Hear my prayer, O Lord;
let my cry come to you!
2 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!
3 For my days pass away like smoke,
and my bones burn like a furnace.
4 My heart is struck down like grass and has withered;
I forget to eat my bread.
5 Because of my loud groaning
my bones cling to my flesh.
6 I am like a desert owl of the wilderness,
like an owl of the waste places;
7 I lie awake;
I am like a lonely sparrow on the housetop.
8 All the day my enemies taunt me;
those who deride me use my name for a curse.
9 For I eat ashes like bread
and mingle tears with my drink,
10 because of your indignation and anger;
for you have taken me up and thrown me down.
11 My days are like an evening shadow;
I wither away like grass.
12 But you, O Lord, are enthroned forever;
you are remembered throughout all generations.
13 You will arise and have pity on Zion;
it is the time to favor her;
the appointed time has come.
14 For your servants hold her stones dear
and have pity on her dust.
15 Nations will fear the name of the Lord,
and all the kings of the earth will fear your glory.
16 For the Lord builds up Zion;
he appears in his glory;
17 he regards the prayer of the destitute
and does not despise their prayer.
18 Let this be recorded for a generation to come,
so that a people yet to be created may praise the Lord:
19 that he looked down from his holy height;
from heaven the Lord looked at the earth,
20 to hear the groans of the prisoners,
to set free those who were doomed to die,
21 that they may declare in Zion the name of the Lord,
and in Jerusalem his praise,
22 when peoples gather together,
and kingdoms, to worship the Lord.
23 He has broken my strength in midcourse;
he has shortened my days.
24 “O my God,” I say, “take me not away
in the midst of my days—
you whose years endure
throughout all generations!”
25 Of old you laid the foundation of the earth,
and the heavens are the work of your hands.
26 They will perish, but you will remain;
they will all wear out like a garment.
You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away,
27 but you are the same, and your years have no end.
28 The children of your servants shall dwell secure;
their offspring shall be established before you.
I begin this morning with a question: What has the Lord impressed upon you over the past few weeks? In the Bible we often find God’s people engaging in certain disciplines, like fasting, but the Lord asks them, “Who were fasting for? Are you really fasting for me? No seriously, you are fasting and you SAY it is for me, but…is it really for me, because I am not so sure?”
Our consecration is for the purpose of consecration to the Lord. Is that what you experienced as you have set time apart for the Lord?
Some folks say that Psalm 102 is penitential, others aren’t so sure. There is no mention of the word sin, there is nothing explicit about confession. There is the sense of affliction and a cry for the Lord to deliver from the affliction, but there are many Psalms like that and they are not considered penitential.
Perhaps, it is included as penitential due to the Psalmists confession that he knows that all of his affliction is due to the Lord’s indignation and anger. Verse 10 says it is the Lord who has taken him up and cast him down. This is the confession of penitence, that the misery that sin brings is seen as the Lord’s work…it is God’s severe mercy. It is as simple as realizing that the way of the transgressor is hard, and that in keeping the law of the Lord there is great reward.
Add to that, all the physical effects of his affliction in verses 3-7:
His bones ache
He is losing weight
He cannot sleep
He feels a deep loneliness
And then in verse 23 the Lord is the cause of the psalmist having no strength. We have seen this in the other penitential psalms that sin’s consequences touch every aspect of our lives, even our physical bodies. Sin will make you miserable in your soul and in your body. And even if one is unconvinced that this is actually a penitential psalm, technically speaking, but is instead a psalm of crying out in affliction…who would argue that our greatest affliction is in fact our own sin!
And furthermore, who would deny that the Lord often turns us over to our sins, allows sin to have its way for a time, so that we might flee from it and unto Him? After all, what is it in your life that makes affliction all the worst? What is it that makes trials, and life’s difficulties all the more difficult?
Job, in chapter 23, after everything that had happened to him, declares that what makes his affliction so difficult is that he could not find the Lord in the midst of it. What can we not endure when there is a deep and abiding sense that the Lord is with us…at times it seems almost visible to the eye, such is our assurance that he walks amidst the flames with us as he did Shadrach, Meshack and Abendego. And if we have that, we can endure most anything…but what happens when that peace, that Presence is nowhere to be found…or so it seems?
So perhaps the words of the Psalmist are very real to you: “Oh Lord, do not hide your face from me…” He did not say, O Lord, hide my circumstances from me…or O Lord take away the consequences of my sin, do not hide prosperity from me…That is fascinating. He says, Lord, do not hide your face from me IN my adversity.
We often think that what we need is a change of circumstances, what we need is for those people who are making our lives difficult to go away or have a 180 degree change of heart and behavior. Sometimes the Lord will change those things, but most often what He is not working for our circumstances to change but for our hearts to change.
The psalmist in this particular psalm shows us something I bet we don’t often think about. Look at verse 12. He moves from his own misery to the character of God as if to say: This is who I am…but, but this is who You are. And in verse 13 who is God? A God who shows mercy…a God who shows pity on those who suffer and not just me, not just the psalmist, look carefully, on Zion.
Oh Father, I acknowledge your mercy, not just to me, but to all of your people! All nations fear you, verse 15, for you build up all your people, and give to us your presence, verse 16, and then back to his dilemma, and you regard and do not despise the prayer of the one broken…Lord, you do not despise…me. That is the way to pray!
One of the potential potholes for some Christians is that in spending so much time dealing with one’s sin…in doing the work of introspection, the temptation could be toward being overwhelmed by guilt…We start to see ourselves clearly, we start to dig a bit deeper and what we see, what we come to face with, can be devastating…and maybe it should be.
However, we are not to stay in the devastation. God regards your prayer…He does not despise you, as bad as you are, he loves you, that is the beauty of the gospel. Never forget it is God’s kindness that leads us to repentance.
Jesus died to take away your sin, but that means all of it. He died to take away your guilt and shame. You are not to say things like, Well Jesus has forgiven me, I cannot forgive myself, my shame is too great. I understand that, but that is to make Christ’s work less…All the sin, all the guilt, all the shame…Jesus has taken it into the grave with Him and has emerged without it!
A dear woman from my former church, a woman who I love deeply, who with her husband will forever be etched in my mind as people I aspire to be like, once said to me after worship:
Our worship service sets me in such tension: Our confession brings me to the end of myself, the depth of my sin being revealed and confessed, I feel undone and my shame and grief is exposed! And then the assurance of pardon takes me to the opposite extreme, where I am free, and I feel joy overwhelming. How do I live in that tension of knowing my sin and knowing my cleansing!
I think that is a great question. It is a question that the penitential psalms force upon us. How do we live in that tension, so great a sinner, and at the same time, clean and free from guilt, shame and sin’s grip? I cannot, nor would I ever try to resolve the tension between those two great truths, we are NOT to resolve them, we are to live in them.
Prayer: Father, I do want to see my sin clearly, but I pray You would not take me there and leave me to myself. I pray that You would accompany me and that Your kindness would lead me to repentance. I pray that after confession and repentance the joys of the Savior and His love for sinners would overwhelm me, that I might walk in your ways and know your heart, in Jesus name, Amen.
Hymn: I Need Thee Every Hour
