Psalm 102

PSALM 102

A prayer of one afflicted, when he is faint and pours out his complaint before the Lord.

¹Hear my prayer, O Lord;

let my cry come to thee!

²Do not hide thy face from me

in the day of my distress!

Incline thy ear to me;

answer me speedily in the day when I call!

³For my days pass away like smoke,

and my bones burn like a furnace.

⁴My heart is smitten like grass, and withered;

I forget to eat my bread.

⁵Because of my loud groaning

my bones cleave to my flesh.

⁶I am like a vulture^p of the wilderness,

like an owl of the waste places;

⁷I lie awake,

I am like a lonely bird on the housetop.

⁸All the day my enemies taunt me,

those who deride me use my name for a curse.

⁹For I eat ashes like bread,

and mingle tears with my drink,

¹⁰because of thy indignation and anger;

for thou hast taken me up and thrown me away.

¹¹My days are like an evening shadow;

I wither away like grass.

¹²But thou, O Lord, art enthroned for ever;

thy name endures to all generations.

¹³Thou wilt arise and have pity on Zion;

it is the time to favor her;

the appointed time has come.

¹⁴For thy servants hold her stones dear,

and have pity on her dust.

¹⁵The nations will fear the name of the Lord,

and all the kings of the earth thy glory.

¹⁶For the Lord will build up Zion,

he will appear in his glory;

¹⁷he will regard the prayer of the destitute,

and will not despise their supplication.

¹⁸Let this be recorded for a generation to come,

so that a people yet unborn may praise the Lord:

¹⁹that he looked down from his holy height,

from heaven the Lord looked at the earth,

²⁰to hear the groans of the prisoners,

to set free those who were doomed to die;

²¹that men may declare in Zion the name of the Lord,

and in Jerusalem his praise,

²²when peoples gather together,

and kingdoms, to worship the Lord.

²³He has broken my strength in mid-course;

he has shortened my days.

²⁴“O my God,” I say, “take me not hence

in the midst of my days,

thou whose years endure

throughout all generations!”

²⁵Of old thou didst lay the foundation of the earth,

and the heavens are the work of thy hands.

²⁶They will perish, but thou dost endure;

they will all wear out like a garment.

Thou changest them like raiment, and they pass away;

²⁷but thou art the same, and thy years have no end.

²⁸The children of thy servants shall dwell secure;

their posterity shall be established before thee.