Psalm 102

Introduction

You can see from the title that Psalm 102 is the prayer of an afflicted man, who is faint and who pours out his lament before the Lord. And so, this psalm is another lamentation, when the psalmist cries out to the Lord for help because of the trouble he’s in.

The title says that the psalmist is faint. In other words, he’s feeling faint. He’s weak. He’s without strength. He feels overwhelmed by his troubles. They are too much for him. Often when people are faint, when they’re overwhelmed by trouble or sorrow, or when they’re unwell, they feel too faint to pray. They don’t feel like praying because of the trouble they’re in. But that’s the time when we should pray, because, as John Calvin says, that’s the very time our sorrows will be assuaged. Though we are feeling weak and feeble, and though we think we are too faint to pray, we should still pray, because God will hear and answer us and he’ll minister to us even as we pray. We bow before the Lord and tell him our troubles; and when our praying is done, don’t we often feel better? Don’t we often feel relief? We’ve shared our burden with the Lord; and while we’ve been praying, he’s drawn near us and he’s reminded us of his steadfast love and faithfulness and his grace and mercy and his strength and power.

And that’s what we find in this psalm, because the psalmist calls on the Lord. He pours out his trouble. He makes his complaint to the Lord. That’s in verses 1 to 11. However, look how verse 12 begins. It begins with the words, ‘But you, O Lord….’ So: Here’s my complaint. But now I know that things will be okay, because of who God is and because of what he will do. When we focus on our troubles, we feel faint and weak and overwhelmed. But when we focus on the Lord, then we know it will all be okay.

We don’t know who wrote the psalm or when it was written. However, some of the commentators believe that it may have been written near the end of the exile in Babylon. So, because of their sinful rebellion, God sent his people out of the Promised Land and into captivity in Babylon. But though the Lord was angry with his people, he was not willing to abandon them completely. In fact, he promised that the exile would last around 70 years. And at the end of those 70 years or so, he would allow them to return to the Promised Land. And in the book of Ezra you can read how they rebuilt the temple; and in the book of Nehemiah you can read how they rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem.

Why do the commentators think the psalm was written in the time of the exile? It’s because in verse 10 he refers to God’s great wrath and how God has taken him up and thrown him aside. And it’s because from verse 13 he refers to Zion. That is to say, he’s referring to the city of Jerusalem which was built on Mount Zion. And so, his lament is not only for himself, but it’s for the people who once lived in Jerusalem. And then, also in verse 13, he says that the appointed time has come for God to show favour to Zion. He could be referring to God’s announcement that the exile would last 70 years. So, the 70 years are almost up and therefore the appointed time for salvation has come. And in verse 17 he writes about the Lord rebuilding Zion. Presumably Zion needed to be rebuilt because it lay in ruins. And he’s now hopeful that the Lord will rebuild it.

And so, it’s possible that the psalm was written during the time of the exile. The psalmist felt overwhelmed by what had happened to him and to all of God’s people. But then, when he turned his focus away from himself and to the Lord, he was comforted. And he was comforted because of the great hope he had that all of God’s people will one day live his presence for ever.

Verses 1 to 11

Let’s turn to verse 1 to 11, where the psalmist calls on the Lord and pours out his complaint.

In verse 1 he asks the Lord to hear his prayer and to let his cry for help come before him. As we’ve noted many time before, the psalmist uses God’s covenant name, which appears in our English Bibles as Lord in capital letters. And I always say that this name speaks to us of God’s commitment to his people. He has bound himself to his people with a promise to be our God and to deliver us from our sin and misery by his Son. And so, the psalmist is not appealing to a stranger for help. He’s appealing to the Lord his God who has promised to love him with a steadfast and never-ending love.

And he asks the Lord in verse 2 not to hide his face from him. He doesn’t want God to turn his back on him or to disregard his cry. He wants the Lord to turn his face to him and to smile on him. He also asks the Lord to turn his ear to him. He means he wants the Lord to listen closely to him. Lean over in order to hear me better. Cup your hand over your ear so that you can hear me.

He also refers to his distress. More literally, he refers to the day of his distress; and he goes on in verse 3 to refer to the day when he calls. The word ‘day’ is repeated throughout the psalm. The psalmist’s days are full of trouble and they are in danger of being cut short. By contrast, as we’ll see, the Lord is eternal.

So, the psalmist appeals to the Lord his God to listen closely to him and to answer him in the day or the time of his trouble.

And in verses 3 to 11 he pours out his complaint. First of all, he says that his days vanish like smoke and his bones burn like glowing embers. By comparing his days to smoke, he’s saying they will not last. Just as smoke goes up into the sky and disappears from view, so his life will disappear from view. The image of burning bones may mean that his whole body aches. He then says that his heart is blighted and withered like grass. In other words, he is blighted and withered like grass. He’s going to perish like grass which is here today and gone tomorrow. And because of his sorrow, he forgets to eat his food. When people are unwell, they lose their appetite. Food is put down in front of them and they do not want it. And the psalmist is feeling the same: he has no appetite for food. In verse 5 he refers to his loud groaning and how he’s reduced to skin and bones. When he refers to his loud groaning, he’s referring to the suffering which makes him groan. And he’s become emaciated: he’s only skin and bones.

It sounds as if the psalmist is sick. Either he is physically sick, suffering from some kind of illness, or else he’s comparing his sorrow to illness. His sorrow and sadness and suffering makes him feel like someone who is gravely ill. As it said in the psalm’s title, he is faint. He feels faint like a sick man, because of the trouble he’s in.

And he also feels alone. He says he’s like a desert owl, sitting among the ruins. No-one really knows what kind of bird he means, but the Hebrew word translated ‘owl’ refers to some kind of bird which was often found near ruins. And he also compares himself to a bird alone on a roof. So, he feels as if he’s all alone. He has no-one to comfort or to encourage him.

And then he refers in verse 8 to his enemies who taunt him all day long. They rail against him. That is the deride and mock him. And they use his name as a curse. One of the commentators suggests that he has become a byword for suffering. And so, if someone were calling down a curse on themselves, they might once have said, ‘If I don’t do as I have promised, may I become like Job’. That is, may I suffer like Job suffered. But now they say: ‘If I don’t do as I have promised, may I become like the psalmist.’ That is, may I suffer like the psalmist suffered.

And he goes on to say that he eats ashes for food and he mingles his drink with tears. Ashes are associated with grief and sorrow, because people covered themselves with ashes to express their grief and sorrow. And he means that just as some people eat bread every day, so he is full of grief and sorrow every day. And he’s always weeping because of his sorrow.

And the reason he’s suffering like this is because of God’s great wrath. God has taken him up only to throw him down. A mother takes up her daughter to cuddle her, but a wrestler takes up his opponent to throw him down on the ground. And that’s what God has done to the psalmist. He’s thrown him down. He’s hurled him to the ground, because of his great wrath. And so, his days are like the evening shadow. What happens to the shadows in the evening? They vanish, don’t they? They sun goes down and the shadows disappear. And the psalmist feels that his days are coming to an end. His life is withering away like grass.

And so, in verses 1 to 11 the psalmist cries to the Lord his God to listen closely to him and to answer him because he’s suffering terribly and he feels like his life is coming to an end. He knows that he’s suffering because of God’s great wrath. Nevertheless, he still appeals to God for help.

Verses 12 to 22

But then his focus changes. His perspective shifts. Instead of focussing on his troubles, he focuses on the Lord. The Lord his God — the Lord who has bound himself with a promise to deliver his people from their sin and misery by his Son — sits enthroned for ever. That is to say, the Lord is the king who rules for ever. He is the great king who was and who is and who is to come, for ever the same. He will never end; and his reign will never end; and his promise to his people will never end; his commitment to them will never end. He rules for ever and he will rule for ever on behalf of his people.

And his renown endures through all generations. In other words, his reputation endures through all generations. His reputation endures because he endures. People today think back to past leaders and they remember what they were like and the things they did. And they wish that those leaders were still around or they wish there was someone else like them. But they’re dead and gone, aren’t they? On the other hand, the Lord is king for ever.

And the psalmist looks forward to the time when the Lord will arise and will have compassion on the city of Jerusalem on Mount Zion. That is to say, God will have compassion on the people who once lived in that city. He will show them pity. He will be merciful to them. So, the psalmist is no longer praying for himself, but for all of God’s people who once lived in Jerusalem, but who have been taken away. He says that it’s time for the Lord to show favour to those people. The appointed time, or the time appointed by God, has come. As I said at the beginning, some commentators think he means it’s time for the exile to end. The Lord announced that it would last 70 years. And so, the time has come. The 70 years are over. Rise up and do as you promised and save your people.

In verse 14 he mentions Jerusalem’s stones and her very dust. He may be referring to the way the city had been destroyed. The temple had been destroyed. The palace had been destroyed. Their homes had been destroyed. The walls had been destroyed. All that was left of the city were broken stones and dust. But although the city was destroyed, it was still very dear to God’s people. They loved the city and wanted the Lord to repair it. If he does so, all the nations of the world will fear his name. The kings of the earth will revere him. They will see his power and glory and they will praise him. And they will fear him when he rebuilds Jerusalem on Mount Zion and when his glory will once again appear in the city. By referring to God’s glory in verse 16, he could be referring to the glory-cloud which accompanied the Israelites through the wilderness and which filled the temple when Solomon had finished building it. The glory had departed, but the psalmist is hopeful that the Lord’s glory will return to Jerusalem. And he’s hopeful that the Lord will respond to the prayer of the destitute and he’ll not despise their plea.

And the psalmist wants his words to be written down for a future generation so that people not yet created will praise the Lord. They will praise the Lord when they hear how the Lord looked down from heaven and heard the groaning of his captive people and released those who were condemened to die. Write down the record of how God delivered his people from exile. And then, when future generations read of it, and hear about it, they will praise the Lord.

And look what he says in verses 21 and 22: he anticipates a time when the peoples and kingdoms will assemble in Jerusalem on Mount Zion to worship the Lord. So, the Lord will be worshipped, not only by the Israelites, but by people from other nations. Not only the Jews, but Gentiles will gather before him.

Verses 23 to 28

And in the final part of the psalm — verses 23 to 28 — the psalmist says that God broke his strength and cut short his days. On the other hand, the Lord is eternal: his years go on through all generations. And whereas the present heavens and earth will perish and will wear out like a garment, God will remain and his years will never end. In other words, God is eternal.

And the psalm ends with the psalmist expressing his confidence that the children of God’s servants will live in his presence. The psalmist is confident about this because of his hope that the Lord will rebuild Jerusalem.

Explanation

It seems the psalmist was anticipating the time when the Lord would bring the exile to an end; and he would bring his people back to the Promised Land and back to the city of Jerusalem. Jerusalem will be rebuilt and people will gather there to worship the Lord. And so, his suffering and the suffering of all God’s afflicted people will end when the Lord rises up from his throne, has compassion on his people, and brings them back from exile.

And we know that what the psalmist anticipated took place, because the Lord moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to issue a decree to let God’s people return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. And after the temple was rebuilt, the walls of the city were rebuilt as well. The Lord’s people returned and they lived in the city and they gathered in the temple to worship God.

And so, the Lord rebuilt Jerusalem as the psalmist said he would. He arose from his throne in heaven and had compassion on his people. He released them from their captivity and brought them back to Jerusalem. Though they had once provoked him to great wrath because of their sinful rebellion, and though he caused them to suffer for many years, nevertheless, in the end, when the appointed time had come, he had compassion on them and he brought them back from exile.

But remember when they began to rebuild the temple? We read about it in the book of Ezra. Those people who remembered the former temple wept, because they could see that the new temple would be nothing like the old temple. The glory of the Lord had departed from the temple and it had not returned even though the people had returned. The temple had been rebuilt, but God was not there with them as he was once there with them in the days of Solomon when his glory filled the temple. And so, the people were disappointed and they wept.

However, in the fullness of time, God once again came to his temple in Jerusalem. He came in the person of his Son, who was born into the world as one of us. And after his birth, his earthly parents brought him to the temple to dedicate him to the Lord.

And years later, God the Son returned to Jerusalem. But this time he came to suffer and die on the cross as the once-for-all sacrifice to make peace between God and his people. Like the psalmist, the Lord Jesus bore the great wrath of God. However, unlike the psalmist, the Lord bore the great wrath of God in our place. He was taken up by God, only to be cast down to death and the grave. He suffered in our place so that what? So that all who trust in him as the only Saviour of the world will be spared from suffering God’s great wrath. And though we deserve to be sent out of God’s presence for our sins, as the psalmist was, we will instead be brought into God’s presence. We’ll be brought into his presence, not in the old Jerusalem, but in the new Jerusalem, the Holy City, the church in glory in the new heavens and earth.

As the psalmist says, the present heavens and earth will perish; they will wear out like a garment. But the Lord God Almighty has promised to make new heavens and a new earth. And in the new heavens and earth, there will be a new Jerusalem. And God’s servants will live there in his presence; and they will be established there before him. They will live with him for ever and for ever, in the new Jerusalem, a glorious and everlasting Jerusalem. It’s the church in glory.

But remember what the psalmist also anticipated? He also anticipated a time when peoples and kingdoms will assemble in Jerusalem to worship the Lord. And that too will happen, because the vision we have of the new Jerusalem in the new heavens and earth is of a city which contains people from every nation. In Revelation 21 it says that the nations will walk there in the light of God; and the kings of the earth will bring their splendour into it; and the glory of the nations will be brought into it. And so, the nations will come to the new Jerusalem and will be part of it. Believing Jews and believing Gentiles will assemble before the Lord in the new Jerusalem to worship him for ever.

And the nations will be there, in the new Jerusalem, because after the Lord Jesus was raised from the dead and before he returned to heaven, he commissioned his apostles to make disciples of all nations. It was always God’s will that repentance and forgiveness of sins would be preached in Christ’s name to all nations. And repentance and forgiveness of sins is still being proclaimed throughout the world in Christ’s name. And whoever repents and believes is added to the church and they can look forward to the day when they will assemble before the Lord in the new Jerusalem to worship him. And so, we should pray that many across the world will hear the message and believe it and will repent and believe so that they too will worship God both now in this life and for ever in the life to come.

And by taking part in the Lord’s Supper on Sunday, we too are anticipating the day when we will sit down in the presence of God in the new Jerusalem with people from every nation. And there we will feast in the presence of God and will give thanks to him for Christ our Saviour, who bore the great wrath of God in our place so that we could live with God for ever.

And until that day comes, we should not only take part in the Lord’s Supper, but we should live here on earth in a way that reflects the glory of the new Jerusalem. Since it’s God’s holy city and since it’s for God’s holy people, then we should live holy lives, seeking to do God’s will in our daily lives in order to bring glory and honour to his holy name.