Old Testament · Poetry

Psalm 102

A Prayer of the Afflicted

My days vanish like smoke. My bones burn. But You, O Lord, endure forever. Human frailty meets divine permanence.

King James Version BSB KJV

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1Hear my prayer, O LORD, and let my cry come unto thee.

2Hide not thy face from me in the day when I am in trouble; incline thine ear unto me: in the day when I call answer me speedily.

3For my days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned as an hearth.

4My heart is smitten, and withered like grass; so that I forget to eat my bread.

5By reason of the voice of my groaning my bones cleave to my skin.

6I am like a pelican of the wilderness: I am like an owl of the desert.

7I watch, and am as a sparrow alone upon the house top.

8Mine enemies reproach me all the day; and they that are mad against me are sworn against me.

9For I have eaten ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping,

10Because of thine indignation and thy wrath: for thou hast lifted me up, and cast me down.

11My days are like a shadow that declineth; and I am withered like grass.

12But thou, O LORD, shalt endure for ever; and thy remembrance unto all generations.

13Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion: for the time to favour her, yea, the set time, is come.

14For thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and favour the dust thereof.

15So the heathen shall fear the name of the LORD, and all the kings of the earth thy glory.

16When the LORD shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory.

17He will regard the prayer of the destitute, and not despise their prayer.

18This shall be written for the generation to come: and the people which shall be created shall praise the LORD.

19For he hath looked down from the height of his sanctuary; from heaven did the LORD behold the earth;

20To hear the groaning of the prisoner; to loose those that are appointed to death;

21To declare the name of the LORD in Zion, and his praise in Jerusalem;

22When the people are gathered together, and the kingdoms, to serve the LORD.

23He weakened my strength in the way; he shortened my days.

24I said, O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days: thy years are throughout all generations.

25Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands.

26They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed:

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

28The children of thy servants shall continue, and their seed shall be established before thee.

Understand This

Psalm 102, explained

What Psalm 102 is saying

Psalm 102, titled 'A Prayer of the Afflicted,' is an individual lament that transitions into a hymn of Zion's restoration and a meditation on God's eternality. The psalmist's vivid imagery of physical and emotional decay—smoke, withered grass, a solitary bird—gives way to a stunning theological pivot: the eternal God will restore Zion at the appointed time. The New Testament applies verses 25–27 to Christ in Hebrews 1:10–12.

The background behind it

The psalm's concern for Zion's stones and dust strongly suggests a setting during or shortly after the Babylonian exile, when Jerusalem lay in ruins. The superscription identifies it generically as the prayer of an afflicted individual, allowing communal appropriation.

Themes running underneath

The psalm juxtaposes human transience with divine permanence. The psalmist's personal suffering becomes a lens for contemplating the nation's devastation, and both find resolution in God's unchanging nature and his covenantal commitment to Zion.

Why it still matters

This psalm models honest prayer that refuses to separate personal anguish from theological conviction. It demonstrates that acknowledging God's eternality does not negate present pain but reframes it within a larger redemptive story.

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Scripture text: King James Version — public domain.