PSALM 102

O Yahweh, hear my prayer!

A plea for God to hear (vv.1-2)

1 Hear my prayer, O Yahweh! [1]		And let my cry for help come to You.[2]
2 Do not hide Your face from me in the day of my distress;	Incline Your ear to me;		In the day when I call answer me quickly.

Description of distress (vv.3-11) [3]

3 For my days have been consumed in smoke,	And my bones have been scorched like a hearth.[4]
4 My heart has been smitten like grass and has withered away,	Indeed, I forget to eat my bread.
5 Because of the loudness of my groaning	My bones cling to my flesh.
6 I resemble a pelican of the wilderness;	I have become like an owl of the waste places.
7 I lie awake,	I have become like a lonely bird on a housetop.
8 My enemies have reproached me all day long;	Those who deride me have used my name as a curse.
9 For I have eaten ashes like bread	And mingled my drink with weeping
10 Because of Your indignation and Your wrath,	For You have lifted me up and cast me away.
11 My days are like a lengthened shadow,	And I wither away like grass.

Description of Yahweh and His compassion (vv.12-22)

12 But You, O Yahweh, abide forever,		And Your name/memorial (zeker) to all generations.[5]
13 You will arise and have compassion on Zion;	For it is time to be gracious to her,		For the appointed time has come.
14 Surely Your servants find pleasure in her stones		And feel pity for her dust.[6]
15 So the nations will fear the name of Yahweh		And all the kings of the earth Your glory.
16 For Yahweh has built up Zion;		He has appeared in His glory.
17 He has regarded the prayer of the destitute		And has not despised their prayer.
18 This will be written for the generation to come,		That a people yet to be created may praise YAH.[7]
19 For He looked down from His holy height;		From heaven Yahweh gazed upon the earth,
20 To hear the groaning of the prisoner,		To set free those who were doomed to death,
21 That men may tell of the name of Yahweh in Zion		And His praise in Jerusalem,[8]
22 When the peoples are gathered together,		And the kingdoms, to serve Yahweh.

Hope that God’s people of praise will be established (vv.23-28) [9]

23 He has weakened my strength in the way;	He has shortened my days. [10]
24 I say, “O my God, do not take me away in the midst of my days,	Your years are throughout all generations.
25 “Of old You founded the earth,	And the heavens are the work of Your hands.
26 “Even they will perish,	but You endure;
And all of them will wear out like a garment;	Like clothing You will change them and they will be changed.
27 “But You are the same,	And Your years will not come to an end.
28 “The children of Your servants will continue,	And their descendants will be established before You.”[11]

[1] The covenant Name “Yahweh” occurs 7x in this Psalm and the contracted form “Yah” 1x. In a total of seven Psalms Yahweh occurs seven times (Psalm 7; 84; 92; 99; 102; 109; 140).

[2] The Hebrew of verse 1 is chiastic:

(A) O Yahweh!

(B) hear my prayer

(B’) and let my cry

(A’) come to You

[3] Many details are given about the Psalmist’s distress and yet we don’t know its exact nature. This is common to many of the Psalms, “Enemies abound, but individual enemies are never identified and national ones only seldom. Personal adversity is frequent, but the circumstances are always vague. This aspect is particularly problematic for the identification of specific historical or socio-ritual occasions for the psalms, but particularly helpful for later appropriation of the psalms, whether within ancient Israel or by later believers” (Philip S. Johnston, “The Psalms and Distress” in Interpreting the Psalms: issues and approaches; edited by David Firth and Philip S. Johnston).p.73)

[4] The Psalmist is quite literally burned out.

[5] The use of the covenant Name Yahweh in the Psalms is often in the context of a deliverance/exodus from enemies, disease, sin and from/through death. The covenant Name was initially revealed to Moses in the context of the Exodus,

“God, furthermore, said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is My name forever, and this is My memorial-name (zeker) to all generations. Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, ‘Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, “I am indeed concerned about you and what has been done to you in Egypt” (Exodus 3:15,16; cf. Psalm 135:13).

The formula of Exodus 3 is used elsewhere in Scripture to signify a great work of God. Peter preached the resurrection of Jesus echoing the words of Exodus 3, “The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His servant Jesus, the one whom you delivered and disowned in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release Him” (Acts 3:13; cf. Acts 7:32). Yahweh never takes His Name in vain and He has sworn to save His people who put their faith and trust in Him.

Emphasis upon the covenant Name Yahweh in this Psalm signifies a kind of exodus deliverance from/through death which is the wages of sin (cf. Matthew 1:21).

Matthew 22:31-32
“But regarding the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God: 32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.”

[6] The Hebrew of verse 14 is chiastic:

(A) Surely Your servants find pleasure

(B) in her stones

(B’) and for her dust

(A’) feel pity

[7] This contracted form of Yahweh occurs 50x in the Hebrew Scriptures, 43 of which are in the Psalms (cf. Exodus 15:1,2).

[8] Many people wonder whether God hears their prayers. The real question is whether God hears your praise.

[9] In the LXX, verses 23-28 are addressed by God to the Psalmist which helps explain why the writer to the Hebrews applies vv.25-27 to the everlasting kingship of Jesus and His superiority to angels (see F.F. Bruce, The Epistle to the Hebrews revised pp.61-63).

[10] On April 27, 1720 Thomas Boston preached a sermon entitled, “The Right Improvement of a time of Sickness and Mortality.” The text was Psalm 90:12. The occasion for the sermon was a fast-day occasioned by great sickness and mortality. Thomas Boston notes how the Scriptures speak about the shortness of our lives: the length of our days is like grass (Psalm 90:6; cf. 102:11); like a vapor (James 4:14); like smoke (James 4:24; cf. Psalm 102:3); Like a dream (Job 20:8); a handbreadth and as nothing in God’s sight – at best we are a mere breath (Psalm 39:5). Boston goes on to warn, “If you will not take warning to prepare for eternity, by the removal of others, take heed lest God make you a warning to others.”

[11] The Westminster Confession of Faith (XXV:5) uses verse 28 as a proof text supporting God’s maintenance of the Church on earth,

The purest Churches under heaven are subject both to mixture and error; (1 Cor. 13:12, Rev. 2–3, Matt. 13:24–30,47) and some have so degenerated as to become no Churches of Christ, but synagogues of Satan. (Rev. 18:2, Rom. 11:18–22). Nevertheless, there shall be always a Church on earth to worship God according to His will. (Matt. 16:18, Ps. 72:17, Ps. 102:28, Matt. 28:19–20).