In my distress I groan aloud and am reduced to skin and bones.

Psalm 102:1-7. 17-18

1 Hear my prayer, Lord;
let my cry for help come to you.
2 Do not hide your face from me
when I am in distress.
Turn your ear to me;
when I call, answer me quickly.
3 For my days vanish like smoke;
my bones burn like glowing embers.
4 My heart is blighted and withered like grass;
I forget to eat my food.
5 In my distress I groan aloud
and am reduced to skin and bones.
6 I am like a desert owl,
like an owl among the ruins.
7 I lie awake; I have become
like a bird alone on a roof.
17 He will respond to the prayer of the destitute;
he will not despise their plea.
18 Let this be written for a future generation,
that a people not yet created may praise the Lord:


Today’s title is “Prayer Of The Destitute”

When was the time that you prayed hardest? When did you seek God most? The answers for the question seem obvious for most of us. We pray hardest and seek God most when we are most desperate. We know that we are supposed to pray without ceasing. To be honest, our prayer is mostly superficial or ceremonial. But them our attitude of prayer becomes radically different when we are desperate for help. Our prayer suddenly becomes serious and real. As a result, our prayer becomes very powerful. Today’s text is one of the best examples of such desperate prayers. The psalmist starts his prayer with earnest plea. He says, “Hear my prayer, Lord; let my cry for help come to you.Do not hide your face from me, when I am in distress. Turn your ear to me; when I call, answer me quickly. When we pray superficially and ceremonially, we don’t really care so much about the answer. But when we pray out of desperation, we anxiously and urgently wait for the answer. We can’t help repeating the same prayers again and again. That may be look as an unwelcome solicitation to some. But Jesus said that such desperation and urgency are what make our prayer powerful (Luke 18:1-8). God doesn’t mind being solicited by repeated desperate and urgent prayers. Today’s psalm is subtitled as “A prayer of an afflicted person who has grown weak and pours out a lament before the Lord.”. God wants afflicted persons to pour out a lament before Him. The psalmist is indeed in great affliction greatly. He says, “For my days vanish like smoke; my bones burn like glowing embers. My heart is blighted and withered like grass; I forget to eat my food. In my distress I groan aloud and am reduced to skin and bones. I am like a desert owl, like an owl among the ruins. I lie awake; I have become like a bird alone on a roof.” I often feel my heart moved to pity when I read the earnest plea. How much would compassionate God would be stirred in His heart? The psalmist knows such compassionate heart of God. He knows that God will respond to the prayer of the destitute; he will not despise their plea. I personally feel very familiar to the urgent and desperate situation that the psalmist mentions here. I believe we all do because the afflictions mentioned in this psalm are part of an ordinary man’s life. There are times that we indeed feel like a desert owl and like a bird on a roof. We can’t survive such affliction without pouring out our laments before God. And God surely did deliver us you and me from such afflictions., didn’t He? So let this be written for a future generation as the psalmist says. Amen!