"A Prayer of one afflicted, when he is faint and pours out his complaint before the Lord.
Hear my prayer, O Lord;
let my cry come to you!
2 Do not hide your face from me
in the day of my distress!
Incline your ear to me;
answer me speedily in the day when I call!
3 For my days pass away like smoke,
and my bones burn like a furnace.
4 My heart is struck down like grass and has withered;
I forget to eat my bread.
5 Because of my loud groaning
my bones cling to my flesh.
6 I am like a desert owl of the wilderness,
like an owl of the waste places;
7 I lie awake;
I am like a lonely sparrow on the housetop.
8 All the day my enemies taunt me;
those who deride me use my name for a curse.
9 For I eat ashes like bread
and mingle tears with my drink,
10 because of your indignation and anger;
for you have taken me up and thrown me down.
11 My days are like an evening shadow;
I wither away like grass.
12 But you, O Lord, are enthroned for ever;
you are remembered throughout all generations.
13 You will arise and have pity on Zion;
it is the time to favour her;
the appointed time has come.
14 For your servants hold her stones dear
and have pity on her dust.
15 Nations will fear the name of the Lord,
and all the kings of the earth will fear your glory.
16 For the Lord builds up Zion;
he appears in his glory;
17 he regards the prayer of the destitute
and does not despise their prayer.
18 Let this be recorded for a generation to come,
so that a people yet to be created may praise the Lord:
19 that he looked down from his holy height;
from heaven the Lord looked at the earth,
20 to hear the groans of the prisoners,
to set free those who were doomed to die,
21 that they may declare in Zion the name of the Lord,
and in Jerusalem his praise,
22 when peoples gather together,
and kingdoms, to worship the Lord.
23 He has broken my strength in midcourse;
he has shortened my days.
24 “O my God,” I say, “take me not away
in the midst of my days—
you whose years endure
throughout all generations!”
25 Of old you laid the foundation of the earth,
and the heavens are the work of your hands.
26 They will perish, but you will remain;
they will all wear out like a garment.
You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away,
27 but you are the same, and your years have no end.
28 The children of your servants shall dwell secure;
their offspring shall be established before you."
Psalm 102
We spoke at the end of the previous note about the vision of the Throne. And how much the psalmist saw in that vision! For one thing, there is the word about 'the set time' in 13. How did this assurance come to him? Is Jeremiah 29:10 the answer, if the Psalm is post-exilic? He was, after all, as we have seen, a man of the Word! Even more wonderful is the realisation that God had been looking down to hear the groaning of the prisoner (19, 20) - this, over against the bleak desolation and aloneness of 6, 7! All the time God saw the situation. What an assurance this is, not only for the Psalmist, but for us, and for every burdened believer today!
The final section of the Psalm sees the renewing of the Psalmist's plaint - but with significant differences, for not only is it not so long or protracted as the earlier plaint in 1-11, but also such a recurrence is true to experience even in the context of having seen the vision. We are only human, after all. But even so, the plaint is full of faith, for now, convinced that God can and will deliver, the Psalmist cries to Him not to let him die before it comes to pass. And, once again, the vision brightens, as the reality of the eternity of God becomes his rest and assurance (27). For an important New Testament use of the words in 25-27 see Hebrews 1:10-12, where the Apostle applies them to the Lord Jesus. It is surely in Him that the assurances of the Psalm are sealed to us.