Monday, April 21, 2014

Reflections on Psalms 102

 Psalms 102(Contemporary English Version)
  1. (A prayer for someone who hurts and needs to ask the LORD for help.) I pray to you, LORD! Please listen.
  2. Don't hide from me in my time of trouble. Pay attention to my prayer and quickly give an answer.
  3. My days disappear like smoke, and my bones are burning as though in a furnace.
  4. I am wasting away like grass, and my appetite is gone.
  5. My groaning never stops, and my bones can be seen through my skin.
  6. I am like a lonely owl in the desert
  7. or a restless sparrow alone on a roof.
  8. My enemies insult me all day, and they use my name for a curse word.
  9. Instead of food, I have ashes to eat and tears to drink,
  10. because you are furious and have thrown me aside.
  11. My life fades like a shadow at the end of day and withers like grass.
  12. Our LORD, you are King forever and will always be famous.
  13. You will show pity to Zion because the time has come.
  14. We, your servants, love each stone in the city, and we are sad to see them lying in the dirt.
  15. Our LORD, the nations will honor you, and all kings on earth will praise your glory.
  16. You will rebuild the city of Zion. Your glory will be seen,
  17. and the prayers of the homeless will be answered.
  18. Future generations must also praise the LORD, so write this for them:
  19. "From his holy temple, the LORD looked down at the earth.
  20. He listened to the groans of prisoners, and he rescued everyone who was doomed to die."
  21. All Jerusalem should praise you, our LORD,
  22. when people from every nation meet to worship you.
  23. I should still be strong, but you, LORD, have made an old person of me.
  24. You will live forever! Years mean nothing to you. Don't cut my life in half!
  25. In the beginning, LORD, you laid the earth's foundation and created the heavens.
  26. They will all disappear and wear out like clothes. You change them, as you would a coat, but you last forever.
  27. You are always the same. Years cannot change you.
  28. Every generation of those who serve you will live in your presence.

Psalms 102 is the prayer of one who had suffered for a lengthy period of time and felt that God had "picked me up and thrown me aside." (102:10) Though he felt his suffering was a result of God's "indignation and wrath," (102:10) he also felt that God was the only one to whom he could turn for help. It is logical to appeal to the source of suffering for relief. No clue is given, however, to why he thought this. Was it a result of sin? If so, there is no repentance or other reason given for why the Lord should relieve his suffering other than "it is time to show favor" to Zion and "Your servants take delight in its (Zion's) stones and favor its dust." (102:13, 14)

The appeal to the Lord's favor toward relieving his suffering seems to be based not any worth on his part but on God's witness to the people of the earth. For when He rescues Zion "the nations will fear the name of the Lord, and all the kings of the earth Your glory." (102:15) Also, later generations will read of how He "looked down from His holy heights . . . to hear a prisoner's groaning, to set free those condemned to die," (102:19, 20) and they will praise Him.

As for the psalmist, his strength had been broken in "midcourse," and he anticipated that his days had been shortened. But he pleaded with the Lord to extend his days and not "take me in the middle of my life!" (102:24) By contrast, the Lord is eternal, His "years continue through all generations." Though the heavens and the earth will perish, the Lord "will endure." "You are the same, and Your years will never end." (102:26, 27) The psalmist was expressing confidence in the Lord's ability to rescue him and extend his life. The One who is everlasting was capable of adding years to his lifetime.

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