Psalms 102:1 - Meaning and Application

The title of this psalm is very striking. It is a prayer of someone who was afflicted, and it was written by a person who knew affliction firsthand, both in his own life and in the life of God’s people. Troubles of that kind weigh even more heavily on those who care deeply about public good and the welfare of the church. This psalm is meant for anyone in a similar distress, because everything written in Scripture was written for our use.

All of God’s word helps us learn how to pray, but here the Holy Spirit has gone further and shaped the prayer for us. He has, as it were, put words in our mouths and told the afflicted to take them up and bring them to God. The suffering believer should not merely move the hands, but the heart, and present this prayer honestly before the Lord. It is often the case that even the best saints suffer deeply in this world. Even good people may feel nearly overwhelmed and ready to faint under their troubles.

When our condition is afflicted and our spirits are crushed, it is both our duty and our comfort to pray. We are to pour out our complaints before the Lord, which shows the freedom God gives us to speak openly with him and to come near to him. It also shows how much relief it brings to an afflicted heart to lay out its griefs humbly before God. In this prayer, the psalmist first asks God to notice both his affliction and his prayer in the middle of it (Psalm 102:1, Psalm 102:2).

When we pray in trouble, we should care most that God hears us graciously. If our prayers do not please him, they will do us no real good. So our eye should be fixed on this, that our prayer may come to God, even to his ears (Psalm 18:6). To that end, we should lift up the prayer, and lift up our souls with it. At the same time, we may hope that he will hear us, because he has told us to seek him and promised that we will not seek him in vain.

If we pray in faith, we may also say, “Hear my prayer, O Lord.” That means, “Let me know you are near. Do not hide your face from me in anger while I am in trouble. If you do not quickly free me, still let me know that you favor me. If I cannot yet see your hand working for me, let me at least see the smile of your face.” God’s hiding his face is pain enough for a godly person even in prosperity (Psalm 30:7). If he hides his face while we are suffering, the case is very sad indeed.

It also means, “Act for me. Do more than hear me. Answer me. Give me the help I need, and do it quickly, even on the very day I call.” When trouble presses hard, God allows us to be urgent in prayer, though always with humility and patience.

The psalmist then makes a sorrowful complaint about how low his affliction has brought him. His body had wasted away until he was like a skeleton, nothing but skin and bones. Just as prosperity and joy are pictured by strong, healthy bones, great trouble is pictured by the opposite. He says, “My bones are burned like a hearth” (Psalm 102:3), “they cling to my skin” (Psalm 102:5), and “my heart is struck down and withered like grass” (Psalm 102:4). The trouble reached even into his vital strength, and there was clear decline there. He says, “I am withered like grass” (Psalm 102:11), burned by the heat of his affliction. If bodily weakness brings us this low, we should not think it strange, because the body is like grass, weak and earthly by nature.

He was also very sorrowful and heavy in spirit. He was so absorbed in his troubles that he forgot to eat his bread (Psalm 102:4). He had no appetite for necessary food and could not enjoy it. When God hides his face from the soul, even the pleasures of the senses lose their taste. He was always sighing and groaning, as one pressed beyond measure (Psalm 102:5), and this wore him down and drained his strength. He also withdrew from others, as sad and troubled people often do.

His friends left him and kept their distance, and he was little interested in their company either (Psalm 102:6, Psalm 102:7). He says, “I am like a pelican of the wilderness, or a bittern,” a lonely bird with a mournful sound. He is also “like an owl,” living in ruined, deserted places. He keeps watch and is “like a sparrow on the housetop.” In effect, he says, “I live alone, and I spend my hours thinking over my troubles and lamenting myself.” People who do this when they are sad may feel some personal comfort for a moment, but they usually hurt themselves. They do not see what they are doing or how much room they give the tempter. In affliction, we should sit alone to think about our ways (Lamentations 3:28), but not sit alone to feed an unhealthy grief.

He was also spoken against by his enemies, and every kind of evil was said about him. When his friends drew away, his foes pressed in (Psalm 102:8). “My enemies reproach me all day long.” They did this both to vex him, since a generous mind is wounded by shame, and to make him look bad in the eyes of others. When they could not reach him in other ways, they shot bitter words at him. They did this without pause, all day long, like a continual dripping.

His enemies were also fierce and relentless. “They are mad against me,” meaning they were wild, obstinate, and unwilling to let go. “They are sworn against me,” perhaps like the Jews who bound themselves by oath to kill Paul, or like accusers who had sworn to bring about his death. Either way, they were determined and malicious.

He also fasted and wept under the signs of God’s displeasure (Psalm 102:9, Psalm 102:10). “I have eaten ashes like bread” means he took the lowest and saddest place, as if ashes were his food. Instead of enjoying his bread, he lay down in dust and ashes. “I have mixed my drink with weeping” means that even when he should have refreshed himself, he could only ease his grief by tears.

He explains the reason: “Because of your wrath.” It was not only the trouble itself that hurt him, but the sense that God’s anger was behind it. That was the bitter part of the suffering, the wormwood and gall in his sorrow. He says, “You have lifted me up and cast me down,” like something raised up only to be thrown down with greater force and shattered. Or he may mean, “You once lifted me up in honor, joy, and unusual prosperity, and the memory of that makes my present grief even sharper.” We should see God’s hand both in lifting us up and in bringing us low, and say, “Blessed be the name of the Lord, who gives and takes away.”

He views himself as one already dying. “My days are consumed like smoke” (Psalm 102:3), which disappears quickly and leaves nothing behind. Or, as he says again, they are “like a shadow that declines” (Psalm 102:11), like the evening shadow or a sign that night is coming on.

Even though this sounds like the psalmist’s own troubles and is truly a prayer for one suffering person, it is also meant to picture the suffering of God’s church. The psalmist feels those public troubles as his own. In that sense, he stands with the whole people of God and mourns for them.

The church, which is the body of Christ in a spiritual sense, is sometimes like the psalmist’s body here, dried out and worn away. At times it can seem as helpless as dry bones. Sometimes the church is driven into the wilderness, seems lost, and feels as if it has been given up, as though God’s displeasure were resting on it.