Psalms Chapter 101

Domine, exaudi.

A prayer for one in affliction: the fifth penitential psalm.

101:1. The prayer of the poor man, when he was anxious, and poured out his supplication before the Lord.

101:2. Hear, O Lord, my prayer: and let my cry come to thee.

101:3. Turn not away thy face from me: in the day when I am in trouble, incline thy ear to me. In what day soever I shall call upon thee, hear me speedily.

101:4. For my days are vanished like smoke, and my bones are grown dry like fuel for the fire.

101:5. I am smitten as grass, and my heart is withered: because I forgot to eat my bread.

101:6. Through the voice of my groaning, my bone hath cleaved to my flesh.

101:7. I am become like to a pelican of the wilderness: I am like a night raven in the house.

A pelican, etc. . .I am become through grief, like birds that affect solitude and darkness.

101:8. I have watched, and am become as a sparrow all alone on the housetop.

101:9. All the day long my enemies reproached me: and they that praised me did swear against me.

101:10. For I did eat ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping.

101:11. Because of thy anger and indignation: for having lifted me up thou hast thrown me down.

101:12. My days have declined like a shadow, and I am withered like grass.

101:13. But thou, O Lord, endurest for ever: and thy memorial to all generations.

101:14. Thou shalt arise and have mercy on Sion: for it is time to have mercy on it, for the time is come.

101:15. For the stones thereof have pleased thy servants: and they shall have pity on the earth thereof.

101:16. All the Gentiles shall fear thy name, O Lord, and all the kings of the earth thy glory.

101:17. For the Lord hath built up Sion: and he shall be seen in his glory.

101:18. He hath had regard to the prayer of the humble: and he hath not despised their petition.

101:19. Let these things be written unto another generation: and the people that shall be created shall praise the Lord:

101:20. Because he hath looked forth from his high sanctuary: from heaven the Lord hath looked upon the earth.

101:21. That he might hear the groans of them that are in fetters: that he might release the children of the slain:

101:22. That they may declare the name of the Lord in Sion: and his praise in Jerusalem;

101:23. When the people assemble together, and kings, to serve the Lord.

101:24. He answered him in the way of his strength: Declare unto me the fewness of my days.

He answered him in the way of his strength. . .That is, the people, mentioned in the foregoing verse, or the penitent, in whose person this psalm is delivered, answered the Lord in the way of his strength: that is, according to the best of his power and strength: or when he was in the flower of his age and strength: inquiring after the fewness of his days: to know if he should live long enough to see the happy restoration of Sion, etc.

101:25. Call me not away in the midst of my days: thy years are unto generation and generation.

101:26. In the beginning, O Lord, thou foundedst the earth: and the heavens are the works of thy hands.

101:27. They shall perish but thou remainest: and all of them shall grow old like a garment: And as a vesture thou shalt change them, and they shall be changed.

101:28. But thou art always the selfsame, and thy years shall not fail.

101:29. The children of thy servants shall continue and their seed shall be directed for ever.