Psalms 102:1

PSALM 102

AN AFFLICTED ONE PRAYS FOR HIMSELF AND FOR ZION

The Superscription here has this very interesting little paragraph:

A PRAYER OF AN AFFLICTED ONE; WHEN HE IS OVERWHELMED; AND POURETH OUT HIS COMPLAINT BEFORE JEHOVAH.

As Kidner noted, "This psalm has been miscalled a Penitential Psalm"[1] for ages, but there is no confession of sin anywhere in it. Kidner was also willing to label the whole psalm Messianic; and, without any doubt whatever, Psalms 102:23-28 certainly fall into that classification.

Some have supposed that David might have written it, but the depiction of Jerusalem in ruins (Psalms 102:13) points rather to the times of the Captivity.

On the basis of Psalms 102:13-21, the date seems to have been in the time of the captivity ... Beyond all question, the language used would express the feelings of many pious Hebrews in the times of the exile, such as the sorrow, the sadness, the cherished hopes, and prayers of many a one in that prolonged and painful captivity.[2]

There are three divisions of the psalm: (1) Psalms 102:1-11 describes the terrible sufferings of the afflicted one. (2) Psalms 102:12-22 dwells upon the hopes for relief. (3) And Psalms 102:23-28 speaks of the unchanging God as contrasted with the changing world.

Psalms 102:1-11

SUFFERINGS OF THE AFFLICTED

"Hear my prayer, O Jehovah,

And let my cry come unto thee.

Hide not thy face from me;

In the day when I call answer me speedily.

For my days consume away like smoke,

And my bones are burned as a firebrand.

My heart is smitten like grass, and withered;

For I forget to eat my bread.

By reason of the voice of my groaning

My bones cleave to my flesh.

I am like a pelican of the wilderness;

I am become as an owl of the waste places.

I watch and am become like a sparrow

That is alone upon the housetop.

Mine enemies reproach me all the day;

They that are mad against me do curse by me.

For I have eaten ashes like bread,

And mingled my drink with weeping.

Because of thine indignation and thy wrath:

For thou hast taken me up and cast me away.

My days are like a shadow that declineth;

And I am withered like grass."

The only hint of sin on the part of the sufferer is in Psalms 102:10 where the indignation of God is mentioned; but if the passage speaks of the distress of Israel in captivity, the application might be to the sins of the nation, rather than those of the sufferer.

The passage carries a graphic picture of an individual suffering from some unnamed malady. He is in distress; his days are consumed like smoke; his bones burn; his heart is broken; he has lost his appetite; his appearance has become as "skin and bones"; he has become like the pelican, the owl, and the lonely sparrow; his enemies cast reproaches upon him and curse by him; he sits in sackcloth and ashes, where sometimes his food gets ashes in it; his life's sun is sinking rapidly; the shadow on the dial is declining and the night of death is impending.

It is impossible to associate all of these "symptoms" with any disease described either by ancient or modern doctors; and there remains the possibility of the whole passage being figurative. This would certainly be the case if Kidner's assignment of the passage to the sufferings of Messiah should be allowed.

"The pelican ... the owl ... the sparrow" (Psalms 102:6-7). A certain Dr. Thompson, quoted by Albert Barnes, stated that "The pelican is the most somber and austere bird I ever saw; it gave one the blues merely to look at it; and no more expressive type of solitude and melancholy could have been selected."[3] "The owl of the rains is also a striking emblem of desolation."[4] "The sparrow alone on the housetop" was described by Barnes as a grieving sparrow. "When one has lost its mate, he will sit on the housetop alone for hours at a time in his sad bereavement."[5]

Later in the psalm, it becomes clear that the sufferer's hope of deliverance is tied to his hope of the rescue of Zion; and from this, Dummelow concluded that, "The personal distress of the psalmist has been caused by the captivity and humiliation of his people."[6]