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The ESV Global Study Bible's Study Notes

Psalms 102:3-11

PSALM—NOTE ON Psalms 102:3 The singer focuses on his sense of discouragement: bones burn, heart is struck down, forget to eat my bread, loud groaning, my bones cling to my flesh. These images describe what it feels like to be consumed by sorrow, which has withering effects on one’s body. A person feeling such things inevitably senses his own mortality: his days pass away like smoke (v. Psalms 102:3; that is, quickly) and are like an evening shadow (v. Psalms 102:11; that is, soon gone).

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See also Psalms 102:3-11 in other biblical comments:

  • Adam Clarke Bible Commentary

    Verse Psalms 102:3. _MY DAYS ARE CONSUMED LIKE SMOKE_] He represents himself (for the psalmist speaks in the name of the people) under the notion of a _pile of combustible matter_, placed upon a _fir...

  • Albert Barnes' Bible Commentary

    FOR MY DAYS ARE CONSUMED LIKE SMOKE - Margin, “into smoke.” Literally, “in smoke.” That is, They vanish as smoke; they pass away and become nothing; they are spent in affliction, and seem to accomplis...

  • Annotated Bible by A.C. Gaebelein

    Psalms 102 Christ the King in His Humiliation _ 1. In the place of humiliation and dependence (Psalms 102:1)_ 2. His enemies (Psalms 102:8) 3. The set time for Zion ...

  • Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

    CII. The title, which is unique in the Psalter, describes the contents of Psalms 102:1 very well. So far the Ps. is the prayer of a man in extreme affliction. The same may be said of Psalms 102:23 and...

  • Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes

    LIKE SMOKE. So some codices, with Aramaean, Septuagint, and Vulgate; other codices read "in smoke". AN HEARTH. charred wood....

  • Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

    FOR MY DAYS ARE CONSUMED LIKE SMOKE— Or, according to the original בעשׁן _beashan, in smoke._ "My afflictions have had the same effect upon me, as smoke has on things which are hung up in it; i.e. hav...

  • College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

    PSALMS 102 DESCRIPTIVE TITLE The Prayer of a Humbled One brings a Threefold Answer of Peace. ANALYSIS Stanza I., Psalms 102:1-11, A Humbled One's Complaint. Stanza II., Psalms 102:12-17

  • Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

    For my days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned as an hearth. FOR MY DAYS ARE CONSUMED LIKE SMOKE - or, as Hebrew-literally, 'in (into) smoke.' The very same expression which David in...

  • Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

    LIKE SMOKE] RM 'in smoke.' AN HEARTH] RV 'a firebrand.'...

  • Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

    This Ps. belongs to the closing days of the exile, and utters the hope of Israel's restoration (Psalms 102:13). The Psalmist has been supposed by some to speak simply in the name of the nation, but it...

  • EasyEnglish Bible Commentaries

    Psalms 90:106 _GORDON CHURCHYARD_ A YOUNG MAN WITH TROUBLE PSALMS 102 Jesus said, "Do not let trouble stay in your mind. *Believe in God and believe in me also". ...

  • Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

    LIKE SMOKE. — Or, _in smoke._ (See margin. Comp. Psalms 37:20.) HEARTH. — Better, a _brand_ or _fuel;_ so LXX. and Vulgate, Aquila, and this meaning suits Isaiah 33:14. (For the image see Psalms 22:15...

  • ETCBC data on Hebrew bible

    _[Psalms 102:4]_ כִּֽי ־כָל֣וּ בְ עָשָׁ֣ן יָמָ֑י...

  • Expositor's Bible Commentary (Nicoll)

    Psalms 102:1 Psalms 102:13 show that the psalm was written when Zion was in ruins and the time of her restoration at hand. Sadness shot with hope, as a cloud with sunlight, is the singer's mood. The p...

  • Frederick Brotherton Meyer's Commentary

    THE CRY OF THE AFFLICTED Psalms 102:1 This is the fifth of the Penitential Psalms. Some hold that it is one of the later psalms, asking for deliverance from captivity; others, emphasizing certain Dav...

  • G. Campbell Morgan's Exposition on the Whole Bible

    This is a song of faith triumphing over affliction. Beginning with a prayer for deliverance, and a statement of the circumstances of suffering in which he then was, together with a recognition of thos...

  • Geneva Study Bible Commentary

    For my days are (c) consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned as an hearth. (c) These excessive kinds of speech show how much the affliction of the Church should wound the hearts of the godly....

  • George Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

    _Diseases. He had described captivity as an illness, Psalm ci. (Calmet) --- God graciously forgives sin, and removes bad habits. He preserves us from falling, and grants us the victory, with all our r...

  • Hawker's Poor man's commentary

    I make no chasm in the reading of these verses, because they form together a complete detail of the state of the sufferer, and serve the better, in an united point of view, to interest our hearts in t...

  • John Calvin's Bible Commentary

    3_For my days are consumed like smoke _These expressions are hyperbolical, but still they show how deeply the desolation of the Church ought to wound the hearts of the people of God. Let every man, th...

  • John Darby's Synopsis

    Psalms 102 is one of the most, perhaps the most, remarkable of all the psalms, and presents Christ in a way divinely admirable. Verse 10 (Psalms 102:10) gives the occasion of the cry with which the ps...

  • John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

    FOR MY DAYS ARE CONSUMED LIKE SMOKE,.... Which suddenly rises up, is easily dissipated, and quickly disappears; so sudden, short, and transient, are the days of man's life; see James 4:14 or "in smoke...

  • John Trapp Complete Commentary

    For my days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned as an hearth. Ver. 3. _For my days are consumed like smoke_] Which the higher it mounteth the sooner it vanisheth. Some read it, in the sm...

  • Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

    Title. _A prayer of the afflicted_, &c. It was composed by one who was himself afflicted, afflicted with the church of God, and for it; and it is calculated for an afflicted state, and intended for th...

  • Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible

    COMPLAINT OF ONE IN GREAT TROUBLE. A prayer of the afflicted, one in great misery and distress, when he is overwhelmed, Psalms 61:2, and poureth out his complaint, as from an inverted vessel, in a fu...

  • Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible

    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 c...

  • Marginal Notes in the King James Version (1611)

    LIKE SMOKE: Or, (as some read) into smoke...

  • Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible

    1-11 The whole word of God is of use to direct us in prayer; but here, is often elsewhere, the Holy Ghost has put words into our mouths. Here is a prayer put into the hands of the afflicted; let them...

  • Matthew Poole's Concise Commentary On The Bible

    LIKE SMOKE; which passeth away in obscurity, and swiftly, and irrecoverably. Or, _into smoke_; as wood or any combustible matter put into the fire wasteth away in smoke and ashes. MY BONES; the most s...

  • Patchworkid's Personal Study Bible Notes

    Psalms 102:3 days H3117 consumed H3615 (H8804) smoke H6227 bones H6106 burned H2787 (H8738) hearth H4168...

  • Spurgeon's Bible Commentary

    Psalms 102:1. _Hear my prayer, O LORD, and let my cry come unto thee. Hide 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._...

  • Spurgeon's Bible Commentary

    Kindly notice the title of this Psalm: «Prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed, and poureth out his complaint before the LORD.» I call your attention to it in order to remind you what charges...

  • Summarized Bible Commentary

    CONTENTS: Sorrowful complaint of great afflictions and a believing prospect of deliverance. CHARACTERS: God, Psalmist. CONCLUSION: The greatest ease to an afflicted spirit is to unburden itself by a...

  • Sutcliffe's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

    It appears from Psalms 102:13, that this psalm was written in Babylon, and near the time of the Jewish emancipation. It is highly prophetic of the greater deliverance by the Messiah, whose law should...

  • The Biblical Illustrator

    _Hear my prayer, O Lord, and let my cry come unto Thee._ THOUGHTS OF COMFORT AND COMPLAINT I. Thoughts of complaint (Psalms 102:1). 1. Concerning bodily sufferings. (1) The physical anguish of lif...

  • The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary

    INTRODUCTION It is impossible to determine on what occasion and by whom this Psalm was composed. Prof. Alexander and Hengstenberg regard it as a composition of David. But from internal evidence, espec...

  • The Pulpit Commentaries

    EXPOSITION THE "title" of this psalm is altogether peculiar, being "a Prayer for the afflicted, when he faints, and pours out his complaint before Jehovah." This is clearly a general direction for the...

  • Through The Bible C2000 Serie by Chuck Smith

    In Psalms 102:1-28, David begins with a prayer asking God to hear his prayer. Hear my prayer, O LORD, and let my cry come unto thee. Hide not thy face from me in the day when I am in trouble; incline...

  • Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

    James 4:14; Job 30:30; Lamentations 1:13; Lamentations 3:4; Psal

  • Wesley's Explanatory Notes

    An hearth — An hearth is heated or burnt by the coals which are laid upon it....

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