Bible Commentary

Expositor's Bible Commentary Psalm 102:1 A Prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed, and poureth out his complaint before the LORD. Hear my prayer, O LORD, and let my cry come unto thee. Psalm 102:1-28 Psalm 102:13-14 show that the psalm was written when Zion was in ruins and the time of her restoration at hand. Sadness shot with hope, as a cloud with sunlight, is the singer’s mood. The pressure of present sorrows points to the time of the Exile; the lightening of these, by the expectation that the hour for their cessation has all but struck, points to the close of that period. There is a general consensus of opinion on this, though Baethgen is hesitatingly inclined to adopt the Maccabean date, and Cheyne prefers the time of Nehemiah, mainly because the references to the "stones" and "dust" recall to him "Nehemiah’s lonely ride round the burned walls," and "Sanballat’s mocking at the Jews for attempting to revive the stones out of heaps of rubbish" (" Orig. of Psalt .," p. 70). These references would equally suit any period of desolation; but the point of time indicated by Psalm 102:13 is more probably the eve of restoration than the completion of the begun and interrupted reestablishment of Israel in its land. Like many of the later psalms, this is largely coloured by earlier ones, as well as by Deuteronomy, Job, and the second half of Isaiah, while it has also reminiscences of Jeremiah. Some commentators have, indeed, supposed it to be his work. The turns of thought are simple. While there is no clear strophical arrangement, there are four broadly distinguished parts: a prelude, invoking God to hearken ( Psalm 102:1-2 ); a plaintive bemoaning of the psalmist’s condition ( Psalm 102:3-11 ); a triumphant rising above his sorrows, and rejoicing in the fair vision of a restored Jerusalem, whose Temple courts the nations tread ( Psalm 102:12-22 ); and a momentary glance at his sorrows and brief life, which but spurs him to lay hold the more joyously on God’s eternity, wherein he finds the pledge of the fulfilment of his hopes and of God’s promises ( Psalm 102:23-28 ). The opening invocations in Psalm 102:1-2 are mostly found in other psalms. "Let my cry come unto Thee" recalls Psalm 18:6 . "Hide not Thy face" is like Psalm 27:9 . "In the day of my straits" recurs in Psalm 59:16 . "Bend to me Thy ear" is in Psalm 31:2 . "In the day when I call "is as in Psalm 56:9 . "Answer me speedily" is found in Psalm 69:17 . But the psalmist is not a cold-blooded compiler, weaving a web from old threads, but a suffering man, fain to give his desires voice, in words which sufferers before him had hallowed, and securing a certain solace by reiterating familiar petitions. They are none the less his own, because they have been the cry of others. Some aroma of the answers that they drew down in the past clings to them still, and makes them fragrant to him. Sorrow and pain are sometimes dumb, but, in Eastern natures, more often eloquent; finding ease in recounting their pangs. The psalmist’s first words of self-lamentation echo familiar strains, as he bases his cry for speedy answer on the swiftness with which his days are being whirled away, and melting like smoke as it escapes from a chimney. The image suggests another. The fire that makes the smoke is that in which his very bones are smouldering like a brand. The word for bones is in the singular, the bony framework being thought of as articulated into a whole. "Brand" is a doubtful rendering of a word which the Authorised Version, following some ancient Jewish authorities, renders hearth, as do Delitzsch and Cheyne. It is used in Isaiah 33:14 as =" burning," but "brand" is required to make out the metaphor. The same theme of physical decay is continued in Psalm 102:4 with a new image struck out by the ingenuity of pain. His heart is "smitten" as by sunstroke (compare Psalm 121:6 , Isaiah 49:10 , and for still closer parallels Hosea 9:16 , Jonah 4:7 , in both of which the same effect of fierce sunshine is described as the sufferer here bewails). His heart withers like Jonah’s gourd. The "For" in Psalm 102:4 b can scarcely be taken as giving the reason for this withering. It must rather be taken as giving the proof that it was so withered as might be concluded by beholders from the fact that he refused his food (Baethgen). The psalmist apparently intends in Psalm 102:5 to describe himself as worn to a skeleton by long-continued and passionate lamentations. But his phrase is singular. One can understand that emaciation should be described by saying that the bones adhered to the skin, the flesh having wasted away, but that they stick to the flesh can only describe it, by giving a wide meaning to "flesh," as including the whole outward part of the frame in contrast with the internal framework. Lamentations 4:8 gives the more natural expression. The psalmist has groaned himself into emaciation. Sadness and solitude go well together. We plunge into lonely places when we would give voice to our grief. The poet’s imagination sees his own likeness in solitude-loving creatures. The pelican is never now seen in Palestine but on Lake Huleh. Thomson ("Land and Book," p. 260: London, 1861) speaks of having found it there only, and describes it as "the most sombre, austere bird I ever saw." "The owl of the ruins" is identified by Tristram ("Land of Israel," p. 67) with the small owl Athene meridionalis , the emblem of Minerva, which "is very characteristic of all the hilly and rocky portions of Syria." The sparrow may be here a generic term for any small song bird, but there is no need for departing from the narrower meaning. Thomson (p. 43) says: "When one of them has lost his mate-an everyday occurrence-he will sit on the housetop alone and lament by the hour." The division of Psalm 102:7 is singular, as the main pause in it falls on "am become," to the disruption of the logical continuity. The difficulty is removed by Wickes ("Accentuation of the Poetical Books," p. 29), who gives several instances which seem to establish the law that, in "the musical accentuation, there is "an apparent reluctance to place the main dividing accent after the first, or before the last, word of the verse." The division is not logical, and we may venture to neglect it, and arrange as above, restoring the dividing accent to its place after the first word. Others turn the flank of the difficulty by altering the text to read, "I" am sleepless and must moan aloud" (so Cheyne, following Olshausen). Yet another drop of bitterness in the psalmist’s cup is the frantic hatred which pours itself out in voluble mockery all day long, making a running accompaniment to his wail. Solitary as he is, he cannot get beyond hearing of shrill insults. So miserable does he seem, that enemies take him and his distresses for a formula of imprecation, and can find no blacker curse to launch at other foes than to wish that they may be like him. So ashes, the token of mourning, are his food, instead of the bread which he had forgotten to eat, and there are more tears than wine in the cup he drinks. But all this only tells how sad he is. A deeper depth opens when he remembers why he is sad. The bitterest thought to a sufferer is that his sufferings indicate God’s displeasure; but it may be wholesome bitterness, which, leading to the recognition of the sin which evokes the wrath, may change into a solemn thankfulness for sorrows which are discerned to be chastisements, inflicted by that Love of which indignation is one form. The psalmist confesses sin in the act of bewailing sorrow, and sees behind all his pains the working of that hand whose interposition for him he ventures to implore. The tremendous metaphor of Psalm 102:10 b pictures it as thrust forth from heaven to grasp the feeble sufferer, as an eagle stoops to plunge its talons into a lamb. It lifts him high, only to give more destructive impetus to the force with which it flings him down, to the place where he lies, a huddled heap of broken bones and wounds. His plaint returns to its beginning, lamenting the brief life which is being wasted away by sore distress. Lengthening shadows tell of approaching night. His day is nearing sunset. It will be dark soon, and, as he has said ( Psalm 102:4 ), his very self is withering and becoming like dried-up herbage. One can scarcely miss the tone of individual sorrow in the preceding verses; but national restoration, not personal deliverance, is the theme o/the triumphant central part of the psalm. That is no reason for flattening the previous verses into the voice of the personified Israel, but rather for hearing in them the sighing of one exile, on whom the general burden weighed sorely. He lifts his tear-laden eyes to heaven, and catches a vision there which changes, as by magic, the key of his song-Jehovah sitting in royal state {compare Psalm 9:7 ; Psalm 29:10 } forever. That silences complaints, breathes courage into the feeble and hope into the despairing. In another mood the thought of the eternal rule of God might make man’s mortality more bitter, but Faith grasps it, as enfolding assurances which turn groaning into ringing praise. For the vision is not only of an everlasting Some One who works a sovereign will, but of the age-long dominion of Him whose name is Jehovah; and since that name is the revelation of His nature, it, too, endures forever. It is the name of Israel’s covenant making and keeping God. Therefore, ancient promises have not gone to water, though Israel is an exile, and all the old comfort and confidence are still welling up from the Name. Zion cannot die while Zion’s God lives. Lamentations 5:19 is probably the original of this verse, but the psalmist has changed "throne" into "memorial," i.e. name, and thereby deepened the thought. The assurance that God will restore Zion rests not only on His faithfulness, but on signs which show that the sky is reddening towards the day of redemption. The singer sees the indication that the hour fixed in God’s eternal counsels is at hand, because he sees how God’s servants, who have a claim on Him and are in sympathy with His purposes, yearn lovingly after the sad ruins and dust of the forlorn city. Some new access of such feelings must have been stirring among the devouter part of the exiles. Many large truths are wrapped in the psalmist’s words. The desolations of Zion knit true hearts to her more closely. The more the Church or any good cause is depressed, the more need for its friends to cling to it. God’s servants should see that their sympathies go toward the same objects as God’s do. They are proved to be His servants, because they favour what He favours. Their regards, turned to existing evils, are the precursors of Divine intervention for the remedy of these. When good men begin to lay the Church’s or the world’s miseries to heart, it is a sign that God is beginning to heal them. The cry of God’s servants can "hasten the day of the Lord," and preludes His appearance like the keen morning air stirring the sleeping flowers before sunrise. The psalmist anticipates that a rebuilt Zion will ensure a worshipping world. He expresses that confidence, which he shares with Isaiah 40:1-31 ; Isaiah 41:1-29 ; Isaiah 42:1-25 ; Isaiah 43:1-28 ; Isaiah 44:1-28 ; Isaiah 45:1-25 ; Isaiah 46:1-13 , in Psalm 102:15-18 . The name and glory of Jehovah will become objects of reverence to all the earth, because of the manifestation of them by the rebuilding of Zion, which is a witness to all men of His power and tender regard to His people’s cry. The past tenses of Psalm 102:16-17 do not indicate that the psalm is later than the Restoration. It is contemplated as already accomplished because it is the occasion of the "fear" prophesied in Psalm 102:15 , and consequently prior in time to it. "Destitute," in Psalm 102:17 is literally naked or stript. It is used in Jeremiah 17:6 as the name of a desert plant, probably a dwarf juniper, stunted and dry, but seems to be employed here as simply designating utter destitution. Israel had been stripped of every beauty and made naked before her enemies. Despised, she had cried to God, and now is clothed again with the garments of salvation, "as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels." A wondering world will adore her delivering God. The glowing hopes of psalmist and prophet seem to be dreams, since the restored Israel attracted no such observance and wrought no such convictions. But the singer was not wrong in believing that the coming of Jehovah in His glory for the rebuilding of Zion would sway the world to homage. His facts were right, but he did not know their perspective, nor could he understand how many weary years lay, like a deep gorge hidden from the eye of one who looks over a wide prospect, between the rebuilding of which he was thinking, and that truer establishment of the city of God, which is again parted from the period of universal recognition of Jehovah’s glory by so many sad and stormy generations. But the vision is true. The coming of Jehovah in His glory will be followed by a world’s recognition of its light. That praise accruing to Jehovah shall Be not only universal, but shall go on sounding, with increasing volume in its tone, through coming generations. This expectation is set forth in Psalm 102:18-22 which substantially reiterate the thought of the preceding, with the addition that there is to be a new Israel, a people yet to be created. { Psalm 22:31 } The psalmist did not know "the deep things he spoke." He did know that Israel was immortal, and that the seed of life was in the tree that had cast its leaves and stood bare and apparently dead. But he did not know the process by which that new Israel was to be created, nor the new elements of which it was to consist. His confidence teaches us never to despair of the future of God’s Church, however low its present state, but to look down the ages, in calm certainty that, however externals may change, the succession of God’s children will never fail, nor the voice of their praise ever fall silent. The course of God’s intervention for Israel is described in Psalm 102:19-20 . His looking down from heaven is equivalent to His observance, as the all-seeing Witness and Judge, {compare Psalm 14:2 ; Psalm 33:13-14 , etc .} and is preparatory to His hearing the sighing of the captive Israel, doomed to death. The language of Psalm 102:20 is apparently drawn from Psalm 79:11 . The thought corresponds to that of Psalm 102:17 . The purpose of His intervention is set forth in Psalm 102:21-22 as being the declaration of Jehovah’s name and praise in Jerusalem before a gathered world. The aim of Jehovah’s dealings is that all men, through all generations, may know and praise Him. That is but another way of saying that He infinitely desires, and perpetually works for, men’s highest good. For our sakes, He desires so much that we should know Him, since the knowledge is life eternal. He is not greedy of adulation nor dependent on recognition, but He loves men too well not to rejoice in being understood and loved by them, since Love ever hungers for return. The psalmist saw what shall one day be, when, far down the ages, he beheld the world gathered in the temple courts, and heard the shout of their praise borne to him up the stream of time. He penetrated to the inmost meaning of the Divine acts, when he proclaimed that they were all done for the manifestation of the Name, which cannot but be praised when it is known. If the poet was one of the exiles, on whom the burden of the general calamity weighed as a personal sorrow, it is very natural that his glowing anticipations of national restoration should be, as in. this psalm, enclosed in a setting of more individual complaint and petition. The transition from these to the purely impersonal centre Of the psalm, and the recurrence to them in Psalm 102:23-28 , are inexplicable, if the "I" of the first and last parts is Israel, but perfectly intelligible if it is one Israelite. For a moment the tone of sadness is heard in Psalm 102:23 ; but the thought of his own afflicted and brief life is but a stimulus to the psalmist to lay hold of God’s immutability and to find rest there. The Hebrew text reads "His strength," and is followed (by, the LXX, Vulgate, Hengstenberg, and Kay He afflicted on the "way with His power"); but the reading of the Hebrew margin, adopted above and by most commentators, is preferable, as supplying an object for the verb, which is lacking in the former reading, and as corresponding to "my days" in b. The psalmist has felt the exhaustion of long sorrow and the shortness of his term. Will God do all these glorious things of which he has been singing, and he, the singer, not be there to see? That would mingle bitterness in his triumphant anticipations; for it would be little to him, lying in his grave, that Zion should be built again. The hopes with which some would console us for the loss of the Christian assurance of immortality, that the race shall march on to new power and nobleness, are poor substitutes for continuance of our own lives and for our own participation in the glories of the future. The psalmist’s prayer, which takes God’s eternity as its reason for deprecating his own premature death, echoes the inextinguishable confidence of the devout heart, that somehow even its fleeting being has a claim to be assimilated in duration to its Eternal Object of trust and aspiration. The contrast between God’s years and man’s days may be brooded on in bitterness or in hope. They who are driven by thinking of their own mortality to clutch, with prayerful faith, God’s eternity, use the one aright, and will not be deprived of the other. The solemn grandeur of Psalm 102:25-26 needs little commentary, but it may be noted that a reminiscence of Isaiah 11:1-16 runs through them both in the description of the act of creation of heaven and earth, { Isaiah 48:13 ; Isaiah 44:24 } and in that of their decaying like a garment. { Isaiah 51:6 ; Isaiah 54:10 } That which has been created can be removed. The creatural is necessarily the transient. Possibly, too, the remarkable expression "changed," as applied to the visible creation, may imply the thought which had already been expressed in Isaiah, and was destined to receive such deepening by the Christian truth of the new heavens and new earth-a truth the contents of which are dim to us until it is fulfilled. But whatever may be the fate of creatures, He who receives no accession to His stable being by originating suffers no, diminution by extinguishing them. Man’s days, the earth’s ages, and the aeons of the heavens pass, and still "Thou art He," the same Unchanging Author of change. Measures of time fail when applied to His being, whose years have not that which all divisions of time have-an end. An unending year is a paradox, which, in relation to God, is a truth. It is remarkable that the psalmist does not draw the conclusion that he himself shall receive an answer to his prayer, but that "the children of Thy servants shall dwell" i.e., in the land, and that there will always be an Israel "established before Thee." He contemplates successive generations as in turn dwelling in the promised land (and perhaps in the ancient "dwelling place to all generations," even in God); but of his own continuance he is silent. Was he not assured of that? or was he so certain of the answer to his prayer that he had forgotten himself in the vision of the eternal God and the abiding Israel? Having regard to the late date of the psalm, it is hard to believe that silence meant ignorance, while it may well be that it means a less vivid and assured hope of immortality, and a smaller space occupied by that hope than with us. But the other explanation is not to be left out of view, and the psalmist’s oblivion of self in rapt gazing on God’s eternal being-the pledge of His servant’s perpetuity-may teach us that we reach the summit of Faith when we lose ourselves in God. The Epistle to the Hebrews quotes Psalm 102:25-27 as spoken of "the Son." Such an application of the words rests on the fact that the psalm speaks of the coming of Jehovah for redemption, who is none other than Jehovah manifested fully in the Messiah. But Jehovah whose coming brings redemption and His recognition by the world is also Creator. Since, then, the Incarnation is, in truth, the coming of Jehovah, which the psalmist, like all the prophets, looked for as the consummation, He in whom the redeeming Jehovah was manifested is He in whom Jehovah the Creator "made the worlds." The writer of the Epistle is not asserting that the psalmist consciously spoke of the Messiah, but he is declaring that his words, read in the light of history, point to Jesus as the crowning manifestation of the redeeming, and therefore necessarily of the creating, God. The Expositor's Bible Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.

Hear my prayer, O Lord, and let my cry come unto Thee. Psalm 102 Thoughts of comfort and complaint Homilist. I. THOUGHTS OF COMPLAINT (vers. 1-11). 1. Concerning bodily sufferings. (1) The physical anguish of life (ver. 3). (2) The terrible brevity of life (ver. 11). 2. Concerning mental sufferings. "I am in trouble." "My heart is smitten," etc. His mental anguish destroyed his appetite for food, made his bones "cleave" to his "skin," and to mingle his drink with tears. Such is the connection between the mind and the body that a suffering mind will soon bring the body to decay and death. One dark thought has often struck down a stalwart frame. 3. Concerning social sufferings (ver. 8). The coldness, the calumny, the envy and jealousy of our fellow-men cannot fail to strike anguish into the heart. 4. Concerning religious sufferings (ver. 10). Moral suffering is the soul of all suffering. "A wounded spirit who can bear?" II. THOUGHTS OF COMFORT (vers. 12-28). These thoughts refer to God. 1. His existence amidst all the changes of earth (ver. 12). 2. His anticipated interposition on behalf of mankind (vers. 13-18). (1) It is fixed — a "set time." (2) It is conditional (ver. 14). "Seek, and ye shall find," etc. (3) It is glorious (ver. 15). (4) It is prayer-answering (ver. 19). (5) It is always rememberable (ver. 18). 3. His past kindness towards the suffering (vers. 19-22). 4. His unchangeableness amidst all the mutations of the universe. (1) Men change, but He remains the same (vers 23, 24). (2) The universe changes, but He remains the same (vers. 25-27).The universe had an origin and is destined to have a dissolution. It had an origin. "Of old hast Thou laid," etc. This account of the origin of the universe contradicts atheistic eternalists and sceptical evolutionists. It will have a dissolution. "It shall perish." Dissolution, in fact, is a law of the organized universe. Both the origin and dissolution of the universe are attributable to One Personality. "Of old hast Thou laid." The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews applies this to Christ, therefore to him Christ was Eternal God. One Being created all, one Being will dissolve all. This One Personality remains unalterable from the origin to the dissolution of the universe. ( Homilist. ) The conditions of acceptable prayer D. A. Clark. 1. There must be a holy respect for the character and ways of God. We must come looking at all His attributes. They must fill all the eye, and ravish all the heart. 2. As we are social beings, the mode of our approach must show that we are not praying alone, that we belong to a praying family; and we should wish to get near to His presence, and not pray at a distance. The child would choose to come where the father was, if he could speak to him, and not stand at a distance, as if he were praying by proxy to an absent father. 3. Our prayers must go up with sincerity before him, and with that open frankness that love is accustomed to generate. And we should really desire the blessing we need, and not some other that we are afraid to ask for, as if we were held in the attitude of foreigners, who were supplicating mercies which we not only did not deserve, but had no reason to expect. 4. We must have our eyes filled with the precious Mediator: He must be to us "the chief among ten thousands, and altogether lovely." 5. We must approach Him with a spirit of submission. This, however, will not imply indifference. There can be no resignation, unless the heart desires earnestly the blessing it supplicates. 6. We must come with a spirit of humility and penitence. The suppliant who can for one single moment forget that he is a suppliant will deserve to be repulsed in the very prayer he makes. 7. It would be natural and indispensable that we remember that we have received blessings from the same hand before, and there is no part of our plea that is more efficacious than where we tell of the mercies received in days gone by. ( D. A. Clark. ) Earnest prayer alone succeeds R. J. Campbell, M. A. " Not very long ago I was staying at Matlock, and some one in Manchester wanted to call me up on the telephone. Speaking through the telephone is a thing to which I am unaccustomed. I could hear the voice at the other end asking me if I were there. I shouted that I was, I bellowed that I was, but still I heard the question, 'Are you there?' In despair I put the instrument-down and went to the porter. With a pitying smile be took the instrument, and spoke through it as quietly as possible. He was heard. I said, 'Why can't I make him hear?' 'Because,' he said, 'you forget one very simple thing. You do not take hold of the receiver firmly.'" Oh, how often in our appeals to high Heaven we ask and receive not because we forget to take a firm hold. ( R. J. Campbell, M. A. ) God will hear my prayer A. Maclaren, D.D. There is Christ, as most of us, I suppose, believe, Lord of all creatures, administering the affairs of the universe; the steps of His throne and the precincts of His court are thronged with dependents whose eyes wait upon Him, who are fed from His stores; and yet my poor voice may steal through that chorus-shout of petition and praise, and His ear will detect its lowest note, and will separate the thin stream of my prayer from the great sea of supplication which rolls to His seat, and will answer me. ( A. Maclaren, D.D. ) Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion : for the time to favour her, yea, the set time, is come . Psalm 102:13, 14 A revival of the Church, and symptoms which precede it J. Wileman. I. THERE IS A FAVOURABLE TIME TO PROMOTE THE REVIVAL OF THE CHURCH. 1. The source to which the Church must look for a revival. The Lord alone can revive the Church, and add to her such as shall be saved ( Psalm 80:1-3 ; Psalm 85:6 ; Isaiah 51:3 ; Habakkuk 3:2 ; Zechariah 4:6 ). 2. The nature of that revival which the Church may expect. The words "mercy" and "favour" suggest — (1) Deliverance. (2) Union. There may be unity of effort with a great variety of name, method, and form. The union of which God is the Author is frequently spoken of in the Bible ( Psalm 133 .; John 13:34, 35 ; John 17:21 ). (3) Prosperity. The conversion of sinners. 3. The time when the revival of the Church may be expected. The deliverance of the Jews from their captivity was foretold ( Isaiah 14:1, 2 ; Jeremiah 25:11, 12 ; Jeremiah 32:36-39 ). How wonderfully Jehovah brought about the deliverance of His people from Babylon at the set time! He influenced Cyrus and Darius, heathen princes, to forward it. He raised up Ezra and Nehemiah, etc. II. THE REVIVAL OF THE CHURCH IS ALWAYS PRECEDED BY CERTAIN INFALLIBLE SIGNS. 1. Solemn humiliation before God. Before the Jews were delivered from the Babylonish captivity, they were humbled before God on account of their transgressions. The nation was ashamed and cured of its idolatry, and never since then has it bent its knees at an idol's shrine ( Ezra 9:6, 7 ; Ezra 10:1 ; Daniel 9:7-11 ). Is there this spirit of humiliation before God in modern churches? 2. Special, importunate, believing prayer. What beautiful instructions and examples we have in the Bible of the value of such prayer ( Isaiah 62:1 ; Ezekiel 36:37 ; Luke 11:5-10 ). 3. Affection for the ordinances of God's house. They loved the very stones, and even the dust of their dilapidated Zion ( Psalm 137:5, 6 ). So it is in a revival of religion. When God is about to visit His people in mercy, everything in regard to the Church is loved. 4. Activity and self-denying efforts in God's cause. The Jews showed their love to Jerusalem in a practical manner ( Nehemiah 4:6 ). They work despite the scorn of their foes. Let these signs exist in any Church, and the fruit will soon appear. She shall increase in purity and influence. ( J. Wileman. ) Religious revival Anon. Zion is in captivity; but the psalmist is confident that God will deliver and revive His people. I. GROUNDS FOR EXPECTING A REVIVAL. 1. God's unchangeable character (ver. 12). 2. God's memory (ver. 12). 3. God's mercy (ver. 13). 4. God's purpose (ver. 13). II. SIGNS OF APPROACHING REVIVAL. 1. The Church's increased attention to all that pertains to its welfare and success (ver. 14). 2. Its affectionate desire for such a revival (ver. 14). 3. Its compassionate concern on account of prevailing desolations (ver. 14). 4. Its manifest pleasure in service (ver. 14). III. THE EFFECTS OF SUCH REVIVAL. 1. The ungodly shall fear the Lord (ver. 15). 2. The great of earth will recognize our God, abiding in and working through His Church. ( Anon. ) The set time to favour Zion John Stock. I. WHENEVER GOD AFFLICTS HIS CHURCH HE HAS GOOD REASONS FOR DOING SO. 1. The purification of the Church. Before the last great persecution, under Diocletian, the Church had sunk into a state of declension from the truth and vital piety through the continuance of a long season of comparative tranquillity. The same remarks will apply even to a yet earlier persecution, under Decius. During this last calamity , of Carthage, bore the following testimony: — "It must be owned and confessed that this calamity has happened to us because of our sins. Christ, our Lord, fulfilled the will of His Father, but we neglect the will of Christ. Our main study is to get money and to raise estates. We follow after pride; we are at leisure for nothing but emulation and quarrelling, and have neglected the simplicity of the faith. We have renounced the world in words only, and not in deed." 2. The trial and development of the graces of the saints. Adversity tries the mettle of our faith. It shows whether or not we are really walking under the influence of that principle which is the substance of things hoped for — the evidence of things not seen. It tests the quality of our zeal, demonstrating whether it be the mere result of the excitement produced by a crowd, or whether it has its foundation sufficiently deep in principle and affection to sustain it in being and activity when it has to work, as did Elijah, almost alone; whether it be like the flower, which blooms in summer and dies in winter; or like the hardy evergreen, which lifts its head and wears its foliage amid the severest cold. Every Christian grace is, more or less, tried, and the whole character of the man of God is tested by adversity — just as the qualities of the ship are proved by the fury of the billows on which she rides, and the might of the tempest with which she is assailed. And as a time of adversity tries, so it strengthens and matures the virtues of the Church. It imparts a robustness to the faith of believers, and an energy to their patience and zeal. It brings them into frequent and protracted communion with their God, and imparts an agonizing earnestness to their addresses to the throne of grace. 3. The display of the Divine power to deliver. It is manifest that if the Church had no trials, she could have no deliverances. God permits her to be led into straits, that He may show her how He can save, and that the recollection of past deliverances may fortify her mind against all future difficulties. II. GOD HAS A SET TIME FOR THE DELIVERANCE OF THE CHURCH. 1. This time is unalterably fixed by the Divine wisdom and mercy. 2. It is selected as being most conducive to the Divine glory. He commonly selects the time when He sees that "the power of His people is gone, and that there is none shut up nor left " for their deliverance. Then the creature can arrogate none of the praise to himself, and it is evident that all the honour must be laid at the feet of the Almighty. The pride of all human glorying "is stained," and "the Lord alone is exalted." 3. The arrival of this time is promoted by the whole course of Providence. How admirably does the history of the Reformation in Europe in the sixteenth century illustrate this sentiment. The rising up of such men as Luther , Melanchthon , Zuingle , Calvin , Knox , and their coadjutors, and their appearance almost simultaneously upon the theatre of Europe; the extraordinary political convulsions of the times, which repeatedly served to divert the attention of the enemies of the Church from their designs upon her; the conversion to the faith of some of the potentates of Germany, and other countries, who screened most opportunely the lives of the reformers from the fury of the papists; the recent invention of the art of printing; and the revival of literature under the auspices of Erasmus , all served to aid in shaking the ponderous pillars of the papal power! The pages of general ecclesiastical history, and of particular religious communities, abound with examples of a similar character, proving that the course of Providence, and the riches of universal nature, are ever subservient to the Mediator's sceptre. III. THE NEAR APPROACH OF THE TIME TO FAVOUR ZION IS ALWAYS INDICATED BY CERTAIN INFALLIBLE SIGNS. It is preceded by — 1. The sanctification to the Church of her trials. When God's design in the affliction of His Church is answered, the chastisement ceases. 2. The prevalence of great affection for the ordinances and people of God. One principal evidence that the Lord was about to restore the Jews to their native land, was the ardour of their reviving affection for the city and Temple of their God. 3. Faith in the Divine promises. Faith is to God's mercies what the tone of the digestive organs is to the aliment of which we partake. It enables us so to receive them as to convert them into nourishment for our spiritual life; whereas without faith they would only produce sluggishness and disease. ( John Stock. ) Zion's prosperity I. THE NATURE OF THE PROSPERITY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. We do not conceive it necessarily to be a sign of a church's prosperity when the congregation is large or rich, or the minister eloquent. We must consider for what purposes the Church was formed; and if it be not accomplishing that particular object, it is not prospering. The Church is established for two objects: first, for bringing God's wandering sheep back to the fold of Christ; and, secondly, for fostering those sheep that are brought within the fold. II. THE NECESSITY FOR TEE PROSPERITY OF THE CHURCH. I trust that some of you have a regard for the Church's prosperity; if not, you ought to have. Let me remind you why; even selfish as we may be, we ought to care for the success of the Church. 1. For our own sakes. If we do not, by Divine grace, live and labour for our fellow-creatures, their decline will have a deleterious influence upon our own piety. 2. Your families, too, are deeply interested in the prosperity of the Church. What is good for the parent is good for the child, and what is good for the child is good for the parent. 3. Also, for the sake of the neighbourhood in which you live, labour for God, seeking His blessing, that your Church may prosper. 4. Again, for the sake of our nation, seek the prosperity of Zion. If we are to be a prosperous nation, we shall not accomplish that result by our commerce, or by the force of arms, but by our Christianity. The flag of old England is nailed to the mast, not by our sailors, but by our God. But, most of all, we want to see the Church prosper for Christ's sake. III. THE ONLY MEANS OF REVIVAL IN GOD'S CHURCH. What is it? We may hear of some great evangelist going through the land; surely he will revive the Churches. We will hold a convocation of the clergy, and they shall devise means of reviving the Churches. Not so thinks the psalmist; he says, "Thou shalt arise," as if God had nothing to do but to arise, and then His Church would arise, too; for, when God arises, Zion begins to prosper. How easy are the methods by which God accomplishes His great works! IV. THE SIGNS THAT GOD'S CHURCH IS BEING BLESSED (ver. 14). What are the "stones" of Zion? 1. The Church of God is built of living stones, — that is, the children of God; and it is a good sign when God's servants take pleasure in one another, and "favour the dust," — that is, not the ministers, nor the deacons, but the poor members. 2. The next translation we will give of this word "stones" is, the doctrines of the Bible. You say, "I do not see so much in doctrines, after all." Then you will not see much prosperity. I love so much what I believe to be true, that I would fight for every grain of it; not for the "stones" only, but for the very "dust thereof." I hold that we ought not to say that any truth is non-essential; it may be non-essential to salvation, but it is essential for something else. 3. The stones of Christ's Church are the ordinances, and God's people ought to take care that they love her "stones," and favour her "dust." 4. It is a good sign of the Church's prosperity when the ministry of the Word and the prayer-meeting are well attended; — especially the latter. If you say, "It is only a prayer-meeting," even that is the "dust " of Zion, and God's people "take pleasure in her stones, and favour the dust thereof," — the little services as well as the great services. ( C. H. Spurgeon . ) Zion's ruin and Zion's hope E. Compton. I. ZION'S STATE OF RUIN AND DESOLATION. 1. The enemies of vital godliness triumph. 2. Iniquity abounds, and the love of many cools. 3. Worldliness. 4. Sorrow. 5. Darkness. Zion is under a cloud. The world asks: "Where is thy God?" II. ZION'S FRIENDS. 1. They love its ruins and dust. 2. The very mournful state of Zion produced a gracious effect upon the hearts of its friends. III. ZION'S HOPE. 1. Zion's hope is in God. 2. God's time to work deliverance is when His people are ready. 3. God's time, yea, God's set time, has come, when hopeful signs appear among God's people.It would be presumption to expect God to work for us if we were inactive. The love of God's people for Zion prompts their prayers; their knowledge of God inspires hope. ( E. Compton. ) For Thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and favour the dust thereof. Psalm 102:14 The secret of the stones C. E. Stone. Stones and dust! Stones that have fallen out of place and lie scattered on the ground; dust that flies on every wind and drops back again into crevice and heap. Stones that are chipped and stained with smoke and fire and blood; dust, the final form of great things, the last remainder of vanished glories. There is nothing specially interesting or attractive about these things; you would not go out of the way to view them. Yet to a certain few they are beautiful with a beauty neither nature nor art can give. They are the stones of a temple that once smoked with sacrifice and rang with resounding psalms. It is the dust of a shrine that once reared its head into the sky, and centred in itself the national pride and worship. I. BRICKS AND STONES AND MORTAR ARE NEITHER INTERESTING NOR IMPRESSIVE MATERIALS. Scattered about over yards and fields, they have no attraction for any one except the boys of the neighbourhood. But bring them together, combine them, and their condition is at once altered, and the commonplace things become a force whose power all men must acknowledge. Weld them into the monument of some illustrious statesman, and crowds will gather round it and garland it with flowers. Build them into some cathedral of vast proportions, and the effect is overwhelming; you sink into insignificance, and feel like an ant crawling over its floor. Fashion them into some mighty sepulchre to hold the dust of some uncrowned king, and pilgrims from the far places of the earth will come to gaze upon it. II. THE TEMPLE STONES HAVE A POWER OVER US, BUT THE SECRET OF THEIR POWER IS NOT SO MUCH IN THEM AS IN THAT WITH WHICH THEY ARE IDENTIFIED. It may be found partly in the memories which cluster about them. Round those stones of the Temple there hung for the Jew memories of his two great kings, David and Solomon — memories of the full tide of national prosperity and the zenith of their power as an empire; of the great priests and prophets who had ruled them; of the oracles and revelations in national need; of great days of festival; and of sacrifice, confession, and pardon. And our less ancient and less historic fanes are full of memories, less splendid, but equally dear. There is the memory of one long since dead, who first guided our little feet up the aisle. There is the memory of the saintly men who first taught us how sweet and strong and beautiful human character could be. There is the memory of friendships formed there and loves born there which have been woven into our lives, and are part of our lives for ever. There is the memory of that great hour when we first discovered Christ was real and living, and knew what it was to believe and be saved. III. IT IS CUSTOMARY FOR SOME TO LOOK UPON THIS AFFECTION WITH SCARCELY VEILED CONTEMPT. They call it love for bricks and mortar, and dub it superstition and sentiment. Instead of being a superstition or sentiment, this attachment to God's house is one of the great forces which make for the building of character. Love of the temple is love of the best and highest, and its harvest is nobility of character and righteousness of life. Let us use our wisdom, our intellects, our energy, and our wealth to make the temple increasingly dear. Let us make it so beautiful, its service so attractive, its ministry so strong, its power so Christlike that the love for the stones of His house — which is one of the strongest formative and conserving forces in the lives of men and nations — may be the common and binding sentiment of all classes of men. ( C. E. Stone. ) When the Lord shall build up Zion, He shall appear in His glory. Psalm 102:16 The building up of Zion W. B. Browne. I. WHEN MAY ZION, OR THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH, BE SAID TO BE BUILT UP? 1. When sinners are converted to God. 2. When Christian converts grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour. 3. When pure and undefiled religion spreads to the ends of the earth. II. THE BUILDING OF ZION IS GOD'S OWN WORK. 1. He is the Author, Cause, and Fountain of all blessedness. 2. He has promised prosperity, success, and extension to the Christian Church. III. IN THE BUILDING UP OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH, THERE IS AN EXTRAORDINARY DISPLAY OF THE GLORY OF GOD. Conclusion: — 1. Christians may see how much reason they have to be confident and joyful under the most discouraging circumstance which occur, both with respect to themselves and the Church. 2. The duty of Christians to observe, with habitual attention, the course of Providence, and diligently to compare it with the designs announced in prophecy. 3. Reproof to those who are saying that the time is not yet come for the friends of Zion to exert themselves with diligence and zeal for her building up, extension, and glory. 4. The extreme folly, impiety, and danger of those who ridicule our hopes, and attempt to oppose the progress of the gospel 5. This subject is eminently fitted to illuminate our path, and direct our steps, in the present situation of the world. 6. Our subject affords great encouragement to missionary plans and exerstions. ( W. B. Browne. ) The glory of God displayed in the building up of Zion T. Davidson, D.D. I. THE BUILDING UP OF ZION IS WHOLLY THE WORK OF GOD. In affecting this work, indeed, it pleaseth God to employ and to honour mortal men, and other creatures, visible and invisible. He calls "pastors and teachers for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ," by publishing and enforcing the doctrine of salvation. He raises up kings and queens, and princes and nobles, to be "nursing fathers and nursing mothers" to His Church. He gives a Paul to plant, and an Apollos to water. This He does, however, not because He stands in absolute need of them, nor because of any fitness they possess in themselves to accomplish the end. All their motions and operations and success depend entirely upon God. II. WHEN IT PLEASETH GOD TO BUILD UP ZION, HE APPEARS IN HIS GLORY. 1. Consider the materials of which the Church is built. When a building of strength, of beauty, and of magnificence, is to be erected, men collect the most excellent materials that can be procured. But here, materials are chosen and employed which are in themselves the most worthless, and the most unlikely to answer the purpose. 2. Consider the instruments which God employs for accomplishing this great object ( 1 Corinthians 1:27, 28 ; Matthew 21:16 ; 2 Corinthians 12:9 ). 3. Consider the circumstances of the times in which Zion is most remarkably built up; times the most unlikely for her revival. Such was her condition at the close of the seventy years' captivity, when she was like "a valley of dry bones." Such was her condition when "the Word was made flesh, and tabernacled" on earth; and when the apostles of Jesus were sent forth to propagate the Gospel among the nations, "blinded by the god of this world, sitting in darkness, and in the region and shadow of death." III. WHAT THE PARTICULAR GLORIES ARE WHICH HE THEN DISPLAYS. 1. His unsearchable wisdom. The plots and combinations of avowed enemies, their strength, their artful policy, their cruelty, their persecutions, nay, the very imperfections, faults, and corruptions of sincere friends (like the contention between Paul and Barnabas), all contribute to the building of the Church, though all of them seem to have a quite contrary tendency. 2. His almighty power. So eminently is this Divine excellence manifested in this work, that it is not unusually represented in prophecy, as a new creation ( Isaiah 65:17, 18 ). 3. His holiness. 4. His benignity. 5. His faithfulness. 6. His justice. ( T. Davidson, D.D. ) God's glory in the building up of Zion I remember to have seen, close by the side of the Alps, a house which had upon its front words to this effect: "This house was built entirely by the skill, wealth, and industry of its inhabitants." It struck me as not being a very modest thing to put in front of one's house, for after all the structure was not very marvellous; but when we look at the glorious architecture of the Church of God, it would be no mean part of its lustre that it may fittingly bear such an inscription as this — "This house was built entirely by the wisdom, the munificence, and the power of the infinite Jehovah." I. ZION BUILT UP. 1. One essential to the building up of Zion is practical conversion. As we see our sons converted, and the great miracle of regeneration still being performed, we take heart and are of good courage to go on in the work of the Lord. 2. A public confession of faith must follow conversion. It is the duty of every Christian — nay, it is the instinct of his spiritual life — to avow the faith which he has received, and avowing it, he finds himself associated with others who have made the same profession, and he assists them in holy labour. When he is strong he ministers of his strength to the weak, and when he is himself weak, he borrows strength from those who just then may happen to be strong in the faith. 3. We cannot build without union. A house must have its doors, and its windows, its foundation, its rafters, and its ceiling. So, a church must be organized; it must have its distinct offices and officers; it must have its departments of labour, and proper men must be found, according to Christ's own appointment, to preside over those departments. 4. There must also be edification and instruction in the faith. No neglect of an appeal to the passions, certainly; no forgetfulness as to what is popular and exciting; but with this we must have the solid bread-corn of the kingdom, without which God's children will faint in the weary way of this wilderness. 5. It does not strike me, however, that I have yet given a full picture of the building up of a church, for a church such as I have described would not yet answer the end for which Christ ordained it. Christ ordained His Church to be His great aggressive agency in combating with six, and with the world that lieth in the wicked one. 6. After a church has become all that I have been describing, the next thing it ought to do should be to think of the formation of other churches. The building up of an empire must often be by colonization; and it is the same with the Church. II. THE BUILDING UP OF ZION IS, ACCORDING TO THE TEXT, CONNECTED WITH JEHOVAH'S BEING GLORIFIED. 1. God often appears in glory to me as one of His builders, and I will tell you in what respect. When I have been sitting to see inquirers, I have sometimes found that God has blessed to the conversion of souls some of my worst sermons — those which I thought I could weep over, which seemed more than ordinarily weak, and lacking in all the elements likely to make them blessed, except that they were sincerely spoken. 2. Persons have been brought up and educated under sermons that are as hostile to spiritual life as the plague is to natural life. The case of Luther is one instance of this, and in all such cases God appears in His glory. 3. Think, too, of the agencies which are abroad hostile to the Church of God. What a splendid thing was that — may we see it repeated in our own day! — when the twelve fishermen first attacked Roman idolatry. The prestige of ages made the idolatry of Rome venerable; it had an imperial Caesar and all his legions at its back, and every favourable auspice to defend it. Those twelve men, with no patronage but the patronage of the King of kings, with no learning except that which they had learned at the feet of Jesus, with weapons as simple as David's sling and stone, went forth to the fight; and you know how the grisly head of the monstrous idolatry was by and by in the hands of the Christian champion as he returned rejoicing from the fray. So shall it be yet again, and then, amidst the acclamation of myriad witnesses, shall God appear in His glory. III. THE HOPE EXCITED. If God be glorified by the building up of Zion, then most certainly Zion will be built. If He is glorified by the conversion, and by the banding together of converted men and women, then it seems but natural to hope, yea, with certainty we may conclude that the zeal of the Lord of Hosts will perform it. I like the spirit in which Luther used to say, that when he could get God into his quarrels he felt safe. When it was Luther alone, he did not know which way it would go; but when he felt that his God would be compromised and dishonoured if such a thing were not done, and would be glorified if it were done, then he felt safe enough. So in the great crusade of truth is not God with us beyond a doubt? The honour of the Church is intertwisted with the honour and glory of Christ; if she shall pass away, if she be deserted, then where is her Captain, her Head, her Husband? IV. Our whole subject SUGGESTS AN INQUIRY. Have I any part or lot in this work which is to bring glory to God? I may have to do with it in two ways, as a builded one, or as a builder. I can have nothing to do with it in the latter capacity, unless I have had to do with it in the former. God will be glorified in the building up of Zion: shall I minister to His glory by being part of the Zion that is to be built up? If thou wouldst glorify God, humble thyself, and receive salvation from the Lord Jesus Christ: and then, being built upon this foundation, thou shall glorify God. The inquiry shapes itself afresh. Hast thou anything to do with glorifying God in respect of being thyself a builder up of Zion? Did you ever win a soul to Christ? ( C. H. Spurgeon . ) Zion built -- the glory of the Lord N. Hill. I. ZION MAY LIE FOR A TIME IN A SOMEWHAT RUINOUS CONDITION. 1. When but few are converted — when a preached Gospel does not reach the heart — and when pardon, grace, and salvation are not seen, and acknowledged, to be the most important objects that can be attended to or pursued. 2. When many of the professors of religion draw back, and the enemy of souls hath so far prevailed as to lessen their number. When a worldly and carnal, proud or contentious spirit, or any other proceeding from the same corrupt source, makes inroads among Christians, carries them off from those societies to which they belonged, and from that allegiance they owed and professed to Christ; her walls are broken. 3. When the religious character of those who compose the Church of God is low. When those who belong to Christ are weak in faith, and inconstant in their affections; when they are so immersed in the cares and concerns of this world as that they move but slowly on the road to that for which they were born, and to which they ought ever to aspire; when they do not attend the house of God with that constancy, pleasure, and profit they once did; when they read not the Word of God with that relish and self-appreciation which t

102:1-11 The whole word of God is of use to direct us in prayer; but here, is often elsewhere, the Holy Ghost has put words into our mouths. Here is a prayer put into the hands of the afflicted; let them present it to God. Even good men may be almost overwhelmed with afflictions. It is our duty and interest to pray; and it is comfort to an afflicted spirit to unburden itself, by a humble representation of its griefs. We must say, Blessed be the name of the Lord, who both gives and takes away. The psalmist looked upon himself as a dying man; My days are like a shadow. 102:12-22 We are dying creatures, but God is an everlasting God, the protector of his church; we may be confident that it will not be neglected. When we consider our own vileness, our darkness and deadness, and the manifold defects in our prayers, we have cause to fear that they will not be received in heaven; but we are here assured of the contrary, for we have an Advocate with the Father, and are under grace, not under the law. Redemption is the subject of praise in the Christian church; and that great work is described by the temporal deliverance and restoration of Israel. Look down upon us, Lord Jesus; and bring us into the glorious liberty of thy children, that we may bless and praise thy name. 102:23-28 Bodily distempers soon weaken our strength, then what can we expect but that our months should be cut off in the midst; and what should we do but provide accordingly? We must own God's hand in it; and must reconcile this to his love, for often those that have used their strength well, have it weakened; and those who, as we think, can very ill be spared, have their days shortened. It is very comfortable, in reference to all the changes and dangers of the church, to remember that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. And in reference to the death of our bodies, and the removal of friends, to remember that God is an everlasting God. Do not let us overlook the assurance this psalm contains of a happy end to all the believer's trials. Though all things are changing, dying, perishing, like a vesture folding up and hastening to decay, yet Jesus lives, and thus all is secure, for he hath said, Because I live ye shall live also.