Bible Commentaries

Psalms 102:1-2. Hear my prayer, O LORD, and let my cry come unto thee. 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.

Sincere suppliants are not content with praying for praying’s sake, they desire really to reach the ear and heart of Jehovah: “Hear my prayer, O Lord, and let my cry come unto thee.” When prayer is intensified into a cry, then the heart is even more urgent to have audience of the Lord.

Psalms 102:3-7. For my days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned as an hearth. My heart is smitten, and withered like grass; so that I forget to eat my bread. By reason of the voice of my groaning my bones cleave to my skin. I am like a pelican of the wilderness: I am like an owl of the desert. I watch, and am as a sparrow alone upon the house top.

The psalmist gives us here a very graphic description of his sorrowful condition at that time. He was moved to grief by a view of the national calamities of the chosen people, and these so wrought upon his patriotic soul that he was wasted with anxiety, his spirits were dried up, and his very life was ready to expire.

Psalms 102:8. Mine enemies reproach me all the day; and they that are mad against me are sworn against me.

Their rage was unrelenting and unceasing, and vented itself in taunts and insults. With his inward sorrows and outward persecutions, the psalmist was in as ill a plight as may well be conceived.

Psalms 102:9-11. For I have eaten ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping, because of thine indignation and thy wrath: for thou hast lifted me up, and cast me down. My days are like a shallow that declineth; and I am withered like grass.

This is a telling description of all-saturating, all-embittering sadness; and that was the portion of one of the best of men, and that for no fault of his own, but because of his love to the Lord’s people.

Psalms 102:12. But thou, O LORD, shalt endure for ever; and thy remembrance unto all generations.

All things else are vanishing like smoke, and withering like grass; but, over all, the one eternal, immutable light shines on, and will shine on when all these shallows have declined into nothingness.

Psalms 102:13-14. Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion: for the time to favour her, yea, the set time, is come. For thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and favour the dust thereof.

They delight in her so greatly that even her rubbish is dear to them. It was a good omen for Jerusalem when the captives began to feel a homesickness, and began to sigh after her.

Psalms 102:15-17. So the heathen shall fear the name of the LORD, and all the kings of the earth thy glory. When the LORD shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory. He will regard the prayer of the destitute, and not despise their prayer.

He will not treat their pleas with contempt; he will incline his ear to hear, his heart to consider, and his hand to help.

Psalms 102:18. This shall be written for the generation to come: and the people which shall be created shall praise the LORD.

A note shall be made of it, for there will be destitute ones in future generations, — “the poor shall never cease out of the land,” — and it will make glad their eyes to read the story of the Lord’s mercy to the needy in former times.

Psalms 102:19-23. For he hath looked down from the height of his sanctuary; from heaven did the LORD behold the earth; to hear the groaning of the prisoner; to loose those that are appointed to death; to declare the name of the LORD in Zion, and his praise in Jerusalem; when the people are gathered together, and the kingdoms, to serve the LORD. He weakened my strength in the way; he shortened my days.

Here the psalmist comes down again to the mournful string, and pours forth his personal complaint.

Psalms 102:24-27. I said, O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days: thy years are throughout all generations. Of old hast thou laid the foundations of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands. 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: but thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end.

God ever lives on; no decay can happen to him, nor destruction overtake him. O my soul, rejoice thou in the Lord always, since he is always the same!

Psalms 102:28. The children of thy servants shall continue, and their seed shall be established before thee.