Psalm 102: A Prayer of the Afflicted
A withering life and the God who remains
"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… For my days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned as an hearth. My heart is smitten, and withered like grass… 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 house top."
"But thou, O LORD, shalt endure for ever; and thy remembrance unto all generations. Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion: for the time to favour her, yea, the set time, is come. For thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and favour the dust thereof… This shall be written for the generation to come: and the people which shall be created shall praise 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… But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end."
A heading about a person
"A Prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed": the only heading in the Psalter that names a situation anyone could share, rather than an author or a historical event. It offers the psalm as a prayer for whoever is in that state.
Zion's stones
"Thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and favour the dust thereof": Zion lies in ruins, and the speaker's own withering is joined to the city's. The time of favour has come for rebuilding. Many scholars place the psalm during or after the exile; the personal lament and the Zion hope may come from one voice or be combined.
Hebrews 1:10–12
Hebrews 1:10–12 quotes 102:25–27 ("Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth…") as words addressed to the Son. In the Greek, verses 23–24 differ from the Hebrew: "He answered him in the way of his strength: Declare to me the fewness of my days" (Vulgate "Respondit ei in via virtutis suae"), reading 'anah ("answered") where the Hebrew has 'innah ("afflicted, weakened"). The Greek thus creates a dialogue in which God answers the speaker, which made it possible to read vv. 25–27 as God addressing someone as "Lord." The Hebrew has no such dialogue. See the passage page.
A penitential psalm
Psalm 102 is the fifth of the seven penitential psalms, though it confesses little sin. The library's Vulgate heading: "Oratio pauperis, cum anxius fuerit."
What the evidence shows
- Hebrews 1:10–12 quotes Psalm 102:25–27.
- The Greek of 102:23 reads "he answered" where the Hebrew has "he weakened."Source: The site's library: Westminster Leningrad Codex, KJV, Clementine Vulgate (Gallican Psalter), Giguet's French of the Greek, Douay-Rheims
Continue the journey
Journey of a PassagePsalm 102:23: "He weakened my strength" or "he answered him"Hebrew: "He weakened ('innah) my strength in the way; he shortened my days." The Greek read 'anah, "he answered": "He answered him in the way of his strength: declare to me the fewness of my days" (Vulgate "Respondit ei in via virtutis suae").More from this lesson
Why this matters to the rest of Scripture
- Jerusalem's broken walls; the psalm loves Zion's stones and dust.
- "Thou, Lord, in the beginning…"
- "The earth shall wax old like a garment."
- The walls of Zion lamented.