Moving Beyond The Fog | Psalm 102

INTRODUCTION

One winter day when I saw outside our house, there was thick morning fog and visibility was clouded, obscuring the world around me. Yet, as the sun rose, its light pierced through the mist, which brought clarity to our surroundings. In life’s chaos, troubles often shroud our sight, making it hard to see God’s hand at work. But just as the sun dispels the fog, God’s presence cuts through our challenges. For beyond the fog, God’s guidance is unwavering, illuminating our path with His divine light and wisdom.

Open your Bibles to Psalm 102. The palmist is a deeply troubled person who is very sick. But during his sickness, the psalmist is troubled emotionally and spiritually as well. The psalmist puts his confidence and trust in this Lord and the psalmist prays for deliverance.

Psalm 102

¹Hear my prayer, O Lord!

And let my cry for help come to You.

²Do not hide Your face from me in the day of my distress;

Incline Your ear to me;

In the day when I call answer me quickly.

³For my days have been consumed in smoke,

And my bones have been scorched like a hearth.

⁴My heart has been smitten like grass and has withered away,

Indeed, I forget to eat my bread.

⁵Because of the loudness of my groaning

My bones cling to my flesh.

⁶I resemble a pelican of the wilderness;

I have become like an owl of the waste places.

⁷I lie awake,

I have become like a lonely bird on a housetop.

⁸My enemies have reproached me all day long;

Those who deride me have used my name as a curse.

⁹For I have eaten ashes like bread

And mingled my drink with weeping

¹⁰Because of Your indignation and Your wrath,

For You have lifted me up and cast me away.

¹¹My days are like a lengthened shadow,

And I wither away like grass.

¹²But You, O Lord, abide forever,

And Your name to all generations.

¹³You will arise and have compassion on Zion;

For it is time to be gracious to her,

For the appointed time has come.

¹⁴Surely Your servants find pleasure in her stones

And feel pity for her dust.

¹⁵So the nations will fear the name of the Lord

And all the kings of the earth Your glory.

¹⁶For the Lord has built up Zion;

He has appeared in His glory.

¹⁷He has regarded the prayer of the destitute

And has not despised their prayer.

¹⁸This will be written for the generation to come,

That a people yet to be created may praise the Lord.

¹⁹For He looked down from His holy height;

From heaven the Lord gazed upon the earth,

²⁰To hear the groaning of the prisoner,

To set free those who were doomed to death,

²¹That men may tell of the name of the Lord in Zion

And His praise in Jerusalem,

²² When the peoples are gathered together,

And the kingdoms, to serve the Lord.

²³He has weakened my strength in the way;

He has shortened my days.

²⁴I say, “O my God, do not take me away in the midst of my days,

Your years are throughout all generations.

²⁵“Of old You founded the earth,

And the heavens are the work of Your hands.

²⁶“Even they will perish, but You endure;

And all of them will wear out like a garment;

Like clothing You will change them and they will be changed.

²⁷“But You are the same,

And Your years will not come to an end.

²⁸“The children of Your servants will continue,

And their descendants will be established before You.”

Psalms are people’s favorite reads of all times. Psalm 102 is a Psalm of cry for deliverance. In traditional Christian liturgy, this Psalm is regarded as one of the seven penitential Psalms (refers to a feeling of sorrow or regret). For people who have walked through affliction and difficulty, trial and stress, the Psalms have been a constant companion.

“The Psalms is an anatomy of all parts of the soul.” – John Calvin

This Psalm is the prayer of one afflicted, one who is sick. His physical sickness has led to spiritual and emotional suffering as well. This psalm help us to show that bottling up or trying to fix our emotions first is not the right way.[1]

Outline

v1-11: Individual Prayer To YAHWEH.

v12-22: Confidence of YAHWEH’S compassion.

V23-28: Brings both v1-11 & 12-22 together. YAHWEH’S years will never end & the future of the Lord’s descendants will be established and blessed.[2]

BACKGROUND

The person praying for deliverance takes us to the time in Israel’s history where Jerusalem has fallen by the Babylonians and they are living in the exile. Jerusalem has been devastated and not yet been restored, when it continues to be looked down on by its foes. This individual, then, speaks as a member of the Jewish community located in Babylon, perhaps a leader or the king. This perhaps was used by the writer and whole community in the manner of lament prayer.[3]

Suffering Is Common For All Mankind.

Psalm 109:1-2

¹Hear my prayer, O Lord!

And let my cry for help come to You.

²Do not hide Your face from me in the day of my distress;

Incline Your ear to me;

In the day when I call answer me quickly.

The Psalmist is asking the Lord to respond quickly to his need for relief quickly. Psalms remind us that suffering is part in this fallen world. Both the righteous and the wicked suffer, but the suffering of the righteous will result in their God.

We Can Pray To God In Our Suffering.

The prayer to YAHWEH is long and filled with repetition, showing how much the speaker wants God’s attention. They’re not just asking; they’re pleading and crying out for help, like a master calling a servant. This urgency isn’t just impatience; it comes from waiting and suffering for a long time. God hears us and responds to our cries for help.

The psalmist’s suffering explained; v3-11.

Wrong Response in Suffering: Passing on the Blame

Human Response During Suffering

• Look Within – Blame oneself or have low self-esteem.
• Look Out And Blame Others
• Blame God

We Blames Ourselves

Self-pity

The Psalmist talks of the first way of speaking about suffering: “I”.

Psalm 102:3

³For my days have been consumed in smoke,

And my bones have been scorched like a hearth.

⁴My heart has been smitten like grass and has withered away,

Indeed, I forget to eat my bread.

The Psalmist is using familiar language of comparison to help us to understand the depth of his affliction and how he is crying out to the Lord.

Smoke: He compares his life to smoke rising, quickly dissipating until it vanishes. Just like that smoke, he feels his life slipping away before he even notices. The theme of Ecclesiastes, everything is meaningless, a chasing after the wing or life is a vapour.

Bones burn like a furnace: The psalmist is literally speaking that his physical body is enduring great suffering here as he describes his bones burning. He is probably having high fever.

Job said: Job 30:30

My skin turns black on me,

and my bones burn with fever.

Probably Jerusalem has fallen by now and it has become a fireplace and people were burnt during the fall of Jerusalem.

Heart like withered grass: He is felling crushed like grass and withered; dry and decay. Bangalore is facing water crises and most of the gardens are not getting water. The grass withers when the reservoir is depleted and the clouds are dry.

I forget to eat my bread: The Psalmist has ignored his eating, v4b. I’ve lost my appetite.

The whole person, outer and inner (heart) has been consumed.

Psalm 102:5-7

⁵Because of the loudness of my groaning

My bones cling to my flesh.

⁶I resemble a pelican of the wilderness;

I have become like an owl of the waste places.

⁷I lie awake,

I have become like a lonely bird on a housetop.

Bones cling to my flesh: His body has shrunk to skin and bones.

The owl stay awake at night. The psalmist is having no sleep, he is awake all night.

Have you ever been awake during the night just because of suffering?

Have you had days where you are so tired, you got up early in the morning, worked through the day but when you hit bed you don’t get sleep because your soul is disturbed?

You just can’t sleep and you know that everybody else in the house is fast asleep and you’re the only one who’s awake and it’s a very lonely feeling. He says Here I am I’m awake and there’s no one else around and I feel very much alone.

Firstly, the psalmist is blaming himself and felling self-pity.

We Blame Others

The psalmist comes to the second way of speaking about suffering, ‘They.’

Now, the Psalmist turns to his enemies:

Psalm 102:8-9

⁸My enemies have reproached me all day long;

Those who deride me have used my name as a curse.

⁹For I have eaten ashes like bread

And mingled my drink with weeping

The Psalmist’s enemies are not the cause of their trouble, but the pain he is facing is their reaction to his trouble. I have seen that when things are good, everyone talks good about you. But you go through a rough patch even people who are close to us, sometimes can taunt us.

To make matters worse he says his enemies are reproaching him. This is like Job’s friends, instead of comforting him, they start to reproach Job in his trial. To ridicule, to speak with contempt. They use my name for a curse.

I have eaten ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping:

He does not join other people on the table, but eats alone. Instead of drinking with rejoicing on the table, he sits alone and weeps.

We Blame God

At last the Psalmist comes to the third way of speaking about suffering: “You” or “God.”

Psalm 102:10

Because of Your indignation and Your wrath,

For You have lifted me up and cast me away.

Now the psalmist refers to divine anger on him. He tells that God has treated him like the wind treats the chaff, ‘You lifted me up and cast me away.’

This is like people thrown off into exile.

The writer recognizes that whatever is going on in his life is a product of the Lord’s discipline and judgment.

Psalm 102:23-24

²³He has weakened my strength in the way;

He has shortened my days.

²⁴I say, “O my God, do not take me away in the midst of my days,

Your years are throughout all generations.

The psalmist feels that this affliction will shorten his life. He knows that eventually he would have become less strong and die, that he would not live forever, but this sickness has happened while he was still on his journey, while he could reckon he was still in the prime of life. So he is like a person struck down by a fatal illness in midlife (cf. Ps. 89:45 [46], referring to the king).

The suffering of the psalmist is also likened to a city whose life has been brought to an end, like Jerusalem. He was strong (the city often withstood its attackers); he has now been humbled (cf. Pss. 90:15; 94:5; Isa. 64:12).

Psalm 102:11

¹¹My days are like a lengthened shadow,

And I wither away like grass.

The psalmist then brings all that is happening in his life and all that he has expressed and says that: My days are shortened because of this situation, it is like a grass withering away (v4).

Afternoon shadows are short, but the Psalmist’s shadows are lengthened. As evening approaches, the shadows become longer and longer. Extended shadows suggest that the day is about to end. The writer’s life is like that.

Transition: From v12 you’re going to see a marked change in tone in this Psalm. For the rest of the psalm, the focus is turned away from his suffering now on to the glory of the Lord. He is turning away from his self, others, and God’s wrath and now looks at the deliverance that God can bring in the in the midst of a difficult situation. He is having a futuristic hope.

Right Response In Suffering: Look To The Lord.

Psalm 102:12

But You, O Lord, abide forever,

And Your name to all generations.

‘But’ tells me there’s going to be a shift. The ‘but’ relates to the Lord.

Lord I’m going through a hard time, but…

I am going through this sickness, but Lord you are in control.

Lord, my marriage is in rough shape, but….

Lord my career is not going anywhere, but ….

Here is a change of mind, attitude, and tone. But, you are my hope, you bring me deliverance, you will rescue me. There is a change in direction, new perspective. There is confidence in YAHWEH.

The Lord Is Eternal

Psalm 102: 12

¹²But You, O Lord, abide forever,

And Your name to all generations.

Notice the declaration of faith that is made by the psalmist in the midst of what we’ve read previously: The psalmist is talking about time here. Our life is compared to a vapour or smoke or long shadow; but God is forever (v3 & 11 vs 12; heavens will perish but God will endure; v26; 24) God is from time eternal to time eternal and we are in time. We are finite, God is infinite. So when I look at my problem based on God’s perspective I know that this pain, this suffering is going to bring God’s glory in my life.

Psalm 102:25-27

²⁵“Of old You founded the earth,

And the heavens are the work of Your hands.

²⁶“Even they will perish, but You endure;

And all of them will wear out like a garment;

Like clothing You will change them and they will be changed.

²⁷“But You are the same,

And Your years will not come to an end.

The Lord will outlast his creation

Human beings can sometimes have their life cut into a quarter or a half but God’s years endures forever. When I look back your hands created the heavens and the earth. There is nothing about heavens and the earth that means they will last forever. Even if they do come to an end; the LORD will outlast them.

The Lord Will Have Compassion On His People

Psalm 102:13-14

¹³You will arise and have compassion on Zion;

For it is time to be gracious to her,

For the appointed time has come.

¹⁴Surely Your servants find pleasure in her stones

And feel pity for her dust.

Meaning essentially that the people of Israel loved Jerusalem. Jerusalem is lying in ruins, the stones of the wall are all scattered and all you see in the city is dust. But God will arise to have compassion on Zion. God has an appointed time for her rebuilding. This same God is also compassionate about me and he will heal me at the appointed time, v13.

God Is In Control Over Time & History

My time, God’s time (infinite), God’s appointed time.

Psalm 102:19-20

¹⁹For He looked down from His holy height;

From heaven the Lord gazed upon the earth,

²⁰To hear the groaning of the prisoner,

To set free those who were doomed to death

God’s above is in heaven but he is compassionate enough to hear the groaning of desperate people and release them from their suffering.

The Lord Will Rule Over People And The Nations

Psalm 102:15

So the nations will fear the name of the Lord

And all the kings of the earth Your glory.

Zion’s restoration means that the nations and rulers of the earth will revere the Lord’s name and acknowledge the Lord’s glory. This Psalm gives a future expectation of the Lord’s rule where the people of God will be established and all nations and rulers of the world will acknowledge the Lord’s glory.

The scope of worship of this God is not limited to his people. The whole world will one day gather to praise him.

Psalm 102:21-22

²¹That men may tell of the name of the Lord in Zion

And His praise in Jerusalem,

²² When the peoples are gathered together,

And the kingdoms, to serve the Lord.

Psalm 102:28

“The children of Your servants will continue,

And their descendants will be established before You.”

Mortal Man Inherits God’s Immortality As a Gift

There is a link between the Yhwh who has no end and the people of Yhwh who seem to have had a very definite end. With some logic the psalm asks that Yhwh’s servants (or rather, their children, their offspring) may live before Yhwh, have a secure place there. It is therefore a great privilege to be a servant of a great master and it is a position of security. The psalm thus closes by looking beyond the present troubles once more, and looking to the regular life that it longs should then follow deliverance. God is committed to the people of God.

CONCLUSION

Those are statements of faith in the midst of very trying circumstances. Declarations of faith. How good are you at doing that when you’re going through a hard time? Can you do it, can you declare faith can you make faith statements?

Lord you are good. Your mercy endures forever. Your mercies are new every morning. You’re still on the throne.

Suffering is a reality of earthly life. The Bible declares that sin is the root cause of all evil that brings suffering and ultimately death. Jesus came into this world to give us redemption from sin and suffering by his own death. We who believe in Jesus have eternal life through Jesus. However, we hae to wait for the return of Jesus in glory to realize the fullness of God’s redemption. This hope of the future gives us the patience to endure temporal suffering.[4]

Romans 8:18

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.

The Psalmist does not accuse God in his suffering but he recognizes the transience of human life and the universe itself. God is the only one who endures forever. Whether he lives or dies, the Psalmist has hope for the future. The Psalmist say that even though we are like dust, our days are numbered, we will live with this eternal God. We know that eternal life is the gift of Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 11:13-16

¹³All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. ¹⁴People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. ¹⁵If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. ¹⁶Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

That is going to come to pass. I have no doubt about the fact that when Jesus comes, Jesus returns and all nations will gather around him. Let this be written down.

Psalm 102:18

This will be written for the generation to come,

That a people yet to be created may praise the Lord.

Go ahead write it down because this will come to pass. God is going to do this. When he does he says it’s going to then the people are gonna declare their praise because God was faithful.

He ends with this kind of buoyant declaration of God’s goodness in the days to come when the people of Israel and the people of God together will enjoy the goodness of the Lord.

He says your offspring shall be established which is a is a word of stability.

Established – Because you know we’re living in a world where everything is just so flimsy and unstable and yet the Lord gives us the stability of our lives he establishes us.

He establishes us in our homes.

He stablishes us in our gifting.

He establishes our hearts, our minds in his grace.

One  day he will establish us to dwell securely.

I truly believe the Lord gives us an unprecedented security living in this world which is so insecure, so temporary, so transient. He is our security.

One day  you and I are going to enjoy a security a level of security that is heretofore unknown, completely unknown but we’re going to enjoy it and it’s going to be a wonderful thing when the Lord brings it to pass

WORKS CONSULTED

Dr. Todd Billings | Psalm 102: Lament and the Christian Life (10/23/15), 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWcHvmUPC_E.

Goldingay, John. Baker Commentary on the Old Testament Wisom and Psalms. Vol. 3: Psalms 90-150. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, 2013. www.bakeracademic.com.

Wintle, Brian. South Asia Bible Commentary. Udaipur, India: Open Door Publications, 2015.

ENDNOTES

[1] Brian Wintle, South Asia Bible Commentary (Udaipur, India: Open Door Publications, 2015), 724.

[2] John Goldingay, Baker Commentary on the Old Testament Wisom and Psalms., vol. 3: Psalms 90-150 (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, 2013), 1104–5, www.bakeracademic.com.

[3] Dr. Todd Billings | Psalm 102: Lament and the Christian Life (10/23/15), 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWcHvmUPC_E.

[4] Wintle, South Asia Bible Commentary, 726.