Psalms 102
What Happens in This Chapter
A person in deep distress prays to the LORD, describing days that vanish like smoke, a body wasted by grief, enemies who taunt him, and God's anger as the cause of his fall. The prayer then turns to the LORD, who endures forever and will rise up to have compassion on Zion at the appointed time, so that nations and kings will fear his name and a generation not yet born will praise him. The speaker returns to his own shortened life and asks not to be taken away in the middle of it, contrasting his brief days with God, who laid the earth's foundations and whose years never end. It closes with the children of God's servants continuing and their descendants established before him.
LORD, hear my prayer. Let my cry for help reach you.
1Hear my prayer, O LORD, and let my cry come unto thee.
Where the King James prints LORD in capital letters it stands for the personal name of Israel's God, four Hebrew consonants usually written Yahweh. Jewish readers avoided saying it aloud and substituted the ordinary word for "lord," and the capitals preserve that substitution.
2Do not turn your face away from me when I am in trouble. Listen to me. Answer me quickly when I call.
2Hide 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.
"Hide not thy face" is a standard Hebrew idiom for withdrawing attention and favor, a king who turns his face away is refusing to hear a petitioner. It is not about literal invisibility.
3My days are disappearing like smoke, and my bones burn like coals in a fireplace.
3For my days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned as an hearth.
4My heart is beaten down and dried up like grass, so much that I forget to eat my food.
4My heart is smitten, and withered like grass; so that I forget to eat my bread.
"Heart" in Hebrew usage means the whole inner person, thinking, willing and deciding as much as feeling. Saying it is withered like grass describes a man drained of everything that keeps him going, not a mood.
5Because of the sound of my groaning, my bones press against my skin.
5By reason of the voice of my groaning my bones cleave to my skin.
The picture is extreme emaciation from prolonged illness or fasting: nothing left between bone and skin. The Hebrew literally says his bone clings to his flesh.
6I am like a desert owl in the wild. I am like an owl among ruins.
6I am like a pelican of the wilderness: I am like an owl of the desert.
The two birds are hard to identify with certainty; the King James guessed "pelican" and "owl." What matters is that both are creatures of empty, ruined places, and both were on the Israelite list of birds unfit to eat, the speaker is comparing himself to something solitary and unwanted.
7I lie awake at night. I am like a lone bird sitting on a rooftop.
7I watch, and am as a sparrow alone upon the house top.
Israelite houses had flat roofs used as living and sleeping space, so a bird perched alone up there was a common sight, visible to everyone, belonging to no flock.
8My enemies insult me all day long. Those who rage at me use my name when they swear a curse.
8Mine enemies reproach me all the day; and they that are mad against me are sworn against me.
The last phrase describes his name becoming a curse-word: people wishing harm on an enemy say "may you end up like him." To be "sworn against" in this sense is to have become the standard example of a ruined man.
9I have eaten ashes as if they were bread, and my tears have fallen into what I drink.
9For I have eaten ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping,
Sitting in ashes, and putting ashes or dust on the head, was the ordinary public sign of grief or disaster in this world. The speaker says he has been at it so long that ashes have become his diet.
10This is because of your anger and your fury. You picked me up and threw me down.
10Because of thine indignation and thy wrath: for thou hast lifted me up, and cast me down.
11My days are like a shadow that stretches out and fades. I am drying up like grass.
11My days are like a shadow that declineth; and I am withered like grass.
The shadow that "declineth" is the long shadow of late afternoon, which stretches out just before it vanishes into nightfall, the standard Hebrew image for a life almost over.
12But you, LORD, will last forever. People will remember you in every generation.
12But thou, O LORD, shalt endure for ever; and thy remembrance unto all generations.
"Thy remembrance" translates a Hebrew word meaning the name by which someone is called to mind and invoked, closer to "renown" or "reputation" than to anyone's private memory.
13You will stand up and show mercy to Zion, because the time to be kind to her has come. The appointed time is here.
13Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion: for the time to favour her, yea, the set time, is come.
Zion was originally the fortified hill David captured in Jerusalem, and came to stand for the temple hill and for the city as a whole. Speaking of mercy on Zion here means mercy on Jerusalem and its people.
14Your servants love even her stones, and they feel pity for her dust.
14For thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and favour the dust thereof.
Loving the stones and pitying the dust says the city is in ruins: what is left to feel affection for is rubble. This is the language of people who have seen Jerusalem destroyed, or who are living away from it.
15Then the nations will fear the name of the LORD, and all the kings of the earth will fear your glory.
15So the heathen shall fear the name of the LORD, and all the kings of the earth thy glory.
"The heathen" in the King James simply means the nations, all the peoples who are not Israel. The word carried no sense of savagery or ignorance when this translation was made.
16When the LORD rebuilds Zion, he will show himself in his glory.
16When the LORD shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory.
17He will pay attention to the prayer of people who have nothing. He will not turn their prayer away.
17He will regard the prayer of the destitute, and not despise their prayer.
18Let this be written down for the generation that is coming, so that a people not yet created will praise the LORD.
18This shall be written for the generation to come: and the people which shall be created shall praise the LORD.
"The people which shall be created" means a nation not yet born. The point of writing it down is that the record outlives the writer and reaches readers who do not yet exist.
19For he looked down from his holy place high above. From heaven the LORD looked at the earth.
19For he hath looked down from the height of his sanctuary; from heaven did the LORD behold the earth;
Heaven is being described as God's temple, the "sanctuary" is not the building in Jerusalem but the high place from which he looks down on it.
20He looked to hear the groaning of prisoners and to set free those who were sentenced to die,
20To hear the groaning of the prisoner; to loose those that are appointed to death;
"Those that are appointed to death" renders a Hebrew phrase literally meaning "sons of death", people already under sentence, whose execution is only a matter of time.
21so that people would announce the name of the LORD in Zion and praise him in Jerusalem,
21To declare the name of the LORD in Zion, and his praise in Jerusalem;
22when peoples and kingdoms come together to serve the LORD.
22When the people are gathered together, and the kingdoms, to serve the LORD.
23He drained my strength while I was still on the road. He cut my life short.
23He weakened my strength in the way; he shortened my days.
"In the way" means in mid-journey. Life is being pictured as a road the speaker was walking when his strength gave out, well short of the end.
24So I said: my God, do not take me away when my life is only half over. Your years go on through every generation.
24I said, O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days: thy years are throughout all generations.
To be taken "in the midst of my days" is to die halfway through a normal lifespan. Dying young was widely felt in this culture to be a sign of judgment, which is why the speaker protests against it.
25Long ago you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens were made by your hands.
25Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands.
26They will come to an end, but you will remain. They will all wear out like clothes. You will change them like a coat, and they will be changed.
26They 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:
Clothes were expensive and were handed on rather than thrown away, so wearing out a garment was the familiar image for slow decay. The final Hebrew verb can mean either "changed" or "passed on," and the ambiguity is in the original.
27But you stay the same, and your years will never end.
27But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end.
28The children of your servants will go on living, and their descendants will be secure in your presence.
28The children of thy servants shall continue, and their seed shall be established before thee.
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