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Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Psalms 102:4

My heart is smitten - Broken; crushed with grief. We now speak of “a broken heart.” Even death is often caused by such excessive sorrow as to crush and break the heart.And withered like grass - It is dried up as grass is by drought, or as when it is cut down. It loses its support; and having no strength of its own, it dies.So that I forget to eat my bread - I am so absorbed in my trials; they so entirely engross my attention, that I think of nothing else, not even of those things which are... read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Psalms 102:5

By reason of the voice of my groaning - By suffering and trouble, so great as to produce groaning, my flesh is wasted away.My bones cleave to my skin - Margin, “flesh.” The Hebrew word means “flesh.” The effect described is that of a wasting away or an emaciation of flesh from deep distress, so that the bones became prominent, and had nothing to hide them from view; so that they seemed to adhere fast to the flesh itself. See the notes at Job 19:20. read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Psalms 102:6

I am like a pelican of the wilderness - A bird in the midst of desolation becomes a striking image of loneliness and distress. The word rendered “pelican” - קאת qâ'ath - is supposed to have been a name given to the pelican from the idea of vomiting, as it “vomits the shells and other substances which it has too voraciously swallowed.” The word occurs in the following places, where it is rendered as here “pelican:” Leviticus 11:18; Deuteronomy 14:17; and in Isaiah 34:11; Zephaniah 2:14, where... read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Psalms 102:7

I watch, and am as a sparrow alone upon the house-top - That is, I am “sleepless;” trouble drives sleep from my eyes, and I am kept awake at night - a common effect of grief. The following remarks, copied from the “Land and the Book” (i. 54, 55), will furnish all the illustration needful of this verse. “They are a tame, troublesome, and impertinent generation, and nestle just where you don’t want them. They stop up your stove and waterpipes with their rubbish, build in the windows and under the... read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Psalms 102:4-7

Psalms 102:4-7. My heart is withered like grass Which is smitten and withered by the heat of the sun, either while it stands, or after it is cut down. So that I forget to eat my bread Because my mind is wholly swallowed up with the contemplation of my own miseries. My bones cleave to my skin My flesh being quite consumed with excessive sorrow. I am like a pelican in the wilderness “There are two species of pelicans, one of which lives in the water on fish, the other in the... read more

Donald C. Fleming

Bridgeway Bible Commentary - Psalms 102:1-28

Psalms 102:0 The changeless GodJerusalem is in ruins, God’s people are in captivity, and a weary sufferer pours out his complaint to God (see heading to the psalm; also v. 13-17). The opening part of the prayer describes the psalmist’s afflictions in a style similar to that of many psalms in the early part of the book. The writer is ill and dying, partly because he is unable to eat (1-5). He is lonely and cannot sleep (6-7). He is persecuted by his enemies and feels he has been deserted by God... read more

E.W. Bullinger

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes - Psalms 102:4

bread. Put by Figure of speech Synecdoche (of Part), App-6 , for food in general. read more

E.W. Bullinger

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes - Psalms 102:6

a pelican . . . owl: both unclean birds. alone. Some codices, with one early printed edition, read "flitting to and fro". read more

Thomas Coke

Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible - Psalms 102:4

Psalms 102:4. So that I forget— Because I forget. Green. Mudge joins the end of this to the next verse, I forget to eat my bread for the voice of my groaning. read more

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