INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 102 A PRAYER OF THE AFFLICTED, WHEN HE IS OVERWHELMED, AND POURETH OUT HIS COMPLAINT BEFORE THE LORD; Whether this psalm was written by David, under a prophetic spirit, concerning future times; or whether by one of the Babylonish captivity, as Daniel, Nehemiah, Ezra, or any ot... [ Continue Reading ]
HEAR MY PRAYER, O LORD,.... The prayer of a poor, destitute, and afflicted one; his own, and not another's; not what was composed for him, but composed by him; which came out of his own heart, and out of unfeigned lips, and expressed under a feeling sense of his own wants and troubles; and though di... [ Continue Reading ]
HIDE NOT THY FACE FROM ME IN THE DAY WHEN I AM IN TROUBLE,.... Thy Shechinah, as the Targum: when God hides his face at any time from his people, it is a trouble to them, and very grievous; but especially when they are in any other trouble besides; it is very afflicting, indeed, when to their outwar... [ Continue Reading ]
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" c, as the Syriac version; his days were spent in great obscurity, in the darkness of affliction, t... [ Continue Reading ]
MY HEART IS SMITTEN, AND WITHERED LIKE GRASS,.... Like grass in the summer solstice d, which being smitten with the heat of the sun, or by some blast of thunder and lightning, is dried up, and withers away; so his heart was smitten with a sense of sin, and of God's wrath and displeasure at him, and... [ Continue Reading ]
BY REASON OF THE VOICE OF MY GROANING,.... Under the burden of sin, and pressure of afflictions: MY BONES CLEAVE TO MY SKIN; was quite emaciated, reduced to a skeleton, became nothing but skin and bone e; which sometimes is occasioned, as by outward afflictions, so by soul troubles: or "to my flesh... [ Continue Reading ]
I AM LIKE A PELICAN OF THE WILDERNESS,.... It may be so called, to distinguish it from another of the same name that lives upon the waters; which has the name of "pelican" in the Greek tongue, as is said, from its smiting and piercing its breast, and letting out blood for the reviving of its young;... [ Continue Reading ]
I WATCH,.... Night after night, and take no sleep; cannot get any by reason of thoughtfulness, care, and trouble: AND AM AS A SPARROW ALONE UPON THE HOUSETOP; or, "as a bird" o; for there is no necessity of limiting it to a sparrow, to which the account does not seem so well to agree; for sparrows... [ Continue Reading ]
MINE ENEMIES REPROACH ME ALL THE DAY,.... For his principles and practices, being different from theirs; for his religion, and preciseness in it; for his faith and profession of it, and for his holy walk and conversation. Good men have their enemies, and always had; but then they are such who are al... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR I HAVE EATEN ASHES LIKE BREAD,.... He sitting in ashes, as Job did, and rolling himself in them in the manner of mourners; and, having no other table than the ground to eat his food upon, he might eat ashes along with it; and by an hypallage of the words, the sense may be, that he ate bread like... [ Continue Reading ]
BECAUSE OF THINE INDIGNATION AND THY WRATH,.... This was the burden of his complaint, what gave him the greatest uneasiness; not so much the reproach of his enemies, and his other outward afflictions, as the sense he had of God's wrath and indignation. The people of God are as deserving of his wrath... [ Continue Reading ]
MY DAYS ARE LIKE A SHADOW THAT DECLINETH,.... Or, "that is stretched out" s, which, though it may appear long, is soon at an end; as it does appear longer when the sun sets t, and departs from the earth: he reckons his life not by months and years, but by days; and these he compares to a "shadow", w... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT THOU, O LORD, SHALT ENDURE FOR EVER,.... This address is made to Christ, as is clear from Psalms 102:25, compared with Hebrews 1:10, who is a divine Person, endures for ever, is from everlasting to everlasting, unchangeably the same in his love, power, wisdom, faithfulness, c. and though he died... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU SHALT ARISE, AND HAVE MERCY ON ZION,.... Exert his power, and display the riches of his grace and mercy; not by delivering the Jews from the Babylonish captivity, to which some restrain it; but by redeeming his church and people by power and price; or rather by raising up and restoring them to... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THY SERVANTS TAKE PLEASURE IN HER STONES,.... Meaning not Cyrus and Darius, who gave leave and orders for the rebuilding of the city and temple of Jerusalem, as some; nor Nehemiah, and Ezra, and others, who took more pleasure in the stones and rubbish of the temple, as it lay in ruins, than in a... [ Continue Reading ]
SO THE HEATHEN SHALL FEAR THE NAME OF THE LORD,.... Whose name is reverend, and to be feared; especially the glorious and fearful name "Jehovah", expressive of the divine existence, of his eternity and immutability; though the name of the Lord frequently signifies himself, and here particularly the... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN THE LORD SHALL BUILD UP ZION,.... The church of God, fallen down, and in a ruinous condition, as it may be said to be when the doctrines of the Gospel are departed from; the ordinances of it are corrupted and altered, or not attended to; the worship and discipline of the Lord's house are neglec... [ Continue Reading ]
HE WILL REGARD THE PRAYER OF THE DESTITUTE,.... Of the destitute of human help and support, protection and defence; as the church in the wilderness; of the "poor", as the Syriac and Arabic versions, both in spirit and in purse; of the "humble", as the Septuagint and Vulgate Latin: the word c signifi... [ Continue Reading ]
THIS SHALL BE WRITTEN FOR THE GENERATION TO COME,.... This prayer, as the Targum paraphrases it, is a directory to saints in distressed circumstances; or that which was just now said, that the Lord will regard, and not despise the prayer of the destitute; this shall stand on record, for the encourag... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR HE HATH LOOKED DOWN FROM THE HEIGHT OF HIS SANCTUARY,.... From heaven, as it is explained in the next clause, which is the Lord's sanctuary, or holy place, where he dwells, even in the height of it; it is both high and holy, as he himself is; yet he condescends to look down from thence on sinful... [ Continue Reading ]
TO HEAR THE GROANINGS OF THE PRISONER,.... Not of a single person only, but of many, who lie in prisons in Popish countries, especially in the Inquisition; where they lie and groan, in darkness and misery, under dreadful tortures; their cries and groans the Lord hears; his heart yearns towards them;... [ Continue Reading ]
TO DECLARE THE NAME OF THE LORD IN ZION,.... That is, that the prisoners and persons appointed to death, being loosed, might declare, in the church, what great things the Lord has done for them; and so speak well of his wisdom, power, grace, and goodness, in their deliverance; profess his name, and... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN THE PEOPLE ARE GATHERED TOGETHER,.... When the people of the Jews shall be gathered together, and seek the Lord their God, and David their King, the Messiah, and appoint them one head, even Christ; and when the Gentiles shall gather together, in great numbers, to the church of God, Hosea 1:11,... [ Continue Reading ]
HE WEAKENED MY STRENGTH IN THE WAY,.... The psalmist here returns to his complaint of his afflictions, weakness, and frailty, which ended Psalms 102:11, after which some hints are given of the latter day glory, which though he despaired of seeing, by reason of his frailty and mortality, yet comforts... [ Continue Reading ]
I SAID, O MY GOD, TAKE ME NOT AWAY IN THE MIDST OF MY DAYS;.... Which was always reckoned as a judgment, as a token of God's sore displeasure, and as what only befell wicked men, Psalms 55:23, in the Hebrew it is, "cause me not to ascend" f; either as smoke, which ascends, and vanishes away; or rath... [ Continue Reading ]
OF OLD HAST THOU LAID THE FOUNDATION OF THE EARTH,.... The lower part of the creation, the Lord's footstool, called the earth beneath: this has its foundation; though what it is cannot be well said, it cannot be searched out; it is sometimes said to be founded upon the waters, and yet so as not to b... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY SHALL PERISH,.... Both the heavens and the earth, though so well founded, and so firmly made; they shall be dissolved, melt, and pass away; not as to the substance, but as to the quality of them: or, as R. Judah Ben David says, whom Aben Ezra on the place cites, and calls the first grammarian i... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT THOU ART THE SAME,.... That hast created them, as the Targum adds; or "thou art he" h, the everlasting I AM, the unchangeable Jehovah; immutable in his nature and perfections; in his love and affections to his people; in his power to protect and keep them; in his wisdom to guide and direct them;... [ Continue Reading ]
THE CHILDREN OF THY SERVANTS SHALL CONTINUE,.... The "servants" of the Lord are the apostles of Christ, and ministers of the word, in all successive generations, with whom Christ will be to the end of the world: their "children" are such whom they have begotten again, through the Gospel, to whom the... [ Continue Reading ]