I call Psalm 102 “The ‘Me’, ‘My’, ‘I’, Psalm”, or the “The
‘Oh Me’ Psalm”. The anonymous writer was someone who was suffering and felt
overwhelmed with personal sorrow. This psalm has a title, which indicates that
it was written as a prayer of someone who is “afflicted” and “overwhelmed” and
simply wants to pour out his “troubles and complaints” to the LORD. As
believers face and deal with the painful crises that come to us, we must keep several
things in mind if we are to overcome and glorify God.
First, in verses 1-11, we must learn to accept and respond
properly to the changing circumstances of life. The longer we live, the more
evidence we see that things will change. The Greek philosopher Heraclitus
wrote, "There is nothing permanent except change," a statement that
John F. Kennedy paraphrased as, "Everything changes but change
itself." There are the normal changes of life, from birth to maturity to
death. We graduate from high school and college and leave home and things
change. We get married and have children and things change, and life will never
be like it used to be. Family, friends, and associates die, and things change. Many
of these changes are difficult to deal with, yet others are good changes and
welcomed.
There are also providential changes that God sends for our
good and His glory. Many Jewish leaders in the days of Jeremiah the prophet
thought that God would never allow Judah to be captured and Jerusalem and the
temple destroyed (Jer. 7), but the Babylonian army did all three. Because of
their rebellion against the law of God, Israel was left without a king,
priesthood, temple, or sacrifice. Instead of the Lord's face shining upon them
with blessing (Num. 6:25), His face was turned away from them in judgment (Psalms
27:9; 59:17).
Whether we are suffering because of our sins, or because we
stand up for the Lord, or simply because we need to be better equipped for
service, these changes are not always pleasant. The psalmist here recorded his
personal plight in a series of vivid pictures. With his days as flimsy and
temporary as drifting smoke, and his frame burning with fever (v. 3), he was
like a man in a furnace. His heart was like the cut and withered grass, paining
him so much that he forgot to eat (v. 4). When he did eat, the food tasted like
ashes and his drink like tears (v. 9). Therefore, he became a living skeleton
that could only groan because of his wretched situation (v. 5).
He compared himself to the unclean birds (Lev. 11:17-18)
that lived solitary lives amid the ruins of the city. He was awake all night, a
lonely man, like a sparrow bereft of his mate and chirping his lament on the
roof. The enemy officers showed no sympathy but used his name in their curses
(v. 8). It was as though God's hand picked him up and threw him on the trash
heap, like a piece of discarded junk (v. 10). Like the evening shadows as the
sun goes down, his life kept changing, but his days had no substance. Then the
darkness fell, and the long hard night lay before him (v. 11).
One of the first steps toward personal peace and victory is
to accept the fact that there will be changes in life, and how we respond will
determine what these changes do to us and for us. In verse 12, the psalmist
responded by turning to the Lord for help and so should we!
God bless!
