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Psalm 102

Prayer to the Eternal King for Help

A prayer of one afflicted, when faint and pleading before the L ord.

Hear my prayer, O L ord;

let my cry come to you.

Do not hide your face from me

in the day of my distress.

Incline your ear to me;

answer me speedily in the day when I call.

For my days pass away like smoke,

and my bones burn like a furnace.

My heart is stricken and withered like grass;

I am too wasted to eat my bread.

Because of my loud groaning

my bones cling to my skin.

I am like an owl of the wilderness,

like a little owl of the waste places.

I lie awake;

I am like a lonely bird on the housetop.

All day long my enemies taunt me;

those who deride me use my name for a curse.

For I eat ashes like bread,

and mingle tears with my drink,

because of your indignation and anger;

for you have lifted me up and thrown me aside.

My days are like an evening shadow;

I wither away like grass.

But you, O L ord, are enthroned forever;

your name endures to all generations.

You will rise up and have compassion on Zion,

for it is time to favor it;

the appointed time has come.

For your servants hold its stones dear,

and have pity on its dust.

The nations will fear the name of the L ord,

and all the kings of the earth your glory.

For the L ord will build up Zion;

he will appear in his glory.

He will regard the prayer of the destitute,

and will not despise their prayer.

Let this be recorded for a generation to come,

so that a people yet unborn may praise the L ord:

that he looked down from his holy height,

from heaven the L ord looked at the earth,

to hear the groans of the prisoners,

to set free those who were doomed to die;

so that the name of the L ord may be declared in Zion,

and his praise in Jerusalem,

when peoples gather together,

and kingdoms, to worship the L ord.

He has broken my strength in midcourse;

he has shortened my days.

“O my God,” I say, “do not take me away

at the midpoint of my life,

you whose years endure

throughout all generations.”

Long ago you laid the foundation of the earth,

and the heavens are the work of your hands.

They will perish, but you endure;

they will all wear out like a garment.

You change them like clothing, and they pass away;

but you are the same, and your years have no end.

The children of your servants shall live secure;

their offspring shall be established in your presence.

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

9 For I have eaten ashes like bread Some think that the order is here inverted, and that the letter כ, caph, the sign of similitude, which is put before לחם, lechem, the word for bread, ought to be placed before אפר, epher, the word for ashes; as if it had been said, I find no more relish for my bread than I do for ashes; and the reason is, because sorrow of heart produces loathing of food. But the simpler meaning is, that lying prostrate on the ground, they licked, as it were, the earth, and so did eat ashes instead of bread. It was customary for those who mourned to stretch themselves at full length with their faces on the ground. The prophet, however, intended to express a different idea — to intimate, that when he partook of his meals, there was no table set before him, but his bread was thrown upon the ground to him in a foul and disgusting manner. Speaking, therefore, in the person of the faithful, he asserts that he was so fixed to the ground that he did not even rise from it to take his food. The same sentiment is expressed in the last part of the verse, I have mingled my drink with weeping; for while mourners usually restrain their sorrow during the short time in which they refresh themselves with food, he declares that his mourning was without intermission. Some, instead of reading in the first clause, as bread, read, in bread; ¹⁴⁴¹⁴⁴ Supposing the reading to be בלחם, balechem, instead of כלחם, calechem; and from the similarity in form between the letters ב and כ, transcribers might readily have mistaken the latter for the former. and as the two letters, כ, caph, and ב, beth, nearly resemble each other, I prefer reading in bread, which agrees better with the second clause.

¹⁴⁴ Supposing the reading to be בלחם, balechem, instead of כלחם, calechem; and from the similarity in form between the letters ב and כ, transcribers might readily have mistaken the latter for the former.