"And You, Lord, did lay the foundation of the earth in the beginning,
and the heavens are the works of Your hands. They will perish, but
You remain and continue permanently; they will all grow old and
wear out like a garment. Like a mantle thrown about one's self
You will roll them up, and they will be changed and replaced
by others. But You remain the same, and Your years will
never end nor come to failure."
(Hebrews 1:10-12)
PSALM 102
A Prayer of the afflicted; when they are overwhelmed
and faint and pour out their complaint to God.
Hear my prayer, O Lord, and let my cry come to You.
Hide not Your face from me in the day when I am in distress!
Incline Your ear to me; in the day when I call, answer me speedily.
For my days consume away like smoke, and my bones burn like
a firebrand or like a hearth.
My heart is smitten like grass and withered, so that in absorption
I forget to eat my food.
By reason of my loud groaning from suffering and trouble
my flesh cleaves to my bones.
I am like a melancholy pelican or vulture of the wilderness;
I am like a desolate owl of the waste places.
I am sleepless and lie awake mourning, like a bereaved sparrow
alone on the housetop.
My adversaries taunt and reproach me all the day; and they who
are angry with me use my name as a curse.
For I have eaten the ashes in which I sat as if they were bread and
have mingled my drink with weeping.
Because of Your indignation and Your wrath, for You have taken me
up and cast me away.
My days are like an evening shadow that stretches out and declines
with the sun and I am withered like grass.
But You, O Lord, are enthroned forever; and the fame of Your name
endures to all generations.
You will arise and have mercy and loving-kindness for Zion, for it is time
to have pity and compassion for her, yes, the set time has come,
the moment designated.
For Your servants take melancholy pleasure in the stones of her ruins
and show pity for her dust.
So the nations shall fear and worshipfully revere the name of the Lord,
and all the kings of the earth Your glory.
When the Lord builds up Zion, He will appear in His glory;
He will regard the plea of the destitute and will not despise their prayer.
Let this be recorded for the generation yet unborn, that a people yet to
be created shall praise the Lord.
For He looked down from the height of His sanctuary, from heaven
did the Lord behold the earth,
To hear the sighing and groaning of the prisoner, to loose those
who are appointed to death.
So that men may declare the name of the Lord in Zion and
His praise in Jerusalem.
When peoples are gathered together and the kingdoms,
to worship and serve the Lord.
He has afflicted and weakened my strength, humbling and bringing me
low with sorrow in the way; He has shortened my days, aging me prematurely.
I said, O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days, You Whose
years continue throughout all generations.
At the beginning You existed and laid the foundations of the earth;
the heavens are the work of Your hands.
They shall perish, but You shall remain and endure; yes, all of them
shall wear out and become old like a garment. Like clothing, You shall
change them, and they shall be changed and pass away.
But You remain the same, and Your years shall have no end.
The children of Your servants shall dwell in safety and continue,
and their descendants shall be established before You.
"That this Psalm is a prophecy concerning the sufferings of Christ, His humiliation and death,
and the gracious results which flow from it, is confirmed by the quotation in the first
chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews. In that chapter, His work and His glory are unfolded.
Here we have both. First we have a prophetic picture of the lonely One, like a pelican,
an owl in the desert and as a sparrow alone upon the house top.
What a deep humiliation for Him who created all things, to take the lowest place,
even like a sparrow. Then we read how His enemies reproach Him. He eats His bread
like ashes and mingles His drink with weeping. He suffers more than that, in making
atonement-God's indignation and wrath is upon Him.
Next we read something of the joy which was set before Him on
account of which He endured on the cross, despising the shame.
Here is part of the travail of His soul.
God will through Him have mercy upon Zion when the set time to favor her has come.
All nations will then fear His Name and all the kings behold His glory. And Zion shall
assuredly be built when the Lord appears in glory, His second coming. Then the
glorious results when, "the people are gathered together in the kingdom and the
kingdoms serve the Lord. The closing verses tell us of His glory as the God-Man.
The Man who suffered thus is the Lord of all, Jehovah the Creator."
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