Psalm 102:1-11

Complaint of One in Great Trouble

A prayer of the afflicted, one in great misery and distress, when he is overwhelmed, Ps. 61; 2, and poureth out his complaint, as from an inverted vessel, in a full stream, before the Lord.

V. 1. Hear my prayer, O Lord, the Lord here named being the second person of the Godhead, as He was known and worshiped in the Old Testament also, Heb. 1, 10-12, and let my cry come unto Thee, by removing all obstructions which would hinder its free course. V. 2. Hide not Thy face from me, in aversion or even indifference, in the day when I am in trouble; incline Thine ear unto me, in the attitude of favorable attention; in the day when I call, answer me speedily, a quick relief being required on account of the greatness of the need.

V. 3. For my days are consumed like smoke, which passes upward and disappears, and my bones are burned as an hearth, the heat of fever glowing in his members and consuming him as the fuel on the hearth is consumed by the fire.

V. 4 My heart is smitten, dried up, the supply of blood being insufficient, and withered like grass, on account of the heat of the inner affliction, so that I forget to eat my bread, the consequence of deep grief.

V. 5. By reason of the voice of my groaning, on account of the effort attending his continual moaning and lamenting, my bones cleave to my skin, his extreme emaciation due to his agony.

V. 6. I am like a pelican of the wilderness; I am like an owl of the desert, of ruined places, both of these being unclean birds according to the Levitical law.

V. 7. I watch, passing the night in sleeplessness, and am as a sparrow, a small and despised bird, alone upon the housetop, the figures expressing extreme loneliness.

V. 8. Mine enemies reproach me all the day, mocking him as one forsaken of God; and they that are mad against me, being filled with rage and fury, are sworn against me, making his name a byword, accompanying their most malignant curses against anyone with a reference to the sufferer’s condition.

V. 9. For I have eaten ashes like bread,sitting in them as a sign of great mourning and strewing them upon his head and garments, and mingled my drink with weeping, cp. Ps. 42, 3, v. 10. because of Thine indignation and Thy wrath, Jehovah having given him proof of His anger over his trespasses; for Thou hast lifted me up,withdrawing the solid ground from beneath his feet, and cast me down, the figure being taken from a tempestuous wind which overthrows a person.

V. 11. My days are like a shadow that declineth, lengthening as the sun draws near the western horizon, showing that the night of death is imminent; and I am withered like grass, like an uprooted plant which is bound to become dry.