Hear Us, O God! – Psalm 102
Psalm 102
A prayer of one afflicted, when he is faint and pours out his complaint before the Lord
1 Hear my prayer, O Lord;
let my cry come to you!
2 Do not hide your face from me
in the day of my distress!
Incline your ear to me;
answer me speedily in the day when I call!
3 For my days pass away like smoke,
and my bones burn like a furnace.
4 My heart is struck down like grass and has withered;
I forget to eat my bread.
5 Because of my loud groaning
my bones cling to my flesh.
6 I am like a desert owl of the wilderness,
like an owl of the waste places;
7 I lie awake;
I am like a lonely sparrow on the housetop.
8 All the day my enemies taunt me;
those who deride me use my name for a curse.
9 For I eat ashes like bread
and mingle tears with my drink,
10 because of your indignation and anger;
for you have taken me up and thrown me down.
11 My days are like an evening shadow;
I wither away like grass.
12 But you, O Lord, are enthroned forever;
you are remembered throughout all generations.
13 You will arise and have pity on Zion;
it is the time to favor her;
the appointed time has come.
14 For your servants hold her stones dear
and have pity on her dust.
15 Nations will fear the name of the Lord,
and all the kings of the earth will fear your glory.
16 For the Lord builds up Zion;
he appears in his glory;
17 he regards the prayer of the destitute
and does not despise their prayer.
18 Let this be recorded for a generation to come,
so that a people yet to be created may praise the Lord:
19 that he looked down from his holy height;
from heaven the Lord looked at the earth,
20 to hear the groans of the prisoners,
to set free those who were doomed to die,
21 that they may declare in Zion the name of the Lord,
and in Jerusalem his praise,
22 when peoples gather together,
and kingdoms, to worship the Lord.
23 He has broken my strength in midcourse;
he has shortened my days.
24 “O my God,” I say, “take me not away
in the midst of my days—
you whose years endure
throughout all generations!”
25 Of old you laid the foundation of the earth,
and the heavens are the work of your hands.
26 They will perish, but you will remain;
they will all wear out like a garment.
You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away,
27 but you are the same, and your years have no end.
28 The children of your servants shall dwell secure;
their offspring shall be established before you.
NOTE: Today’s commentary is by Dr. Kevin Watson, who is coming to Tulsa to become the Director of Academic Growth and Formation at the Tulsa Extension Site for Asbury Theological Seminary, as well as joining our staff at Asbury Church as Scholar-in-Residence. I wrote a post announcing and explaining this move.-Andrew
Here is what has most stood out to me in studying lament psalms:
The psalmist is most desperate for God to simply be attentive to him amid their suffering.
Psalm 102 starts:
Hear my prayer, O Lord;
let my cry come to you!
Do not hide your face from me
in the day of my distress!
Incline your ear to me;
answer me speedily in the day when I call! (v. 1-2)
Do you hear me, God?
Do you see how much I am hurting?
Are you listening?
These are often the questions we wrestle with when we are hurting. And what can be most painful in suffering is the lack of a clear sense of God’s presence.
This quote from Rolf A. Jacobson struck me as particularly profound. Read it slowly. You may even benefit from reading it twice. Then reread Psalm 102.
It is a prayer specifically designed for times when God’s help seems far away. The superscription’s inclusion [“A prayer of one afflicted, when he is faint and pours out his complaint before the Lord.”] in the canonical Psalter indicates that the editors of the Psalter were aware that the faithful servants of God suffer specific times when they need such prayers. The rhetoric of the psalm exploits this theme masterfully. In effect, the psalm takes the present moment of the psalmist’s crisis and – through prayer – transforms that moment into a microcosm of the incarnation. In the incarnation, the church confesses, the infinite and immortal person of God was “poured” or “emptied” into a finite and mortal body. In this prayer, the psalmist bids the infinite and immortal Lord of Israel (the one who founded the earth, whose years do not end, whose years endure for generation after generation, who is enthroned forever) to humble himself, not counting these divine qualities as things to be exploited, and so to enter into the present moment and redeem Israel: Indeed the time to be gracious to her, indeed the appointed time has come! That is not a bad metaphor for the time of prayer. Prayer is but a moment. It is a moment “in time.” But it is a moment in which the pray-er asks for and awaits deliverance. It is a moment in which the infinite God is asked to enter into the finite world, the everlasting Lord to enter the mortal – in order to deliver.- Rolf A. Jacobson
