V. His distress occasioned reproaches from his enemies. “Mine enemies reproach me all the day,” &c. On the reproaches of the enemies, see remarks on Psa_42:3. Perowne: “ ‘Made their oaths by me,’ i.e., when they curse, choose me as an example of misery, and imprecate upon themselves or others my misfortunes—say, ‘God do to me, to thee, as He has done to this man.’ ” And Hengstenberg: “ ‘They swear by me,’ inasmuch as they say, ‘May God let it go with you as it does with that miserable man’ ” (comp. Num_5:21-27; Jer_29:22; Isa_65:15; Psa_44:14). The distresses of the godly are greatly aggravated when they are made the occasion of revilings from their foes.
VI. His distress was regarded as an expression of the Divine anger. “Because of Thine indignation and Thy wrath; for Thou hast lifted me up and cast me down.” The figure of the second clause is taken from a storm of wind, which seizes and carries upward its object, and then hurls it to the ground. So God in wrath seemed to have seized the Psalmist, borne him aloft, and then dashed him down. In the opinion of the Psalmist, it is sin which has thus provoked the Lord to anger. It is noteworthy, as Delitzsch points out, that the two nouns “indignation” and “wrath” are in the Hebrew the strongest which the language possesses. It is true that the Chaldean captivity was permitted by God, because His people by their heinous and oft-repeated sins had provoked Him to anger. The Chaldeans were unconsciously the instruments by which He effected His purpose to chastise His faithless people. But we are not to suppose that in individual cases the measure of suffering indicates the measure of sin and ill-desert. The bitterest ingredient in the miseries of the Poet arose from his impression that those miseries were the expression of the Divine anger.
VII. His distress was not hopeless. He lifted his troubled soul to God in prayer (Psa_102:1-2). He prays for,—
1. Divine audience. “Hear my prayer, O Lord, and let my cry come unto Thee.… Incline Thine ear unto me.” (See remarks on Psa_88:2).
2. Divine acceptance. “Hide not Thy face from me.” (See remarks on Psa_27:9; Psa_69:17.) It is a request that God would look favourably upon him, and regard his supplications.
3. Divine and speedy answer. “In the day when I call answer me speedily.” The Psalmist believed in answers to prayer, and immediate ones too. Such urgency of prayer, when united with humility and patience, is well pleasing to God.
The patriotic Poet was sore troubled and distressed; but he was neither destroyed nor despairing. The night was dark, but the stars were not all quenched.
VIII. His distress was patriotic. If we understand the Psalm aright, the Psalmist does not lament his own woes merely, but the woes of his people, the desolation of his country, and the ruins of their temple.
“Fallen is thy throne, O Israel!
Silence is o’er thy plains;
Thy dwellings all lie desolate,
Thy children weep in chains!
Where are the dews that fed thee
On Etham’s barren shore!
That fire from heaven which led thee
Now lights thy path no more.
“Lord! Thou didst love Jerusalem—
Once she was all Thy own;
Her love Thy fairest heritage
Her power Thy glory’s throne,
Till evil came and blighted
Thy long-loved olive-tree;
And Salem’s shrines were lighted
For other gods than Thee.”—Moore.
These were the woes which distressed the Psalmist. His was no selfish grief; but the sorrow of a patriotic, philanthropic, and godly soul.
CONCLUSION.—While God continues to hear and answer prayer, we may hope for deliverance even from the deepest distresses.
THE HOPE OF A DISTRESSED PATRIOT
(Psa_102:12-22)
Consider—
I. The object of his hope. What is it that the troubled and patriotic Poet hopes for?
1. For the rebuilding of the Temple. “Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion. When the Lord shall build up Zion, He shall appear in His glory.” The Temple which had stood upon Zion was now in ruins. To the pious and patriotic Jew, of all places in his Fatherland, Jerusalem was the most highly esteemed, and of all places in Jerusalem the Temple upon Zion was the holiest and dearest. Hence the great longing for the rebuilding of the Temple and the restoration of its services.
2. For the emancipation of the captives. “To hear the groaning of the prisoner; to loose those that are appointed unto death.” By “the prisoner” we understand the whole nation, whose captivity is looked upon as an imprisonment. “Those that are appointed unto death,” or “the sons of death,” “may mean either those who were sentenced to death; those who were sick and ready to die; or those who, in their captivity, were in such a state of privation and suffering that death appeared inevitable.”—Barnes. The verse clearly points out the emancipation of the captives as one of the great objects desired and hoped for.
3. The restoration of the people to their own land and worship. They longed to “declare the name of the Lord in Zion, and His praise in Jerusalem,” and to “gather together to serve the Lord.” The pious Jews longed to assemble again in the city of their fathers, and there celebrate the worship of the Lord their God as in former days.
To the truly religious man the loss of national independence is great, subjection to foreign rule is a galling yoke; but the loss of religious privileges is felt to be far greater, and the desire for their recovery will be more intense than for the recovery of national independence.
II. The ground of his hope. In whom does the troubled and patriotic Poet hope? Has he a good reason for his hope?
1. It is directed to God. Psa_102:12-13; Psa_102:16; Psa_102:19. He hopes that God will interpose on behalf of His captive and afflicted people. For a long time it had seemed as though God regarded them not, but the Psalmist is confident that He is now interested in their welfare. From His holy height He was intently viewing them; and speedily He would arise and have mercy upon them. When our hope in all others fail, we may yet hope in God.
2. It rests in His character and perfections.
(1) In His eternal and unchangeable sovereignty. “Thou, O Lord, shalt endure for ever; and Thy remembrance unto all generations.” Hengstenberg: “Thou, O Lord, art enthroned for ever, and Thy memorial from generation to generation.” “The sitting,” he says, “is no empty remaining, but a sitting as king, a sitting on a throne” (comp. Psa_9:7; Psa_29:10). And Perowne: “Thou, O Jehovah, sittest throned for ever, and Thy memorial is to all generations.” In this thought the Psalmist found his great consolation. His own life might pass away, generations of men might pass away; but the Lord would never pass away. Man and his fortunes may change, and all earthly things may appear unstable; but the Lord changes not, and His throne is stable and permanent. He is eternally and unchangeably supreme, and the covenanted God and helper of His people.
(2) In His mercy. “Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion; for it is time to favour her.” The hope of deliverance is built upon the grace of God. The misery of their condition would move the mercy of His disposition.
(3) In His regard for prayer “He will regard the prayer of the destitute, and not despise their prayer.” Perowne: “He hath turned to the prayer of the poor-destitute.” He adopts the rendering of the P. B. V., “poor-destitute,” “because the word expresses utter nakedness and destitution.” The Psalmist represents himself and others as entirely destitute of all human means of help, and expresses his confidence that God would graciously attend to the prayer of such suppliants. “Whomsoever God neglects, He will listen to the cry of those who are forsaken and destitute.” He will not only “not despise their prayer,” He will favourably receive and answer it. In all these respects the confident hope of the Psalmist was certainly well founded. He who thus trusts in the Lord shall never be put to shame.
III. The strength of his hope. He speaks of the interposition of the Lord on their behalf in accents of steady confidence. The strength of his hope is manifest in—
1. His assured declarations of Divine favour toward them. “Thou shalt arise and have mercy,” &c. He utters no perchance or peradventure.
2. His declaration of the nearness of that favour. “The time to favour her, yea, the set time, is come.” There may be a reference here to the seventy years of captivity prophesied by Jeremiah. The Psalmist himself states one reason upon which his conclusion, that the set time for the manifestation of the Divine favour had come, was based, viz., the deep interest manifested by the people in the state of Zion. “Thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and favour the dust thereof.” Even the ruins of the Temple were dear to them, and its very dust was sacred. This affectionate interest the Psalmist regarded as a token that the time of deliverance and restoration was at hand. “There are usually some previous intimations or indications of what God is about to do. ‘Coming events cast their shadows before.’ Even the Divine purposes are accomplished usually in connection with human agency, and in the regular course of events; and it is frequently possible to anticipate that God is about to appear for the fulfilment of His promises. So it was in the coming of the Saviour. So it was in the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans.”—Barnes.
(3.) His declaration of it as even then present. Psa_102:16-17. “ ‘Shall build,’ ‘shall appear,’ ‘will regard,’ ‘and will not despise.’ These futures, in the original, are all present; ‘buildeth, appeareth, regardeth, and despiseth not.’ The Psalmist, in his confidence of the event, speaks of it as doing.”—Horsley. His confidence is so great as to annihilate time and make the future present to him, and coming events accomplished realities.
IV. The results anticipated from the fulfilment of his. hope.
1. Grateful joy to His people. Their reverence and love for the holy city and Temple, manifested by their interest even in its ruins, would be gratified, and they would “declare the name of the Lord in Zion, and His praise in Jerusalem.” “When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion … our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing … The Lord hath done great things for us; we are glad.”
2. Fear to the nations. “So the heathen shall fear the name of the Lord, and all the kings of the earth Thy glory.” “When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion … then said they among the heathen, The Lord hath done great things for them.”
3. Instruction and encouragement to posterity. “This shall be written for the generation to come; and the people which shall be created shall praise the Lord.” The Divine deliverance and blessing should be recorded, and future ages should derive instruction therefrom. The manifestations of the faithfulness and mercy of God in one age are helpful to the faith of all succeeding ages. As the evidence to His truth and grace grows more voluminous and irresistibly conclusive, His praise also should grow in fulness and resonance and heartiness.
4. Glory to God. In the restoration of His people His glory would be manifest to all,—both to His people and to all the nations,—observed by all, respected by all, and celebrated by His people. The restoration of His people and the rebuilding of His Temple would be the glorifying of His name.
CONCLUSION.—
1. When the Church is in the lowest condition, it may be revived by the Lord.
2. When the Church is in a low condition, the faithful should care for her the more solicitously, and pray for her the more earnestly. Psa_102:14 to Psa_17:3. When the faithful are thus solicitous and prayerful, the Lord will speedily arise for the revival of His Church. Psa_102:13; Psa_14:4. The revival of the Church will be followed by the most blessed results.
A REVIVAL OF THE CHURCH, AND SYMPTOMS WHICH PRECEDE IT
(Psa_102:13-14)
By unanimous consent, Zion is considered a type of the Christian Church, which is a body of Christly men; and if we take these words as the Psalmist’s statement with regard to the revival of the Christian Church, we propose to make two statements.
I. There is a favourable time to promote the revival of the Church. The revival of religion, important at all times, is especially so at this period.
1. The source to which the Church must look for a revival. “Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion.” At a suitable time, and in a wonderful manner, God did arise and deliver His people. “The Lord,” said they, “hath done great things for us.” The teachings of the Bible, which relate to this theme, are regular and uninterrupted in setting forth this grand principle, that the Lord alone can revive the Church, and add to her such as shall be saved. (Psa_80:1-3; Psa_85:6; Isa_51:3; Hab_3:2; Zec_4:6).
2. The nature of that revival which the Church may expect. The words “mercy” and “favour” suggest—
(1) Deliverance. Though the character of the Church is of such transcendent excellence that it ought to win the admiration of every beholder, yet, alas! such is the depravity of the heart, that opposition, violence, and blood, have marked her progress; but to the present the Almighty hath been her helper.
(2) Union. There may be unity of effors with a great variety of name, method, and form. The union of which God is the Author is frequently spoken of in the Bible (Psalms 133; Joh_13:34-35; Joh_17:21).
(3) Prosperity. The conversion of sinners. That Church is happy which is favoured with deliverance, union, and prosperity.
3. The time when the revival of the Church may be expected. The text speaks of a set or appointed season for the salvation of Zion. “The time to favour her, yea, the set time, is come.” The deliverance of the Jews from their captivity was foretold (Isa_14:1-2; Jer_25:11-12; Jer_32:36-39). How wonderfully Jehovah brought about the deliverance of His people from Babylon at the set time! He influenced Cyrus and Darius, heathen princes, to forward it. He raised up Ezra and Nehemiah, &c.
II. That the revival of the Church is always preceded by certain infallible signs. “For Thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and favour the dust thereof.”
1. Solemn humiliation before God. Before the Jews were delivered from the Babylonish captivity, they were humbled before God on account of their transgressions. The nation was ashamed and cured of its idolatry, and never since then has it bent its knees at an idol’s shrine (Ezr_9:6-7; Ezr_10:1; Dan_9:7-11). Is there this spirit of humiliation before God in modern churches?
2. Special, importunate, believing prayer. What beautiful instructions and examples we have in the Bible of the value of such prayer (Isa_62:1; Eze_36:37; Luk_11:5-10).
3. Affection for the ordinances of God’s House. The principal evidence we have that the Almighty was about to visit His people in Babylon was the deep interest they had in Zion. They loved the very stones, and even the dust of their beloved, though dilapidated Zion (Psa_137:5-6). So it is in a revival of religion. When God is about to visit His people in mercy, everything in regard to the Church is loved.
4. Activity and self-denying efforts in God’s cause. The Jews showed their love to Jerusalem in a practical manner. (Neh_4:6.) They work despite the scorn of their foes.
Let these signs exist in any church, and the fruit will soon appear. She shall increase in purity and influence. “Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree,” &c. (Isa_55:13).—J. Wileman, in “The Study.”
A SUNDAY SCHOOL SERMON—OUR RESPONSIBILITY TOWARDS THE YOUNG
(Psa_102:18)
“This shall be written for the generations to come.”
The antecedent to the word “this” are the truths contained in the verses from 1 to 13.
1. That the Lord will have mercy upon Zion.
2. That the heathen shall fear the name of the Lord.
3. That He will build up Zion.
4. That He will regard the prayer of the destitute.
These were the promises that were to be written for the generations to come. Why written? That they might be preserved and handed down.
Tradition is uncertain, imperfect, &c. The New Testament declares that these things were written for our instruction.
We have the fulfilment of this text to-day. Nearly nine hundred years before the coming of Christ an Assyrian monarch conceived the idea of a national library of books or tablets of burnt clay. Hundreds of years afterward the library was destroyed. Recently a London newspaper, three thousand years after the establishment of the library, and many centuries after its destruction, has explorations made, and many tablets, and fragments of tablets, are recovered and translated, and in them the Book of Genesis has corroboration. That which is written is permanent. Had those past ages known of our paper and ink, what a wonderful preservation of knowledge we would have had!
I. What has been written?
1. Observe the nature of this knowledge of God which was written. It concerns God’s faithfulness and ability in the performance of all He has promised. We cannot bear testimony to faithfulness until we have tested it. When we have tested God, we can bear testimony. Faithfulness implies obligation. He who makes a promise comes under obligation. In this God differs from man. He was under no obligation to come under obligation; but having promised, He has come under obligation, and Christians everywhere bear testimony to His faithfulness and His ability to perform fully all He has freely promised.
2. What God has promised. The great thing is the salvation worked out through atonement; the establishment of a Church; that this salvation should be made known unto the ends of the world; that the heathen people should come to know Him. Salvation can be wrought out only through this atonement. It is loose thinking that makes men imagine that education, culture, political economy, can lift up the world. The fear of the Lord lifts up man. Christ made little or nothing of the culture of the Pharisee, but much of righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. He builds up His Zion even as He has promised.
II. Our duty.
What shall we, who have received so much, do for the generations to come—for the generation now coming? Fathers, members of Churches, what record are you making for the generation coming? The special work of the Sunday-school is to take care of the children of the nation.
1. Let us be faithful to our own children. They are the jewels of the Church. We draw the children into Sabbath-school, not to render needless the home instruction, but to supplement this instruction, by bringing the weight of the personal influence of others upon your children.
2. We want to take care of the children grown up into youth. The most critical period in the life of man is when he is breaking away from home. How many of the children at this age become vagrants among the churches, wandering here and there, receiving but little benefit and giving none. The class most largely reached are the children of believing parents.
3. We have a great work to do among the children near us, those who are to be our fellow-citizens. There is enough of ignorance and criminality around us. These evils must be restrained by knowledge, by virtue, or social ruin is inevitable.
4. We must do all possible for the children of the entire country. If we would have the nation Christian, we must work and bear the burdens. We have the opportunity.
One practical additional word. How many of you who are giving your money, year by year, to the cause of Christ, are giving yourselves, your love, your time? You who are young, I beseech you dedicate the energies of your youth to this service. When you are passing from earth, what then will be of value save what Christ is to you?—John Hall, D.D.
A GREAT CONTRAST AND CONSOLATION
(Psa_102:23-28)
We have in this section of the Psalm—
I. A great contrast. On the one hand, we have the weakness and shortness of human life upon earth, and the changefulness and transitoriness of nature itself; and on the other, we have the eternity and immutability of God.
First: Let us look at man and nature. And—
1. At man’s life upon earth. It is here represented as—
(1) Weak. “He weakened my strength in the way.” In the journey of life the strength even of the most robust in course of time is diminished until it is superseded by weakness. While others by reason of afflictions are speedily brought low. Probably the Psalmist speaks here in the name of the chosen people. God had weakened their strength, had reduced them by afflictions, &c. How frail is human life upon earth!
(2) Brief. “He shortened my days.” It seemed to the Poet that God was about to cut off his life speedily. (On the brevity of human life upon earth, see Homily on Psa_90:1-6.)
2. Let us look at nature.
(1) It is changeful. “Thou shalt change them, and they shall be changed.” The heavens and the earth seem unchangeable and permanent. Sometimes they are so represented in Scripture. “He hath also stablished them for ever.” “The everlasting mountains and the perpetual hills.” Yet from the testimony of geology and astronomy we know that they change. And as compared with the Lord, the most unchangeable and abiding things are changeable and transient. In the future a stupendous change awaits the entire material creation.
(2) It is transitory. “They shall perish.” (Comp. 2Pe_3:10.)
“Melted into air, into thin air:
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp’d towers, the gorgeous palacess.
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve;
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind.”—Shakespeare.
Second: Let us look at the Divine Being,
1. He existed before the world. This is clearly implied in Psa_102:25.
2. He created the world. “Of old hast Thou laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Thy hands.”
3. He is eternal. “Thou shalt endure.” “This” (says Stuart, on Heb_1:12) “would be true, if it was spoken merely with reference to the future, and should be construed as having respect only to eternity a parte post, as it is technically called, i.e., eternity to come. But as it stands here, in connection with having created the heavens and the earth κατʼ αρχὰς, it can hardly be understood to mean less than absolute eternity, or eternity a parte ante et a parte post.” (On each of these points concerning “the Divine Being,” see Homily on Psa_90:1-6.)
4. He is unchangeable. “Thou art the same.” From everlasting to everlasting there is no variation in God. His vesture, that in which He manifests Himself, may be changed by Him, but He changes not. “Thou art the same in essence and nature, the same in will and purpose, Thou dost change all other things as Thou pleasest: but Thou art immutable in every respect, and receivest no shadow of change, though never so light and small.”—Charnock. Here, then, is a tremendous contrast—
“Great God, how infinite art Thou!
What worthless worms are we!”
II. A great consolation
1. As regards himself. “O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days; Thy years are throughout all generations.” It is the lot of the wicked to be cut off in the midst of their days. “Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days.” With such men the Poet desired to have no part either living or dying. He seems also to long to be spared to witness the restoration of his people. And he finds consolation in the eternity of God, which he pleads. That eternity is introduced “here for two reasons:
(1) As a ground of consolation, that God was ever the same; that whatever might happen to men, to the Psalmist himself, or to any other man, God was unchanged, and that His great plans would be carried forward and accomplished.
(2) As a reason for the prayer. God was eternal. He could not die. He knew in its perfection the blessedness of life—life as such; life continued; life unending. The Psalmist appeals to what God Himself enjoyed as a reason why life—so great a blessing—should be granted to him a little longer. By all that there was of blessedness in the life of God, the Psalmist prays that that which was in itself—even in the case of God—so valuable, might yet a little longer be continued to him.”—Barnes.
2. As regards the Church. “The children of Thy servants shall continue, and their seed shall be established before Thee.” Because God is unchangeable and eternal His purposes cannot be frustrated, and His Church shall abide, the witness and the monument of His love. “From the eternity of the Head we may infer the perpetuity of the body.” The stability and welfare of the Church are guaranteed by the eternity and immutability of the Lord. So the Poet finds strength in his weakness; he rests in the Everlasting Arms.
CONCLUSION.—
1. To us personally let the greatness of God be both awe-inspiring and trust-inspiring. Let us not only fear, but hope in Him.
2. Let us rejoice in the security of the Church of Christ. “Because I live ye shall live also.”
GOD IN NATURE
(Psa_102:25-27)
This passage directly opposes two popular errors:—
First: That matter is self-originated, “Thou,”—all material forms are traced to a spiritual creative agency.
Second: That matter is eternal “They shall perish.” The destruction of the material universe is placed as the antithesis of the Divine duration—“but Thou remainest;” as surely, therefore, as God shall continue to “remain,” the heavens and the earth shall perish.
This passage I regard as presenting the Divine Being in four sublime and impressive aspects—
I. The Divine Being as intimately acquainted with all portions of the universe. I take the words “foundation” and “heavens” as representative terms. The lowest depth and the loftiest height are signified. There is not a shadow in the caverns of solitude which He has not projected, nor is there a curve in the heavens which owes not its gracefulness to His touch. Not only is God acquainted with places, but with the most subtle laws which operate in the minutest fibres of the stupendous fabric.
God’s perfect acquaintance with the universe supplies:—
First: A guarantee of the perfect safety of the good. They can never pass beyond the sweep of His beneficent influence. He knows how every change will affect them, and they know that all agencies will be controlled with a view to their final security and happiness. (Psa_91:5-7.)
Second: An unutterable terror to the evil. They can never pass beyond the scrutiny of God’s blazing eye.
The great practical deduction of the argument is this, viz.:—The supreme importance of being RIGHT with this dread Spirit. You cannot escape Him. If you are to spend eternity with any being, mutual sympathy is essential to enjoyment. You must spend eternity under the eye of God, &c.
II. The Divine Being as the sovereign Proprietor of the universe. He who created has a right to the possession. Four deductions are obvious:—
First: That our possession is a mere stewardship. Yours is a representative ownership.
Second: That our possession involves corresponding responsibility. Our five talents are bestowed that they may be self-multiplied.
Third: That our possession forms no ground of arrogance. “What hast thou that thou hast not received?”
Fourth: That our possession should awaken earnest solicitude. “Why hast God trusted me with so much?” should be the rich man’s anxious inquiry.
Seeing, therefore, that God is the one Proprietor of all things, we should remember two great facts:—
First: That we are only tenants-at-will. We have no lease of life or property.
Second: That God may justly remind man of the Divine claim. Can you wonder that the true Proprietor should occasionally assert His right by sending the hail-storm or the lightning to smite the earth? Were the Divine Being never to assert His claim, man might indulge the thought that he was the terminating centre of all things.
III. God as the all-transforming Spirit of the universe. “As a vesture shalt Thou change them, and they shall be changed.” You have marked the spring as it has unfolded its mantle, and hung it gracefully on the shoulders of the hills, and spread its gift of flowers on the lap of the grateful earth; that is a manifestation of God’s all-transforming power! You have marked the blustering winter, as it has torn off that verdant robe, and blown out the floral lights; that, too, is a display of God’s all-changing power. This same Spirit is also the heart-transforming agent. He who garnishes the heavens beautifies the soul.… As no human skill could beautify the earth with the treasures of spring, so no mortal power could have provided the robe of righteousness with which every soul must be clad ere it enter heaven.
IV. The Divine Being as the all-surviving Spirit of the universe. “They shall perish, but Thou shalt endure; Thou art the same, and Thy years shall have no end.”
From this assurance we may draw two lessons—
First: That matter is not a necessary condition of spiritual existence. All we know of spirit now is associated with matter. If we speak of the “divinity stirring within us,” it stirs within a tenement of clay. If we speak of God, it is in connection with the material forms of the outer universe; but the plain meaning of our text is that spirit may exist independent of such expression. Matter is dependent on spirit, but spirit may survive the total annihilation of the heavens and the earth.
Second: That the Divine existence is incapable of change. “Thou art the same.” Simple words these, and yet there is only one Being in the universe to whom they are applicable. To GOD alone can we truthfully say, “THOU ART THE SAME!” Other beings are not the same in knowledge; you are continually increasing your information, but to the Divine knowledge no contribution can be added. Other beings are not the same in affection; your affection deepens or withdraws according to the current of circumstances, but the Divine love knows no mutation. Other beings are not the same in enjoyment; your joys are fickle as an April day, but the ever-blessed God can know neither increase nor diminution of felicity.
He who made the atonement for human guilt is the Being of whom our text speaks: CHRIST is the all-renewing and all-surviving Spirit!
Have I those before me who profess to worship God in nature? Let me assure you that admiration of nature will not atone for the neglect of Christ. God knows those only who have a living faith in the merits of the Saviour’s sacrifice—Joseph Parker, D.D. Abridged from the “Cavendish Pulpit.”
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 The text is an earnest, impassioned prayer, a prayer…
Psa 102:24
The text is an earnest, impassioned prayer, a prayer against death; and the fact which gives it its earnestness and impassioned energy is that he who offers it is in "the midst of his days." Men in middle life are very apt to look upon death as an improbable event so far as they are concerned, and to make their calculations and shape their course accordingly.
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I. The reasons for this fact. (1) The man in middle life has reasons taken from his circumstances and relations which render life to him very important. The ties which bind him to the world are now the strongest. He has taken his place in society, and is now sustaining his most important earthly responsibilities. (2) The spirit of enterprise is now most active. Man is forming plans which will require years to develop; and those plans constitute the objects of his existence, the centre of his heart’s warmest feelings. (3) It is a fact that fewer men die at the meridian than at any other point in human life. This fact forms the ground of men’s calculations in reference to life.
II. The effects of this state of mind. (1) Of all men, those who are in the "midst of their days" are least prepared to die. (2) The legitimate effects of the Gospel are very rarely seen for the first time in persons who are passing through the meridian of life. This seems to be a period in human existence when the Spirit of God seldom achieves any signal victories. Such thoughts should arouse to feeling, awaken to anxiety, and prompt to inquiry all to whom they have reference.
E. Mason, A Pastor’s Legacy, p. 1.
References: Psa 102:24.—Expositor, 3rd series, vol. iv., p. 377; J. Ker, Old Testament Outlines, p. 135. Psa 102:26.—H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, Waterside Mission Sermons, 1st series, p. 44. Psa 102:27.—W. Baird, The Hallowing of our Common Life, p. 1. Psa 102:28.—J. Irons, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. x., p. 137. Psa 103:1.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xviii., No. 1078. Psa 103:1-5.—G. W. McCree, Christian World Pulpit, vol. ix., p. 8.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant 1903 · Public Domain On v1 Christ in His humiliation; uniting God and man.
Christ in His humiliation; uniting God and man.
A prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed, and poureth out his complaint before Jehovah.
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Here then is a King after Jehovah’s heart: such an one as the need of man craves but has not found. Yet has He long since come, and in the way marked out for Him from the beginning, all prophetic voices testifying to Him. They had testified also to His rejection at the hands of those long and carefully prepared for His reception; but who knew Him not. The crown they gave Him was a crown of thorns; they wrote His title in derision over a cross; little supposing that He would show His royalty by making that cross itself henceforth the very symbol of a power mightier than that of all the kings of the earth, and to outlast them all.
But in fact to be King after the fashion that alone He sought, He had to wear another title, and take another office, as we have seen; and this involved the very place to which in ignorance and unbelief they destined Him, but to which He freely -constrained only by His own love -stooped. As Priest He must have somewhat to offer and, there being nothing that could avail beside, He offered up HIMSELF. And thus too He became the Prophet of a new dispensation; and, lifting all this into a new sphere of glory, in Him Messiah’s three-fold qualification was at last completed -Prophet, Priest, and King.
But who could be sufficient for these things? Man He must be to take man’s penalty; man; to go in for man to God. We have seen One able to go in thereto whom the sanctuary was accessible; who knew "the secret place of the Most High," and could "abide under the shadow of the Almighty;" a Second Man; not involved in the ruin of the first, and for whom all the resources of divine power are available. But who then is this Second Man? This is the question which is answered by God Himself in the psalm before us, and answered to Him the rejected King of Israel, but under a heavier burden than this by far, and stricken by the hand of Him who owns Him now. But let us take up the psalm.
1. The first seven verses state in general terms the cause of the Sufferer’s prayer. His plea is His distress. There is no confession of sin; as in the psalms of atonement generally, while on the other hand there is no profession of integrity: it is as the prayer of one with whom there is no need. Yet He pleads that God’s face should not be hidden from Him; and in the third verse seems already to intimate that which afterwards finds Plainer expression -the wrath of God like a fire in His bones and His days consumed like smoke. In the sixth similarly the figures, as well as the number, would seem to speak of God’s hand upon His circumstances, making Him like a bird of the deserts or of ruined places; while the desolation is yet heightened by the picture of the sparrow with its social instincts, in the place where these would naturally find gratification; yet watching alone.
2. The evil comes into clearer detail, however, in the second section; where we find pictured a woe so extreme that His enemies use it as a typical imprecation; as if God and they were in agreement -they could wish no one worse than God had done to Him! He had eaten ashes for food, and mixed His drink with tears. And now He speaks openly of God’s indignation and wrath: if He had lifted Him up, it was but to cast Him away. Yet still there is no account given of this, no question of sin raised in any way. Reason there must be of course, but none is presented. Atonement is not intimated, and yet it is only in atonement that wrath could be upon the sinless One as here. But the fact alone is brought before us -Christ (as it surely is) in the depth of His humiliation, in the sorrow that had no equal, brought down now till the lengthening shadow of evening is the symbol of His days, and the withered grass His emblem.
3. But now the vision of the future passes before the eyes of the dying Man. He sees Jehovah, the unchanged, unchanging God, incapable of forgetfulness, and thinks of the promises which must surely be fulfilled, according to which not only Zion must be raised out of her ruin; but Jehovah Himself be manifested in His glory and the nations brought to fear His Name. He anticipates that mercy pledged to her, the set time come, as shown by the hearts of those in sympathy with His heart turned towards her stones and to the very dust of her degradation. Already thus the streaks of dawn are visible for the earth; and soon "the nations shall fear Jehovah’s Name, and all the kings of the earth Thy glory." For when He builds up Zion; then His glory shall appear.
4. This leads on to the consideration of those ways of His with the weak and failing, the self-ruined sons of men; exemplified so signally in His mercy to Israel. Man has fallen through pride and independence of heart. Therefore the need of his being humbled and brought into that state of destitution in which alone he will seek God. But then "He will regard the prayer of the destitute, and not despise their prayer." And this is not merely true in an isolated and exceptional instance: it is His way of grace, broad-written now in Israel’s restoration; for a memorial to after-generations, that a people "created" for Himself may praise the Eternal. The strong word "created" is no doubt used here with a moral force which anticipates the doctrine of the New Testament. Nor are there any that really fill their place as the creation of God except as they are recipients, and so heralds of His grace.
God then has looked down from the height of His sanctuary; from the heavens Jehovah has beheld the earth: never with indifference, never with hostility, while abiding in the holiness of His nature, which separates Him; not from His creatures, but only from their sin: "to hear the groaning of the prisoner; to set loose the children of death" -those under its sentence. And in this misery was Zion; in which therefore His Name is now declared, and His praise in Jerusalem. And so the rebellion of the earth is ended: "the peoples are gathered together, and the kingdoms to serve Jehovah."
5. Is HE, then, an example of these ways of Jehovah -of His showing mercy to the poor? Nay, "He weakened my strength in the way: He shortened my days." Himself the King of Zion, "Messiah the Prince," He is "cut off, and has nothing" (Dan 9:26 margin). The sinless One, He is left to die, He upon whom depend all the promises is left to cry out to the Eternal Might, as one in the midst of his days taken away -smitten, and not supported!
From Him who delighteth in mercy, for Him no mercy? And are these the equal ways of the Unchangeable? Why then no mercy? And if this is no exception to Jehovah’s ways, can it be that HE is the exception? does He in fact not belong to the class of those to whom mercy could be shown? does He not violate the rule, because He does not come under it? That is what the answer of God declares: "Of old hast Thou founded the earth, and the heavens are the work of Thy hands. They shall perish, but Thou shalt continue; and they all shall grow old as doth a garment: as a vesture shalt Thou change them and they shall be changed; but Thou art the same, and Thy years shall have no end."
The statement of the apostle (Heb 1:10-12) is the direct authority for applying these words to Christ. Apart from this we might indeed imagine that they were but the pursuing of that affecting contrast between the transience of man and the immutability of God which we find in the earlier part of the psalm, and which seems to begin again in the preceding verse. But we have not for the first time here to realize the mystery-form in which some of the most glorious intimations in the Psalms are clothed. This is characteristic, moreover, of the whole of the Old Testament. And then the cry of the Speaker finds no response, and the perplexity in the psalm finds no unravelment. Yet one can see, if we merely take this for what it is not, a detached and isolated composition; that the Sufferer is One who, meeting the wrath of God with the profoundest faith in God, contrasts the fulfillment of the promises to Zion with His own brief days. Yet God "regards the prayer of the destitute, and does not despise their prayer." He could not mean to give the case of the Sufferer as an exception to this, or a problem without solution. His own condition has to do evidently with these promises to Zion with which it is interwoven; and the psalm ends in no hopeless spirit but with confidence and happiness.
The inspired application of these verses is at once an illumination of the whole psalm. They become at once the key to the whole, and throw their light beyond the psalm itself upon all that surrounds it in the book. We see the connection with the voice of the King which we have heard in the psalm preceding: we understand the connection with the fulfillment of the promises to Zion: for here too is the King! We look back, and without difficulty connect this again with the subject of the ninety-first, with Him whom in contrast with the failed and death-stricken sons of men in the psalm of Moses (Psa 90:1-17) we may well call the Second Man. We find here One who has never lost His title to the earth as Adam did. Nature greets and smiles on Him; angels wait on Him; and in the next two psalms we have a "sabbath" and the world immovably established. Then Jehovah comes to take possession of the earth, and it is blessed indeed; but we miss the Head of blessing: where is the Second Man? The third section of the book opens with His voice. He is now the King of Israel, but His kingdom scarcely seems thus as world-wide as before. We pass on; and we find -what? The glorious King Himself and the Man whom earth and heaven join to honor, -the Deathless death-stricken; "numbering His days"! but where is the "wisdom" here? Then the answer bursts on us. It is a problem of which God Himself may well give us the solution. The death-stricken is yet the Deathless One; the King of Israel is a divine King; the Second Man; the Sabbath-maker for the world, is Jehovah who comes back to it: and creature and Creator are in Him for ever united; everlasting, Human arms hold us fast to God!
Of atonement itself we do indeed hear, directly, nothing; but we may well be trusted to discern (after all that has been before us) in this Death what has effected it. It is the necessary and only explanation of "indignation and wrath" met by this self-humbled, glorious One. And suited it is, after all, to what we know Him now to be. God, who is love, would be Himself our Redeemer. He has redeemed us to Himself. Blessed be His Name, it is Immanuel, for He has saved His people from their sins.
Thus we can understand the note of triumph with which the psalm ends: "the children of Thy servants shall abide, and their seed shall be established before Thee."
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 This Ps. belongs to the closing days of the…
This Ps. belongs to the closing days of the exile, and utters the hope of Israel's restoration (Psa_102:13-22). The Psalmist has been supposed by some to speak simply in the name of the nation, but it is more probable that he describes his personal distress, though this was caused by the captivity and humiliation of his people. In Psa_102:14 he speaks of his fellow-countrymen in the plural, and his shrinking from premature death (Psa_102:11, Psa_102:23-24) breathes a distinctly personal note. He is wasted away with lonely sorrow (Psa_102:1-7, Psa_102:9), mocked by enemies (Psa_102:8), and conscious that his affliction is a token of God's displeasure (Psa_102:10). But the eternity and changelessness of God are the ground of his hope (Psa_102:12, Psa_102:24-28) both for himself and for the whole of God's people.
3. Like smoke] RM 'in smoke.' An hearth] RV 'a firebrand.'
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5. Skin] RV 'flesh.'
6, 7. describe figuratively the Psalmist's mournful love of solitude.
6. Desert] RV 'waste places.'
8. Are sworn against me] RV 'do curse by me,' the literal meaning of 'execrate.'
10. Lifted.. up.. cast down] RV 'taken.. up.. cast away.'
11. That declineth] that vanishes when the sun sets.
12. Remembrance] RV 'memorial,' i.e. name: see Lam_5:19.
13. Favour] RV 'have pity upon.' So in Psa_102:14. The set time] see Isa_40:2; Isa_61:2.
15. Heathen] RV 'nations.'
16, 17. Shall build.. appear.. regard.. despise] RV 'hath built.. appeared.. regarded.. despised.'
18. The people] RV 'a people.' The restored Israel will be a new nation.
19. His sanctuary] heaven, as the parallelism shows.
21. To declare] RV 'that men may declare.'
22. People] RV 'peoples.'
25-27. Quoted in Heb_1:10-12.
27, 28. The changelessness of God is a guarantee that His kingdom will endure among men. This is an argument for national rather than for personal immortality. For the higher Christian truth see Joh_14:19.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv1, 15 Hear my prayer, O Lord
Hear my prayer, O Lord
The references of Psa 102:25-27 to Christ Heb 1:10-12 assures us that in the preceding verses of Psalms 102 we have, prophetically, the exercises of His holy soul in the days of His humiliation and rejection.
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See Psalms 110, next in order of the Messianic Psalms.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 Psalm 102
Psalm 102
Christ the King in His Humiliation
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1. In the place of humiliation and dependence (Psa 102:1-7)
2. His enemies (Psa 102:8-11)
3. The set time for Zion (Psa 102:12-16)
4. The blessings which follow (Psa 102:17-22)
5. The God-man in His work (Psa 102:23-28)
That this Psalm is a prophecy concerning the sufferings of Christ, His humiliation and death, and the gracious results which flow from it, is confirmed by the quotation in the first chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews. In that chapter His work and His glory are unfolded. Here we have both. First we have a prophetic picture of the lonely One, like a pelican, an owl in the desert and as a sparrow alone upon the house top. What a deep humiliation for Him who created all things (Psa 102:23-28) to take the lowest place, even like a sparrow. Then we read how His enemies reproach Him. He eats His bread like ashes and mingles His drink with weeping. He suffers more than that, in making atonement--God’s indignation and wrath is upon Him.
Next we read something of the joy which was set before Him on account of which He endured the cross, despising the shame. Here is part of the travail of His soul. God will through Him, have mercy upon Zion when the set time to favour her has come. All nations will then fear His Name, and all the kings behold His glory. And Zion shall assuredly be built when the Lord appears in glory, His second coming. Then the glorious results when “the people are gathered together (in the kingdom) and the kingdoms serve the Lord.” The closing verses tell us of His glory as the God-Man. The Man who suffered thus is the Lord of all, Jehovah the Creator. The Spirit of God alone could teach the true application of these words and He has done so in Heb 1:10-12.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v1 Complaint of One in Great Trouble.
Complaint of One in Great Trouble.
A prayer of the afflicted, one in great misery and distress, when he is overwhelmed, Psa 61:2, and poureth out his complaint, as from an inverted vessel, in a full stream, before the Lord.
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v. 1. Hear my prayer, O Lord, the Jehovah here named being the second person of the Godhead, as He was known and worshiped in the Old Testament also, Heb 1:10-12, and let my cry come unto Thee, by removing all obstructions which would hinder its free course.
v. 2. Hide not Thy face from me, in aversion or even indifference, in the day when I am in trouble; incline Thine ear unto me, in the attitude of favorable attention; in the day when I call, answer me speedily, a quick relief being required on account of the greatness of the need.
v. 3. For my days are consumed like smoke, which passes upward and disappears, and my bones are burned as an hearth, the heat of fever glowing in his members and consuming him as the fuel on the hearth is consumed by the fire.
v. 4. My heart is smitten, dried up, the supply of blood being insufficient, and withered like grass, on account of the heat of the inner affliction, so that I forget to eat my bread, the consequence of deep grief.
v. 5. By reason of the voice of my groaning, on account of the effort attending his continual moaning and lamenting, my bones cleave to my skin, his extreme emaciation due to his agony.
v. 6. I am like a pelican of the wilderness; I am like an owl of the desert, of ruined places, both of these being unclean birds according to the Levitical law.
v. 7. I watch, passing the night in sleeplessness, and am as a sparrow, a small and despised bird, alone upon the housetop, the figures expressing extreme loneliness.
v. 8. Mine enemies reproach me all the day, mocking him as one forsaken of God; and they that are mad against me, being filled with rage and fury, are sworn against me, making his name a byword, accompanying their most malignant curses against anyone with a reference to the sufferer’s condition.
v. 9. For I have eaten ashes like bread, sitting in them as a sign of great mourning and strewing them upon his head and garments, and mingled my drink with weeping, Cf Psa 42:3,
v. 10. because of Thine indignation and Thy wrath, Jehovah having given him proof of His anger over his trespasses; for Thou hast lifted me up, withdrawing the solid ground from beneath his feet, and cast me down, the figure being taken from a tempestuous wind which overthrows a person.
v. 11. My days are like a shadow that declineth, lengthening as the sun draws near the western horizon, showing that the night of death is imminent; and I am withered like grass, like an uprooted plant which is bound to become dry.
v. 12. But Thou, O Lord, shalt endure forever, whence the psalmist in the midst of his misery, addresses his confident prayer to Him, and Thy remembrance unto all generations, the eternal and unchangeable Ruler of the universe, whose promises stand secure forever.
v. 13. Thou shalt arise, as one throwing off apparent indifference and lethargy, and have mercy upon Zion, upon His Church; for the time to favor her, to show her grace and kindness, yea, the set time, that is, that point of time to which the promise of Jehovah looked forward, is come. When affliction reaches its climax, then the help of the Lord is always nearest.
v. 14. For Thy servants, the believers of all times, take pleasure in her stones, all of them being filled with fervent love for the Church, and favor the dust thereof, their loving desire clinging to the very ruins of the Church. This verse shows that the psalm was composed during the Babylonian exile, when the sympathetic attachment of the captive Jews turned with eagerness to the ruins of Jerusalem, the sanctuary of Jehovah. At the same time the situation is typical of many periods of affliction and ruin in the spiritual congregation of Christ, when the believers lament the troubled situation in the Church.
v. 15. So the heathen shall fear the name of the Lord, men from all countries of the world learning to know Jehovah as He has revealed Himself, and worshiping Him in holy awe and reverence, and all the kings of the earth, even the rulers of Gentile nations, Thy glory. It is a picture of Messianic conditions which the prophet here draws.
v. 16. When the Lord shall build up Zion, establishing His Church, He shall appear in His glory, in the glory of the Gospel as proclaimed throughout the world.
v. 17. He will regard the prayer of the destitute, of the homeless exiles, and not despise their prayer, not reject their supplication for mercy.
v. 18. This shall be written for the generation to come, making known the Gospel of Jehovah’s salvation in future ages; and the people which shall be created shall praise the Lord, in the worship of true faith.
v. 19. For He hath looked down, in an act of wonderful condescension, from the height of His Sanctuary; from heaven did the Lord behold the earth, observing closely the difficulties of His people,
v. 20. to hear the groaning of the prisoner, the exiles of Judah serving to typify the spiritually afflicted in the Church at all times; to loose those that are appointed to death, by reason of bonds and captivity;
v. 21. to declare the name of the Lord in Zion, in proclaiming the Gospel of His mercy, and His praise in Jerusalem, in the midst of His holy congregation,
v. 22. when the people are gathered together and the kingdoms to serve the Lord, in that wonderful organization now known as the Christian Church. The psalmist now pictures the situation of the individual believer once more.
v. 23. He weakened my strength in the way, Jehovah reduced his vitality by having him removed into exile; He shortened my days, and with him the entire people of the exile seemed doomed to death.
v. 24. I said, O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days, death before the fulfillment of the average allotted life being considered a particularly severe punishment of the Lord; Thy years are throughout all generations, Jehovah’s eternity standing out over against the weakness and vanity of man’s life.
v. 25. Of old hast Thou laid the foundation of the earth, His creative power therefore being able to work deliverance also in this extremity; and the heavens are the work of Thy hands, a product of His act of creation.
v. 26. They shall perish, namely, in connection with the great change which would take place on the Last Day, but Thou shalt endure, being established and changeless in the midst of the overthrow of the universe; yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment, Isa 51:6; 2Pe 3:10; as a vesture shalt Thou change them, and they shall be changed. Rev 21:1.
v. 27. But Thou art the same, the eternal and changeless "I am," and Thy years shall have no end. Because Jehovah is the eternal Lord, therefore the psalmist concludes with a confident statement,
v. 28. The children of Thy servants shall continue, the Christian Church continuing from one generation to the next, and their seed shall be established before Thee, as the community of believers reserved to eternal life. With this thought to sustain them, the Christians may cheerfully lift up their hearts to Jehovah, the God of their salvation. and trust in His deliverance.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 17, 19, 21, 23, 25, 28 General Information:
General Information:
Parallelism is common in Hebrew poetry. (See: Poetry and Parallelism)
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the afflicted
This refers to a man who is afflicted. AT: "the afflicted man" (See: Nominal Adjectives)
pours out his lament before Yahweh
The way the author expresses his lament is compared to pouring out a liquid. AT: "freely expresses his grief to Yahweh" (See: Metaphor)
translationWords
pray
afflicted
lament
Yahweh
face
trouble
call
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 17, 18, 19, 22, 23, 24, 25, 28 Ps 102 A frail and afflicted human being prays…
Ps 102 A frail and afflicted human being prays for the Lord’s compassion on Jerusalem and for his presence with its inhabitants.
102:1-2 The psalmist appeals to the Lord not to turn away (or hide your face). Israel experienced his turning his face away during their exile.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.