Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Psalms 102:10

Clarke's Commentary

Verse Psalms 102:10. For thou hast lifted me up, and cast me down. — Thou hast lifted me on high, that thou Lightest dash me down with the greater force. We were exalted in thy favour beyond any people, and now thou hast made us the lowest and most abject of the children of men.

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

Psalms 102:0 The changeless God

Jerusalem 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 (8-11).
But how could God desert him? God is still Lord; he does not change (12). He is always faithful to his people. For example, he sees their love for their broken-down city, he hears their prayers, and he will rebuild their city for them. Israel will triumph over its enemies as of old (13-17). All who are oppressed and discouraged should take note of this and praise God. He will hear the cries of his captive people, release them from bondage and bring them back to their beloved Jerusalem (18-22).
There is no need to doubt God. Life is full of troubles and uncertainties (23-24), and even the natural world suffers from wear and tear (25-26), but God is changeless. His troubled people, from one generation to the next, can depend on him to rescue them and bless them (27-28).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

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” 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.”Barnes’ Notes on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, a 1987 reprint of the 1878 edition), op. cit., p. 66. “The owl of the rains is also a striking emblem of desolation.”Wilson Jones, Vol. II, p. 111. “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.”Barnes’ Notes on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, a 1987 reprint of the 1878 edition), op. cit., p. 66.

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.”J. R. Dummelow’s Commentary, p. 368.

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

“Thou, Lord in the beginning didst lay the foundation of the earth, And the heavens are the works of thy hands: They shall perish, but thou continuest: And they all shall wax old as doth a garment; And as a mantle shalt thou roll them up, As a garment, and they shall be changed: But thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail.”

The great significance of this Hebrews quotation is that words which were originally spoken of God Himself are unhesitatingly applied to Jesus Christ. Brooks Foss Westcott, as quoted by Thomas Hewitt, declared that, “Here we have the application to the Incarnate Son of the words addressed to Jehovah.”Thomas Hewitt, p. 59. F. F. Bruce’s comment on this was:

“It was through the Son that the worlds were made; (and that) person to whom these words were spoken is addressed explicitly as, “The Lord,” and it is God who thus addresses him.”F. F. Bruce, pp. 21, 22.

For further discussion of this passage see Vol. 10 (Hebrews) of my New Testament commentaries, pp. 30f.

It is upon this undeniable meaning of the last paragraph of this psalm that Kidner applied the whole psalm to the Messiah. He stated his conclusion thus:

“The passage in Hebrews 1:10-12 opens our eyes to what would otherwise have been brought out only by the Septuagint (LXX) rendition of Psalms 102:23 f, namely that the Father is here replying to the Son, and this implies that the sufferer throughout the psalm is also the Son Incarnate.Derek Kidner, op. cit., p. 362.

We receive as an invariable rule that one line from the New Testament regarding any Old Testament passage is worth more than a whole library of critical allegations to the contrary. On this account, we have omitted any allegations to the contrary regarding the application of this passage to Christ. We believe that it was the Spirit of God which illuminated the mind of the author of Hebrews, and that we may place absolute trust in what is here declared concerning Christ our Savior.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

Because of thine indignation and thy wrath - Hebrew, “From the face of thine indignation,” etc. That is - he regarded all his sufferings as proof of the indignation and wrath of God against him. See Psalms 90:7-9.

For thou hast lifted me up - In former times. Thou hadst given me prosperity; thou hadst given me an elevated and honorable place among men.

And cast me down - Thou hast brought me into a low condition, and I feel it all the more from the fact that I had enjoyed prosperity. Compare the notes at Psalms 30:7. The passage, however, is susceptible of another interpretation: “Thou hast lifted me up, and cast me away.” That is, Thou hast lifted me from the ground as a storm or tempest takes up a light thing, and hast whirled me away. This idea occurs in Isaiah 22:18. See the notes at that passage. The former, however, seems to me to be the more correct interpretation.

Calvin's Commentary on the Bible

10.On account of thy anger and thy wrath He now declares that the greatness of his grief proceeded not only from outward troubles and calamities, but from a sense that these were a punishment inflicted upon him by God. And surely there is nothing which ought to wound our hearts more deeply, than when we feel that God is angry with us. The meaning then amounts to this — O Lord! I do not confine my attention to those things which would engage the mind of worldly men; but I rather turn my thoughts to thy wrath; for were it not that thou art angry with us, we would have been still enjoying the inheritance given us by thee, from which we have justly been expelled by thy displeasure. When God then strikes us with his hand, we should not merely groan under the strokes inflicted upon us, as foolish men usually do, but should chiefly look to the cause that we may be truly humbled. This is a lesson which it would be of great advantage to us to learn.

The last clause of the verse, Thou hast lifted me up, and cast me down, may be understood in two ways. As we lift up what we intend to throw down with greater violence against the ground, the sentence may denote a violent method of casting down, as if it had been said, Thou hast crushed me more severely by throwing me down headlong from on high, than if I had merely fallen from the station which I occupied. ⁽¹⁴⁵⁾ But this seems to be another amplification of his grief, nothing being more bitter to an individual than to be reduced from a happy condition to extreme misery, the prophet mournfully complains that the chosen people were deprived of the distinguished advantages which God had conferred upon them in time past, so that the very remembrance of his former goodness, which should have afforded consolation to them, embittered their sorrow. Nor was it the effect of ingratitude to turn the consideration of the divine benefits, which they had formerly received, into matter of sadness; since they acknowledged that their being reduced to such a state of wretchedness and degradation was through their own sins. God has no delight in changing, as if, after having given us some taste of his goodness, he intended forthwith to deprive us of it. As his goodness is inexhaustible, so his blessing would flow upon us without intermission, were it not for our sins which break off the course of it. Although, then, the remembrance of God’s benefits ought to assuage our sorrows, yet still it is a great aggravation of our calamity to have fallen from an elevated position, and to find that we have so provoked his anger, as to make him withdraw from us his benignant and bountiful hand. Thus when we consider that the image of God, which distinguished Adam, was the brightness of the celestial glory; and when, on the contrary, we now see the ignominy and degradation to which God has subjected us in token of his wrath, this contrast cannot surely fail of making us feel more deeply the wretchedness of our condition. Whenever, therefore, God, after having stripped us of the blessings which he had conferred upon us, gives us up to reproach, let us learn that we have so much the greater cause to lament, because, through our own fault, we have turned light into darkness.

(145) “What is meant by נשאתני, ‘thou hast lifted me up,’ etc., is to be judged by the immediate antecedents, indignation and wrath; by these is meant vehement displeasure and anger, and in God, in whom anger is not found, effects that bear analogy with those which proceed from angry men. To such it is ordinary to cast to the ground any thing that they are displeased with, and where the displeasure is vehement, to lift it up first as high as they can, that they may cast it down with more violence, and dash it in pieces by the fall. And this is the meaning of the phrase here, and so is a pathetical expression of his present affliction, heightened by the dignity of the public office wherein Nehemiah was at the time of writing this mournful psalm, (Nehemiah 1:1 and Nehemiah 2:1.) The greater his place was at Shushan, the deeper his sorrow for his countrymen and for Jerusalem (Nehemiah 1:3) pierced him, whereupon he complains that God, by way of indignation, hath dealt with him, as those that take an earthen vessel and throw it against the pavement, and that they may beat it to pieces the more certainly, lift it up first as high as they can, to throw it down with more violence. This the LXX. have fitly rendered, ἐπάρας κατέρ᾿ῥαξάς με, and the Latin, elevans illisisti me , ‘having lifted me up, thou hast dashed me to pieces.’” — Hammond

Smith's Bible Commentary

Psalms 102:1-28

In Psalms 102:1-28 , David begins with a prayer asking God to hear his prayer.

Hear my prayer, O LORD, and let my cry come unto thee. Hide not thy face from me in the day when I am in trouble; incline your ear unto me: in the day when I call answer me speedily ( Psalms 102:1-2 ).

How impatient we are with God, and yet, how important it is to us that God is patient with us. Yet it seems that whenever I pray I want speedy answers from God. I, again, I can identify with David. I want judgment on my enemies and I want speedy answers when I cry unto the Lord. I don't like to wait on the Lord. I don't like to wait for His answers to come. When I snap my fingers I want action, you know. I want God to move now in this case. And I don't want to have to wait for God to answer my prayers. I guess, again, it is something that is just very natural. And yet, turn the thing around, and when God is desiring something from me, I like Him to just be patient with me and give me a chance to work it out, and I'll get there when I have opportunity, you know. And it something that I want God to extend His patience towards me in a very liberal sense. But yet, I want speedy answers to my prayers.

For my days are consumed as smoke, and my bones are burned as a hearth. My heart is smitten and withered like grass; so that I forget to eat my bread ( Psalms 102:3-4 ).

That's pretty bad, when you get so smitten that you don't eat any more.

By reason of the voice of my groaning my bones cleave to my skin. I am like a pelican of the wilderness: I am like an owl of the desert. I watch, and am as a sparrow alone upon the housetop. Mine enemies reproach me all the day; and they that are mad against me are sworn against me. For I have eaten ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with tears, Because of your indignation and your wrath: for you have lifted me up, and cast me down. My days are like a shadow that declineth ( Psalms 102:5-11 );

Now he is referring actually to the sundial. The method by which they kept time in those days. And the declining shadow on a sundial, the day is about over. "My days are about over. My day is like the shadow that declineth."

and I am withered like grass. But ( Psalms 102:11 )

In contrast,

Thou, O LORD, shall endure forever; and thy remembrance to all generations ( Psalms 102:12 ).

I am about ready to pass off from the scene. I am withered like grass; my days are like a declining shadow, but God, You go on forever and ever.

Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion: for the time to favor her, yea, the set time, is come ( Psalms 102:13 ).

So he looks forward now, prophetically, to that time when God is going to work again in Israel among the people. Before they came into the land, while still in the wilderness, Moses gave to them God's covenant whereby they would inherit the land. The covenant of God's blessings that would rest upon them if they would walk with God, and if they would serve the Lord. "Then," God said, "I will bless your crops. I will bless your children. I'll bless your families." And all of the blessings that God had promised if they would walk with Him. "But if you turn," God said, "and walk after other gods, and bow down, and worship them and sacrifice your children unto them, then," God said, "I will turn against thee, and I will bring plagues upon the land. I will bring thee enemies in upon the land, and finally," God said, "and I will give you over to captivity and you will be scattered throughout all of the earth and you'll become a curse and a byword among the nations upon the earth."

And so God promised even before they came into the land, the dispersion that would take place if they turned against God. They would be scattered throughout all the world. We only have to look at their history to see the confirmation of God's Word to them. As long as they sought the Lord, God made them to prosper. When they turned from the Lord, the curses that God declared came upon them. Their land was smitten with drought and with famine. And the enemies came in and they were taken captive, and ultimately they were dispersed and scattered throughout the whole world.

But even in Deuteronomy, before they came into the land, God promised that the day would come when He would gather them together again, from all the parts of the earth, wherever they had been scattered, and He would bring them back and establish them in the land once again. Now this is the thread that runs through the prophecies of the Old Testament. God's faithfulness to His covenant to Abraham that the land would belong to him and to his seed.

And it is wrong to make that a spiritual analogy to the church and say, "Well, God has rejected now Israel forever and the church is spiritual Israel, and thus, the promises apply now to the church in a spiritual sense." It is true that we are all the children of Abraham by faith in Jesus Christ and that we all now can partake of God's covenant to Abraham. That is, that God will impute righteousness to us by faith. And yet, God is still going to deal with the nation Israel.

The Lord said to Daniel, "There are seventy sevens that are determined upon the nation Israel. Sixty-nine of those sevens would transpire between the time the commandment went forth to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, to the coming of the Messiah the Prince. But," he said, "The Messiah will be cut off, with nothing for Himself. And the people will be dispersed." But then God speaks of the prince of the people that will come who will make a covenant with the nation Israel and in the midst of the final seven-year cycle will break the covenant as he establishes the abomination which causes desolation. The sixty-nine sevens that God had appointed upon the nation Israel were fulfilled from the time that Artaxerxes gave the commandment to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, to the coming of Jesus Christ was 483 years in the Babylonian calendar.

There is a final seven-year period that is yet to take place. It is yet future. Jesus, making reference to the abomination of desolation as was spoken of by Daniel the prophet, refers it to yet a future event, an event that will precede His second coming. Jesus, in referring to the abomination of desolation, said, "When you see the abomination of desolation that was spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place, let him who reads, understand. Then flee to the wilderness." So the seventieth seven-year cycle of Daniel according to Jesus is still a future event. Which event will be marked in the middle of it by the European leader that shall arise, coming to Jerusalem, and standing in the holy of holies of the rebuilt temple and declaring that he is God, and demanding that he be worshipped as God. Now, the appointed time of God upon the nation Israel, when God will once again pour out His Spirit upon her. And as is declared, "The heathen shall reverence the name of the Lord and all of the kings of the earth, thy glory."

It would seem that this is a reference to that time, I feel, in the very near future, when Russia invades Israel and is destroyed by the power of God. In the thirty-eighth chapter of Ezekiel where the Lord records this momentous event, in verse Psalms 102:23 , God said, "Thus will I magnify Myself, and sanctify Myself. And I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am Jehovah." So if you put that together with the fifteenth verse, "So the heathen shall reverence the name of Jehovah, and the kings of the earth, thy glory."

Now that is referred to as a relationship to God's set time to show favor upon Israel. And so if you will then go over to the thirty-ninth chapter of Ezekiel, verse Psalms 102:27 , "When I have brought them again from the people, and gathered them out of their enemies' lands, and am sanctified in them in the sight of many nations." Now put that together with verse Psalms 102:23 of chapter 38, "I will magnify Myself and sanctify Myself and be known in the eyes of many nations. When I've gathered them out of their enemies' lands and am sanctified in them in the sight of many nations, then shall they know that I am Jehovah their God, which cause them to be led into captivity among the heathen. But I have gathered them into their own land and have left none of them anymore there, neither will I hide my face anymore from them, for I have poured out My Spirit upon the house of Israel, saith Jehovah God." So the Lord has promised... or, "saith the Lord God," not Jehovah God there.

So God has promised that in the day in which He is sanctified before in them in the eyes of the heathen, or the nations of the world, that in that day, He is going to remove the blindness. "I will no longer be hid." Now Paul tells us that blindness has happened to Israel during this period of the Gentiles. Blindness has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. But this national blindness that is taken, that God has placed upon Israel, will be removed. He'll no longer be hid from them. He will pour out His Spirit upon them. Which means that God will then have taken His church out of the earth's scene. So we are talking about God's set time for the nation of Israel. The time to favor her.

For [the psalm says,] Thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and favor the dust thereof ( Psalms 102:14 ).

We received a letter from our guide in Israel who was planning to come over and visit us this summer. And he said, "Dear Chuck and Kay, I write to you and trust that everything is well with you, and all. I want you to know that I won't be coming over this summer because the Lord has given to us the blessed privilege of buying property in this beautiful, holy city. The city that God has set His eye upon. The city that is blessed of the Lord. And we are going to build a home in this beautiful city of God." And, oh, he goes on, raving about the dust and the stones of the city of Jerusalem. He is so excited that he is going to have a house of his own right in Jerusalem. "Surely the people do favor the stones and even the dust thereof. For thy servants take pleasure in the stones."

For the heathen shall reverence the name of the LORD [or Jehovah], and all the kings of the earth thy glory. When the LORD shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory ( Psalms 102:15-16 ).

Now, God is going to work for another seven-year cycle with the nation Israel. It will be God's primary work upon the earth during this final seven-year cycle. It will be a time in the scripture that is known as the time of Jacob's trouble, Jacob travailing. It will be a time of religious confusion. For at the beginning, the antichrist will make a covenant with the nation Israel. Many of their leaders will declare that he is the Messiah, and he will be acclaimed generally as their Messiah. However, there will be a couple of witnesses of God that will be telling them the truth and warning them against him. There will be those that are sealed of God, and they also will be bearing witness against him. But the religious leaders will be acclaiming him. The religious leaders who crucified our Lord and are still holding the people in blindness will be deceived and will be acclaiming this man as Messiah.

But after three and a half years, when the temple is rebuilt, and they are again worshipping, when he comes and stands in the temple, in the holy of holies, and declares that he is God and demands to be worshipped as God, then they will all realize their error. They will flee to the wilderness, a place that God has prepared for them. During the final 1,290-day period, which 1,290 days will be a time of great trouble, the Great Tribulation. A time of God's wrath, a time of greater bloodshed and horror than the world has ever seen at any time in its history. People are saying, "Good days are ahead, you know. We've got a new administration." Don't believe it. The worst is yet to come. Evil days, the scripture says, are going to wax worse and worse.

I would like to think that a change of administration is going to change the whole complexion of our society, but I cannot believe that from a scriptural standpoint. Like the nation Israel, there may be moments of sort of a national revival and a turning to God and a forestalling, but we are generally going downhill so rapidly that there is nothing that can stop our decline short of a miracle of God, which I do not anticipate. Because I believe we are out at the end of the line, and I think that we are plunging into that abyss of which God spoke. As far as world history is concerned.

But immediately after the tribulation of those days, shall they see the sign of the Son of man coming with clouds and great glory. Even as we read, "When the Lord shall build up Zion, He shall appear in His glory." He appeared the first time in shame and humiliation to take upon Himself the sins of mankind and to die an ignominious death upon the cross. To be despised and rejected, smitten, pierced, scourged, bruised, crucified. But He is coming again, in power and in glory, to reign over the earth in righteousness, in peace, from henceforth, even forever.

And so God has set the time and when the Lord shall build up Zion. We know that the time is coming for Him to appear in His glory. The nation Israel has been restored. God kept His promise. He gathered the people that were scattered throughout all the world and He placed them again in the land, and they have their government, they have the possession of Jerusalem. And now we are just waiting for the final sequence of events. At this moment, we are waiting for Russia to attack the Middle East and Israel, which is going to be the key event triggering the final sequence of events. That will lead the church out of this mess.

God will regard the prayer of the destitute, and not despise their prayer. For this shall be written for the generation to come ( Psalms 102:17 , Psalms 102:18 ):

In other words, the psalmist says, "I am not writing this for you people; I am writing this for a generation that is going to come." Our generation. The generation that sees the Lord building up Zion. It is just like when Daniel was writing of the same events, this final seven-year period when God was working again in Israel having removed the blindness, and now working again. Daniel said, "How long, O Lord, until the end of these things?" And the Lord said, "Seal up all of these things up in a book, Daniel. And in the last days, knowledge will be increased." In other words, Daniel, you don't understand it. Daniel was crying for understanding, and the Lord said, "You aren't going to understand it, Daniel. Just seal it up in a book. But in the last days knowledge will be increased." And God will give the understanding of these things. And as we read the book of Daniel now, we see how God has opened up the book of Daniel, and how clear it is now as we have the advantage of history. We can see now, and understand now the things of which Daniel was writing, things that he didn't understand himself. And so this is written for the generation to come. It's for their benefit, for our benefit. We are that generation.

and the people which shall be created shall praise the LORD ( Psalms 102:18 ).

So that's declared of us, and thus we need to keep the Word of God by praising the Lord.

For he hath looked down from the height of his sanctuary; from heaven did the LORD behold the earth; To hear the groaning of the prisoner; to loose those that are appointed to death; To declare the name of Jehovah in Zion, and his praise in Jerusalem; When the people are gathered together, and the kingdoms, to serve the LORD. He weakened my strength in the way; he shortened my days. I said, O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days: thy years are throughout all generations. Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old, like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed ( Psalms 102:19-26 ):

Now this is interesting, as he speaks of the earth and the heavens. God laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of His hands. And they are going to perish, the psalmist said. Jesus said, "Heaven and earth shall pass away. My word," He said, "shall never pass away" ( Matthew 24:35 ). Peter describes how they are going to pass away. As the elements are dissolved and melt with a fervent heat. And there comes forth the new heaven and a new earth. There will be change, the new heaven and the new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. So they shall perish.

It is interesting that the psalmist here actually recognizes the first and second law of thermodynamics, which the evolutionists try to almost deny in propounding a theory that requires just the opposite affect of the laws of entropy as we know them to exist. The psalmist recognizes that the earth is growing old. "They shall wax old like a garment." As Sir Herschel Gene said, "The universe is like a giant clock that was wound up and is slowly running down." Again, describing the affects of the first and second laws of thermodynamics. The slow winding down. Waxing old like a garment. As a vesture, as a coat, you're gonna change. And like a man changes his coat. God is going to change the earth, and the heavens. And they shall be changed. But, in contrast to the universe, which is waxing old, which is winding down, in contrast to that,

But thou art the same and thy years have no end. The children of thy servants shall continue and their seed shall be established before thee ( Psalms 102:27-28 ).

And so, though the earth is waxing old, the universe is growing old, yet God never changes. Though the universe will be changed like a garment, the Lord is the same. We remember in Hebrews, and no doubt a reference to this, "Jesus Christ the same, yesterday, today and forever, Thou art the same." God said, "Behold, I am the Lord God. I change not." The immutability of God. "

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

Psalms 102

Another anonymous writer poured out his personal lament to Yahweh (cf. Psalms 22, 69, 79). He felt overwhelmed due to an enemy’s reproach. He called out for help from the God he knew would not forsake him. This is another penitential psalm as well as a personal lament (cf. Psalms 6; Psalms 32; Psalms 38; Psalms 51; Psalms 103; Psalms 143).

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

2. Description of the affliction 102:3-11

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

He felt his condition was the result of divine discipline. He believed his life was ending, as the lengthening shadows signal the approaching end of a day.

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

Because of thine indignation and thy wrath,.... This was the burden of his complaint, what gave him the greatest uneasiness; not so much the reproach of his enemies, and his other outward afflictions, as the sense he had of God's wrath and indignation. The people of God are as deserving of his wrath as others; and when they are awakened to a sense of sin and danger, or the law enters into their consciences, it works wrath there, and leaves nothing but a fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, till comfort is given; and under afflictive providences they are very ready to conclude, that the wrath of God is upon them; but this is only their apprehension of things; it is not in reality: for God has not appointed them to wrath, and has swore he will not be wroth with them; Christ has bore it for them, in their room and stead; and being justified by his blood and righteousness, they are saved from it; but then the sense they have of it is very terrible, and there is no rest, peace, and comfort in their souls, while under the apprehensions of it:

for thou hast lifted me up, and cast me down; as a man that, in wrestling, has the advantage of his antagonist, lifts him up as high as he can, that he may throw him with the greater force upon the ground; in like manner the psalmist thought the Lord was dealing with him: or this may express his changeable state and condition, sometimes lifted up, and sometimes cast down, and which is the case of every believer, more or less; all have their liftings up, and their castings down: when God first calls them by his grace, he raises them from a low estate, lifts them up out of an horrible pit, takes them from the dunghill, sets them among princes to inherit the throne of glory: when he comforts them with the consolations of his Spirit, he is the lifter up of their heads; when he grants his presence, and lifts up the light of his countenance: when he discovers his love, and makes their mountain to stand strong; when he shows them their interest in himself, as their covenant God, in Christ, as their Redeemer and Saviour, and grants them the communion of the Holy Ghost; and when their graces are in lively exercise, then is it a time of lifting up: and they are cast down when corruptions prevail, when grace is weak, when God hides his face, and when afflictions lie heavy on them: this was now the case of the psalmist, and perhaps the remembrance of his liftings up in former times was an aggravation of it.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

A prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed,

and poureth out his complaint before the Lord.

      1 Hear my prayer, O LORD, and let my cry come unto thee.   2 Hide not thy face from me in the day when I am in trouble; incline thine ear unto me: in the day when I call answer me speedily.   3 For my days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned as a hearth.   4 My heart is smitten, and withered like grass; so that I forget to eat my bread.   5 By reason of the voice of my groaning my bones cleave to my skin.   6 I am like a pelican of the wilderness: I am like an owl of the desert.   7 I watch, and am as a sparrow alone upon the house top.   8 Mine enemies reproach me all the day; and they that are mad against me are sworn against me.   9 For I have eaten ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping,   10 Because of thine indignation and thy wrath: for thou hast lifted me up, and cast me down.   11 My days are like a shadow that declineth; and I am withered like grass.

      The title of this psalm is very observable; it is a prayer of the afflicted. It was composed by one that was himself afflicted, afflicted with the church and for it; and on those that are of a public spirit afflictions of that kind lie heavier than any other. It is calculated for an afflicted state, and is intended for the use of others that may be in the like distress; for whatsoever things were written aforetime were written designedly for our use. The whole word of God is of use to direct us in prayer; but here, as often elsewhere, the Holy Ghost has drawn up our petition for us, has put words into our mouths. Hosea 14:2, Take with you words. Here is a prayer put into the hands of the afflicted: let them set, not their hands, but their hearts to it, and present it to God. Note, 1. It is often the lot of the best saints in this world to be sorely affected. 2. Even good men may be almost overwhelmed with their afflictions, and may be ready to faint under them. 3. When our state is afflicted, and our spirits are overwhelmed, it is our duty and interest to pray, and by prayer to pour out our complaints before the Lord, which intimates the leave God gives us to be free with him and the liberty of speech we have before him, as well as liberty of access to him; it intimates also what an ease it is to an afflicted spirit to unburden itself by a humble representation of its grievances and griefs. Such a representation we have here, in which,

      I. The psalmist humbly begs of God to take notice of his affliction, and of his prayer in his affliction, Psalms 102:1; Psalms 102:2. When we pray in our affliction, 1. It should be our care that God would graciously hear us; for, if our prayers be not pleasing to God, they will be to no purpose to ourselves. Let this therefore be in our eye that our prayer may come unto God, even to his ears (Psalms 18:6); and, in order to that, let us lift up the prayer, and our souls with it. 2. It may be our hope that God will graciously hear us, because he has appointed us to seek him and has promised we shall not seek him in vain. If we put up a prayer in faith, we may in faith say, Hear my prayer, O Lord! "Hear me," that is, (1.) "Manifest thyself to me, hide not thy face from me in displeasure, when I am in trouble. If thou dost not quickly free me, yet let me know that thou favourest me; if I see not the operations of thy hand for me, yet let me see the smiles of thy face upon me." God's hiding his face is trouble enough to a good man even in his prosperity (Psalms 30:7, Thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled); but if, when we are in trouble, God hides his face, the case is sad indeed. (2.) "Manifest thyself for me; not only hear me, but answer me; grant me the deliverance I am in want of and in pursuit of; answer me speedily, even in the day when I call." When troubles press hard upon us, God gives us leave to be thus pressing in prayer, yet with humility and patience.

      II. He makes a lamentable complaint of the low condition to which he was reduced by his afflictions. 1. His body was macerated and emaciated, and he had become a perfect skeleton, nothing but skin and bones. As prosperity and joy are represented by making fat the bones, and the bones flourishing like a herb, so great trouble and grief are here represented by the contrary: My bones are burnt as a hearth (Psalms 102:3; Psalms 102:3); they cleave to my skin (Psalms 102:5; Psalms 102:5); nay, my heart is smitten, and withered like grass (Psalms 102:4; Psalms 102:4); it touches the vitals, and there is a sensible decay there. I am withered like grass (Psalms 102:11; Psalms 102:11), scorched with the burning heat of my troubles. If we be thus brought low by bodily distempers, let us not think it strange; the body is like grass, weak and of the earth, no wonder then that it withers. 2. He was very melancholy and of a sorrowful spirit. He was so taken up with the thoughts of his troubles that he forgot to eat his bread (Psalms 102:4; Psalms 102:4); he had no appetite to his necessary food nor could he relish it. When God hides his face from a soul the delights of sense will be sapless things. He was always sighing and groaning, as one pressed above measure (Psalms 102:5; Psalms 102:5), and this wasted him and exhausted his spirits. He affected solitude, as melancholy people do. His friends deserted him and were shy of him, and he cared as little for their company (Psalms 102:6; Psalms 102:7): "I am like a pelican of the wilderness, or a bittern (so some) that make a doleful noise; I am like an owl, that affects to lodge in deserted ruined buildings; I watch, and am as a sparrow upon the house-top. I live in a garret, and there spend my hours in poring on my troubles and bemoaning myself." Those who do thus, when they are in sorrow, humour themselves indeed; but they prejudice themselves, and know not what they do, nor what advantage they hereby give to the tempter. In affliction we should sit alone to consider our ways (Lamentations 3:28), but not sit alone to indulge an inordinate grief. 3. He was evil-spoken of by his enemies, and all manner of evil was said against him. When his friends went off from him his foes set themselves against him (Psalms 102:8; Psalms 102:8): My enemies reproach me all the day, designing thereby both to create vexation to him (for an ingenuous mind regrets reproach) and to bring an odium upon him before men. When they could not otherwise reach him they shot these arrows at him, even bitter words. In this they were unwearied; they did it all the day; it was a continual dropping. His enemies were very outrageous: They are mad against me, and very obstinate and implacable. They are sworn against me; as the Jews that bound themselves with an oath that they would kill Paul; or, They have sworn against me as accusers, to take away my life. 4. He fasted and wept under the tokens of God's displeasure (Psalms 102:9; Psalms 102:10): "I have eaten ashes like bread; instead of eating my bread, I have lain down in dust and ashes, and I have mingled my drink with weeping; when I should have refreshed myself with drinking I have only eased myself with weeping." And what is the matter? He tells us (Psalms 102:10; Psalms 102:10): Because of thy wrath. It was not so much the trouble itself that troubled him as the wrath of God which he was under the apprehensions of as the cause of the trouble. This, this was the wormwood and the gall in the affliction and the misery: Thou hast lifted me up and cast me down, as that which we cast to the ground with a design to dash it to pieces; we lift up first, that we may throw it down with the more violence; or, "Thou hast formerly lifted me up in honour, and joy, and uncommon prosperity; but the remembrance of that aggravates the present grief and makes it the more grievous." We must eye the hand of God both in lifting us up and casting us down, and say, "Blessed be the name of the Lord, who both gives and takes away." 5. He looked upon himself as a dying man: My days are consumed like smoke (Psalms 102:3; Psalms 102:3), which vanishes away quickly. Or, They are consumed in smoke, of which nothing remains; they are like a shadow that declines (Psalms 102:11; Psalms 102:11), like the evening-shadow, or a forerunner of approaching night. Now all this, though it seems to speak the psalmist's personal calamities, and therefore is properly a prayer for a particular person afflicted, yet is supposed to be a description of the afflictions of the church of God, with which the psalmist sympathizes, making public grievances his own. The mystical body of Christ is sometimes, like the psalmist's body here, withered and parched, nay, like dead and dry bones. The church sometimes is forced into the wilderness, seems lost, and gives up herself for gone, under the tokens of God's displeasure.