The Book of Psalms

Word Study

"when he is overwhelmed," Hebrew ki-ya'atof (כִי־יַעֲטֹף), when he grows faint, feeble. The title itself gives a gift to every crushed soul. God inspired a set prayer for the overwhelmed, for the man whose strength has drained away and who can no longer hold himself up.

"poureth out his complaint," yishpokh sicho (יִשְׁפֹּךְ שִׂיחוֹ). The word is a pouring, as of a vessel emptied out. God wants the crushed to come and pour it all out to Him, not to bottle grief up as though He could not bear to hear it.

"consumed like smoke," khalu ve'ashan (כָלוּ בְעָשָׁן). His days do not merely pass, they vanish, thinning away into nothing like smoke off a fire. Beside it he sets a second image: his heart is "withered like grass," so that he forgets even to eat.

"a pelican of the wilderness," qa'at midbar (קְאַת מִדְבָּר). The first of three unforgettable bird pictures. A water-bird stranded in a desert, utterly out of place, is what deep affliction feels like from the inside.

"an owl of the desert," kos charavot (כּוֹס חֳרָבוֹת). The second picture: a creature of ruins and desolation, at home only where everything has fallen down. Affliction does not merely hurt; it isolates.

"a sparrow alone," tzippor boded (צִפּוֹר בּוֹדֵד). The third and loneliest picture: a small bird perched by itself through the long night, awake while the world sleeps. "I watch, and am as a sparrow alone upon the house top."

Explanation

Before the psalm even begins, its title gives a gift to every crushed soul: "A Prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed, and poureth out his complaint before the LORD." God inspired a set prayer for the overwhelmed, which means He wants the crushed to come and pour it all out to Him, not to bottle grief up as though He could not bear to hear it. And what pours out here is not only pain but loneliness, painted in three unforgettable pictures of birds. He is "a pelican of the wilderness", a water-bird stranded in a desert, utterly out of place; "an owl of the desert", a creature of ruins and desolation; and "a sparrow alone upon the house top", a small bird perched by itself through the long night, awake while the world sleeps. That is what deep affliction feels like from the inside: not merely that it hurts, but that it isolates, that you feel stranded, out of place, watching alone while everyone else seems at rest. His days vanish "like smoke," his heart is "withered like grass," he forgets even to eat. This is honest, raw, unvarnished grief, laid out before God in full. And the very fact that it is in the Bible is God's word to the overwhelmed: your groaning is not too much for Me; pour out your complaint, and know that I hear.

Gospel Focus

"I watch, and am as a sparrow alone upon the house top", no one has entered the loneliness of this psalm more deeply than the Lord Jesus Christ, the Man of sorrows. He too poured out His complaint before God, offering "prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears" (Hebrews 5:7), and He "poured out his soul unto death" (Isaiah 53:12), forsaken and alone. Because He knows this desolation from the inside, He is a High Priest who can "be touched with the feeling of our infirmities" (Hebrews 4:15); there is no wilderness of grief where He has not been. And He is not a distant sympathizer, for "in all their affliction he was afflicted" (Isaiah 63:9). So when you feel like the lonely sparrow on the housetop, awake and stranded in your sorrow, remember that the Lord Jesus has sat on that rooftop before you, and that He hears the prayer you pour out, for He has promised never to leave nor forsake His own. Pour out your complaint before Him; He inclines His ear.

Word Study

"shalt endure for ever," Hebrew le'olam teshev (לְעוֹלָם תֵּשֵׁב), sittest enthroned for ever. Everything turns on the small word that opens verse 12: "But thou, O LORD, shalt endure for ever." However brief and fading my days are, God remains seated on His throne. The afflicted man finds his hope not in improving circumstances but purely in the permanence of God.

"thou shalt arise," attah taqum (אַתָּה תָקוּם). The enthroned God is also the God who stands up to act. Faith looks for Him to rise from His seat and "have mercy upon Zion."

"the set time," moed (מוֹעֵד), the appointed time. God has an appointed time to show mercy, a fixed hour on His calendar, and faith reckons that it has come. The overwhelmed man is lifted out of himself by remembering that God's clock is running.

"build up Zion," banah... Tziyyon (בָנָה צִיּוֹן). The sufferer lifts his eyes from his private grief to God's larger kingdom purposes. Even the rubble is dear to God's servants, who "take pleasure in her stones, and favour the dust thereof."

"appear in his glory," nir'ah bikhvodo (נִרְאָה בִּכְבוֹדוֹ). The rebuilding of Zion and the showing of God's glory are one event: "When the LORD shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory." What God does for His city reveals what God is.

"the destitute," ha'ar'ar (הָעַרְעָר), the stripped, forsaken one. The word means the stripped, the forsaken, the one who has nothing left. God does not despise even the emptiest prayer of the most destitute soul: "He will regard the prayer of the destitute, and not despise their prayer."

Explanation

Everything turns on the small word that opens verse 12: "But thou, O LORD, shalt endure for ever." The whole first part of the psalm has been about the sufferer's vanishing life, days like smoke, a heart withered like grass. Now comes the great contrast: however brief and fading my days are, thou, O LORD, endurest for ever. And notice where the afflicted man finds his hope, not in any sign that his own circumstances are about to improve, but purely in the permanence of God. He looks away from his own fading self to the God who does not fade. That is the first movement of healing. The second is just as striking: he lifts his eyes from his private grief to Zion, to God's larger kingdom purposes. "Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion: for the time to favour her, yea, the set time, is come." God has an appointed time to show mercy, a fixed hour on His calendar, and faith reckons that it has come. The overwhelmed man is lifted out of himself by remembering that God's clock is running and His purposes are sure. And mark the tender promise that anchors it: "He will regard the prayer of the destitute, and not despise their prayer." The word means the stripped, the forsaken, the one who has nothing left. God does not despise even the emptiest prayer of the most destitute soul. When Zion lies in ruins and the heart lies in the dust, God will arise, and He will hear.

Gospel Focus

"When the LORD shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory", this promise is fulfilled in Jesus Christ, who builds the true Zion and has appeared, and will appear, in glory. He said, "I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matthew 16:18), and the "set time" of favour came when "the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son" (Galatians 4:4). Christ is the appearing of God's glory, for in Him God visited and redeemed His people. And "he will regard the prayer of the destitute, and not despise their prayer" is the very heart of the gospel, for the Saviour came for the empty-handed and "hath filled the hungry with good things" (Luke 1:53). No prayer is too poor for Him, no soul too stripped and forsaken to be heard. So when you are overwhelmed, do as this psalm does: look away from your own fading days to the God who endures for ever, and beyond your private grief to the sure purposes of Christ, who is building His Zion and will yet appear in His glory. He will not despise your prayer.

Word Study

"of old," Hebrew lefanim (לְפָנִים), aforetime, in the beginning. The sufferer lifts his eyes as far back as they can go, past his own brief days to the beginning of all things. His comfort starts where the world started.

"hast thou laid the foundation," yasadta (יָסַדְתָּ). The earth was founded by God's own act, and "the heavens are the work of thy hands." These seem the most permanent things imaginable, the solid earth, the enduring sky.

"wax old like a garment," kabbeged yivlu (כַּבֶּגֶד יִבְלוּ). Yet even they will pass. Picture it: the mighty heavens wearing out like an old coat, threadbare with age.

"as a vesture shalt thou change them," kalvush tachalifem (כַּלְּבוּשׁ תַּחֲלִיפֵם). God folds the heavens up and lays them aside as easily as a man changes his clothes. "They shall perish, but thou shalt endure."

"thou art the same," attah-hu (אַתָּה־הוּא), thou art He. Here is the towering line that crowns the whole psalm, and the anchor for a soul whose own days are like vanishing smoke. Everything else fades and is changed; God does not change.

"thy years shall have no end," shenotekha lo yittammu (שְׁנוֹתֶיךָ לֹא יִתָּמּוּ). God's years never run out. And because the eternal God is unchanging, the future of His people is secure: "the children of thy servants shall continue, and their seed shall be established before thee."

Explanation

The overwhelmed sufferer ends by lifting his eyes as high as they can go, to the eternity of God, and finds there the deepest comfort of all. He looks first at the vast, ancient creation: "Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands." These seem the most permanent things imaginable, the solid earth, the enduring sky. Yet even they will pass: "They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them." Picture it, the mighty heavens wearing out like an old coat, and God folding them up and laying them aside as easily as a man changes his clothes. And then the towering line that crowns the whole psalm: "But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end." Here is the anchor for a soul whose own days are like vanishing smoke. Everything else fades, the sufferer, the nations, even the everlasting hills and the starry heavens, all of it will wear out and be changed. But God does not change and does not end. "Thou art the same." And because the eternal God is unchanging, the future of His people is secure: "the children of thy servants shall continue, and their seed shall be established before thee." A frail, dying man ties the thin thread of his life, and his children's lives, to the one Rock that never moves. Where can the overwhelmed find footing? Not in themselves, not in this passing world, but in the God who is always the same.

Gospel Focus

"But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end", the New Testament takes these very words and applies them, astonishingly, to the Lord Jesus Christ. Speaking of the Son, the writer to the Hebrews quotes this psalm: "And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands: They shall perish; but thou remainest... But thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail" (Hebrews 1:10-12). The eternal Creator addressed in Psalm 102, the One who laid the foundation of the earth, who outlasts the heavens, who never changes, is the Lord Jesus, God manifest in flesh. The same LORD who made all things is the One who came among us and died for us; there is no second God beside Him. And this is the believer's rock: "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever" (Hebrews 13:8). When your own days are smoke and the whole world is wearing out like a garment, you may fasten your soul to the One who never fades, the unchanging Christ, whose years shall have no end, and who holds the future of all His people secure before Him.