1. Hear my prayer, O Lord. Or, “O Jehovah.” Sincere suppliants are not content with
praying for praying’s sake; they desire really to reach the ear and heart of
the great God. It is a great relief in time of distress to acquaint others with
our trouble, but it the sweetest solace of all to have God himself as a
sympathizing listener to our plaint. And let my cry come unto thee. When
sorrow rises to such a height that words become too weak a medium of
expression, and prayer is intensified into a cry, then the heart is even more
urgent to have audience with the Lord.
2. Hide not thy face from me in the day when I am in
trouble. Reserve thy frowns for other times
when I can bear them better, if, indeed, I can ever bear them; but now in my
heavy distress, favor me with looks of compassion. Incline thine ear unto
me. Bow thy greatness to my weakness. If because of sin thy face is turned
away, at least let me have a side view of thee; lend me thine ear if I may not
see thine eye. Turn thyself to me again if my sin has turned thee away. In
the day when I call answer me speedily. Because the case is urgent, and my
soul little able to wait. We may ask to have answers to prayer as soon as
possible, but we may not complain of the Lord if he should think it more wise
to delay. If it be important that the deliverance should arrive at once, we are
quite right in making an early time a point of our intreaty, for God is as
wining to grant us a favor now as tomorrow. When answers come upon the heels of
our prayers they are all the more encouraging.
In these two verses the psalmist has gathered up a variety
of expressions all to the same effect; in them all he intreats an audience and
answer of the Lord, and the whole may be regarded as a preface to the prayer
which follows.
3. For my days are consumed like smoke. My grief has made life unsubstantial to me. To the unhappy,
life seems to be surrounded by so much that is darkening, defiling, blinding,
and depressing that, sitting down in despair, they compare themselves to people
wandering in a dense fog, and themselves little better than pillars of smoke.
When our days have neither light nor fire of energy in them, but become as a
smoking flax which dies out ignobly in darkness, then have we cause enough to
appeal to the Lord that he would not utterly quench us. And my bones are
burned as an hearth. His soul was ready to be blown away as smoke, and his
body seemed likely to remain as the bare hearth when the last comforting ember
is quenched. How often has our piety appeared to us to be in this condition! We
have had to question its reality, and fear that it never was anything more than
smoke; we have had the most convincing evidence of its weakness, for we could
not derive even the smallest comfort from it, any more than a chilled traveler
can derive from the cold hearth on which a fire had burned long ago.
Soul-trouble experienced in our own heart will help us to interpret the
language here employed; and church-troubles may help us also, if unhappily we
have been called to endure them. The psalmist was moved to grief by a view of
national calamities, and these so wrought upon his patriotic soul that he was
wasted with anxiety, his spirits were dried up, and his very life was ready to
expire. There is hope for any country while true hearts are ready to die for
it.
4. My heart is smitten,
like a plant parched by the fierce heat of a tropical sun, and withered like
grass, which dries up when once the scythe has laid it low. So that I
forget to eat my bread, or, “because I forget to eat my bread.” Grief
often destroys the appetite, and the neglect of food tends further to injure
the constitution and create a yet deeper sinking of spirit. A heart parched
with intense grief often refuses consolation for itself and nourishment for the
bodily frame, and descends at a doubly rapid rate into weakness and
despondency.
5. It will
be a very long time before the distresses of the church of God make some
Christians shrivel in anatomy, but this good man was so moved with sympathy for
Zion’s ills that he was wasted down to skin and bone.
6. I am like a pelican of the wilderness, a mournful and even hideous object, the very image of
desolation. I am like an owl of the desert; loving solitude, moping
among ruins, hooting discordantly. The two birds were commonly used as emblems
of gloom and wretchedness. Should we not also lament when the ways of Zion
mourn and her strength languishes? Were there more of this holy sorrow we
should soon see the Lord returning to build up his church. It is a terrible
thing to see people flocking like vultures to devour a decaying church, when
they ought to be lamenting among her ruins like the owl.
7. I keep a
solitary vigil as the lone sentry of my nation; my fellows are too selfish, too
careless to care for the beloved land. The psalmist compared himself to a bird
when it has lost its mate or its young, or is for some other reason made to
mope alone in a solitary place. Probably he did not refer to the cheerful
sparrow of our own land, but if he did, the illustration would not be out of
place, for the sparrow is happy in company, and if it were alone, the sole one
of its species in the neighborhood, there can be little doubt that it would
become very miserable. He who has felt himself to be so weak and inconsiderable
as to have no more power over his times than a sparrow over a city has also,
when bowed down with despondency concerning the evils of the age, sat himself
down in utter wretchedness to lament the ills which he could not heal.
Christians of an earnest, watchful kind often find themselves among those who
have no sympathy with them; even in the church they look in vain for kindred
spirits.
8. Mine enemies reproach me all the day. Their rage was unrelenting and unceasing, and vented itself
in taunts and insults; the psalmist’s patriotism and his griefs were both made
the subjects of their sport. Pointing to the sad estate of his people they
would ask him, “Where is your God?” and exult over him because their false
gods were in the ascendant. And they that are mad against me are sworn against
me. They were so furious that they bound themselves by oath to destroy him,
and used his name as their usual execration, a word to curse by, the synonym of
abhorrence and contempt.
9. For I have eaten ashes like bread. He had so frequently cast ashes upon his head in token of
mourning that they had mixed with his ordinary food. He forgot to eat, and then
the fit changed and he ate with such a hunger that even ashes were devoured.
Grief has strange moods. And mingled my drink with weeping. This is a
telling description of all-saturating, all-embittering sadness—and this was the
portion of one of the best of men, and that for no fault of his own, but
because of his love to the Lord’s people. If we, too, are called to mourn, let
us not be amazed by the fiery trial as though some strange thing had happened
unto us.
10. A sense
of the divine wrath which had been manifested in the overthrow of the chosen
nation and their sad captivity led the psalmist into the greatest distress. He
felt like a sere leaf caught up by a hurricane and carried right away, or the
spray of the sea which is dashed upwards that it may be scattered and
dissolved. Our translation gives the idea of a vessel uplifted in order that it
may be dashed to the earth with all the greater violence. The first
interpretation which we have given is, however, more fully in accordance with
the original, and sets forth the utter helplessness which the writer felt, and
the sense of overpowering terror which bore him along in a rush of tumultuous
grief which he could not withstand.
11. My days are like a shadow that declineth. A shadow is unsubstantial enough; how feeble a thing must a
declining shadow be? And I am withered like grass. There are times when
through depression of spirit a man feels as if all life were gone from him, and
existence had become merely a breathing death. Heartbreak has a marvelously
withering influence over our entire system; our flesh at its best is but as
grass, and when it is wounded with sharp sorrows its beauty fades, and it
becomes a shriveled, dried, uncomely thing.
12. Now the
writer’s mind is turned away from his personal and relative troubles to the
true source of all consolation, namely, the Lord himself, and his gracious
purposes towards his own people. But thou, O Lord,
shalt endure forever. I perish, but thou wilt not; my nation has become
almost extinct, but thou art altogether unchanged. The original has the word
“sit”—“thou, Jehovah, to eternity shalt sit”—that is to say, thou reignest
on; thy throne is still secure even when thy chosen city lies in ruins, and thy
peculiar people are carried into captivity. The sovereignty of God in all
things is an unfailing ground for consolation; he rules and reigns whatever
happens, and therefore all is well. And thy remembrance unto all
generations. People will forget me, but the constant tokens of thy presence
will keep the race of man in mind of thee from age to age. What God is now he
always will be, that which our forefathers told us of the Lord we find to be
true at this present time, and what our experience enables us to record will be
confirmed by our children and their children’s children. All things else are
vanishing like smoke, and withering like grass, but over all the one eternal,
immutable light shines on, and will shine on when all these shadows have
declined into nothingness.
13. Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion. He firmly believed and boldly prophesied that apparent
inaction on God’s part would turn to effective working. Others might remain sluggish
in the matter, but the Lord would most surely bestir himself. Zion had been
chosen of old, highly favored, gloriously inhabited, and wondrously preserved,
and therefore by the memory of her past mercies it was certain that mercy would
again be showed to her. God will not always leave his church in a low
condition; he may for a while make her see her nakedness and poverty apart from
himself, but in love he must return to her, and stand up in her defense, to
work her welfare. For the time to favor her, yea, the set time, is come.
When the time came for the walls to rise stone by stone, no Tobiah or Sanballat
could stay the work, for the Lord himself had arisen, and who can restrain the
hand of the Almighty? When God’s own time is come, neither Rome, nor the devil,
nor persecutors, nor atheists, can prevent the kingdom of Christ from extending
its bounds. It is God’s work to do it—he must arise; he will do it, but
he has his own appointed season; and meanwhile we must, with holy anxiety and
believing expectation, wait upon him.
14. They
delight in her so greatly that even her rubbish is dear to them. It was a good
omen for Jerusalem when the captives began to feel a homesickness, and began to
sigh after her. To the church of God no token can be more full of hope than to
see the members thereof deeply interested in all that concerns her; no
prosperity is likely to rest upon a church when carelessness about ordinances,
enterprises, and services is manifest; but when even the least and lowest
matter connected with the Lord’s work is carefully attended to, we may be sure
that the set time to favor Zion is come. The poorest church member, the most
grievous backslider, the most ignorant convert, should be precious in our
sight, because forming a part, although possibly a very feeble part, of the new
Jerusalem.
15. So the heathen shall fear the name of the Lord.
Mercy within the church is soon perceived by those without. When a candle is
lit in the house, it shines through the window. When Zion rejoices in her God,
the heathen begin to reverence his name, for they hear of the wonders of his
power, and are impressed thereby. And all the kings of the earth thy glory.
The restoration of Jerusalem was a marvel among the princes who heard of it,
and its ultimate resurrection in days yet to come will be one of the prodigies
of history. Oh that we might see in our day such a revival of religion that our
senators and princes might be compelled to pay homage to the Lord, and own his
glorious grace. This cannot be till the saints are better edified, and more
fully builded together for an habitation of God though the Spirit.
16. As kings
display their skill and power and wealth in the erection of their capitals, so
would the Lord reveal the splendor of his attributes in the restoration of
Zion, and so will he now glorify himself in the edification of his church.
Never is the Lord more honorable in the eyes of his saints than when he
prospers the church. To add converts to her, to train these for holy service,
to instruct, illuminate, and sanctify the brotherhood, to bind all together in
the bonds of Christian love, and to fill the whole body with the energy of the
Holy Spirit—this is to build up Zion. Other builders do but puff her up, and
their wood, hay, and stubble come to an end almost as rapidly as it was heaped
together; but what the Lord builds is surely and well done, and redounds to his
glory.
17. He will regard the prayer of the destitute. Only the poorest of the people were left to sigh and cry
among the ruins of the beloved city, yet the prayers of the captives and the
forlorn offscourings of the land would be heard of the Lord, who in mercy
listens most readily to the cry of the greatest need. And not despise their
prayer. When great kings are building their palaces it is not reasonable to
expect them to turn aside and listen to every beggar who pleads with them; yet
when the Lord builds up Zion, he will incline his ear to hear, his heart to
consider, and his hand to help. It is worthwhile to be destitute to be thus
assured of the divine regard.
18. This shall be written for the generation to come. A note shall be made of it, for there will be destitute
ones in future generations. Registers of divine kindness ought to be made and
preserved: we write down in history the calamities of nations; how much rather
should we set up memorials of the Lord’s lovingkindnesses! Those who have in
their own souls endured spiritual destitution, and have been delivered out of
it, cannot forget it; they are bound to tell others of it, and especially to
instruct their children in the goodness of the Lord. And the people which
shall be created shall praise the Lord.
The rebuilding of Jerusalem would be a fact in history for which the Lord would
be praised from age to age. Revivals of religion not only cause great joy to
those who are immediately concerned in them, but they give encouragement and
delight to the people of God long after, and are indeed perpetual incentives to
adoration throughout the church of God. This verse teaches us that we ought to
have an eye to posterity, and especially should we endeavor to perpetuate the
memory of God’s love to his church and to his poor people, so that young people
as they grow up may know that the Lord God of their fathers is good and full of
compassion. Sad as the psalmist was when he wrote the dreary portions of this
complaint, he was not so absorbed in his own sorrow as to forget the claims of
coming generations; this, indeed, is a clear proof that he was not without hope
for his people, for he who is making arrangement for the good of a future
generation has not yet despaired of his nation. The praise of God should be the
great object of all that we do, and to secure him glory both from the present
and the future is the noblest aim of intelligent beings.
19–20. For he hath looked down from the height of his
sanctuary, or “leaned from the high place of
his holiness.” From heaven did the Lord
behold the earth. The Lord does not look upon mankind to note the doings of
their nobles, but to hear the groaning of the prisoner; to loose those that
are appointed to death. The groans of those in prison are very horrible to
hear, yet God bends to hear them: those who are bound for death are usually ill
company, yet Jehovah deigns to stoop from his greatness to relieve their
extreme distress and break their chains. This he does by providential rescues,
by restoring health to the dying, and by finding food for the famishing; and
spiritually this deed of grace is accomplished by sovereign grace, which
delivers us by pardon from the sentence of sin, and by the sweetness of the
promise from the deadly despair which a sense of sin had created within us.
Well may those of us praise the Lord who were once the children of death, but
are now brought into the glorious liberty of the children of God. The Jews in
captivity were in Haman’s time appointed to death, but their God found a way of
escape for them, and they joyfully kept the feast of Purim in memorial thereof;
let all souls that have been set free from the crafty malice of the old dragon
magnify the Lord of infinite compassion.
21. Great
mercy displayed to those greatly in need of it is the plainest method of
revealing the attributes of the Most High. Actions speak louder than words;
deeds of grace are a revelation even more impressive than the most tender
promises. Jerusalem restored, the church re-edified, desponding souls
encouraged, and all other manifestations of Jehovah’s power to bless, are so
many manifestations and proclamations put up upon the walls of Zion to publish
the character and glory of the great God. Every day’s experience should be to
us a daily dispatch from the headquarters of grace. We are bound to inform our
fellow Christians of all this, making them helpers in our praise, as they hear
of the goodness which we have experienced.
22. The great
work of restoring ruined Zion is to be spoken of in those golden ages when the
heathen nations are converted unto God. Happy will be the day when all nations
unite in the sole worship of Jehovah; then will shouts of exulting praise
ascend to heaven in honor of him who loosed the captives, delivered the
condemned, raised up the desolations of ages, and made out of stone and rubbish
a temple for his worship.
23. He weakened my strength in the way. The psalmist’s sorrow had cast down his spirit, and even
caused weakness in his bodily frame, so that he was like a pilgrim who limped
along the road, and was ready to lie down and die. He shortened my days.
Though he had bright hope for Jerusalem, he feared that he should have departed
this life long before those visions had become realities; he felt that he was
pining away and would be a short-lived man. Perhaps this may be our lot, and it
will materially help us to be content with it, if we are persuaded that the
grandest of all interests is safe, and the good old cause secure in the hands
of the Lord.
24. I said, O my God, take me not away in the midst of my
days. He betook himself to prayer. What
better remedy is there for heart-sickness and depression? We may lawfully ask
for recovery from sickness and may hope to be heard. Good people should not
dread death, but they are not forbidden to love life: for many reasons the
person who has the best hope of heaven may nevertheless think it desirable to
continue here a little longer, for the sake of family, work, the church of God,
and even the glory of God itself. Some read the passage, “Take me not up,”
let me not ascend like disappearing smoke, do not whirl me away like Elijah in
a chariot of fire, for as yet I have only seen half my days, and that a
sorrowful half; give me life till the blustering morning has softened into a
bright afternoon of happier existence. Thy years are throughout all
generations. Thou livest, Lord; let me live also. A fullness of existence
is with thee; let me partake therein. Note the contrast between himself pining
and ready to expire, and his God living on in the fullness of strength forever
and ever; this contrast is full of consolatory power to the one whose heart is
stayed upon the Lord. Blessed be his name, he faileth not, and, therefore our
hope will not fail us, neither will we despair for ourselves or for his church.
25. Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth. Creation is no new work of God, and therefore to “create
Jerusalem a praise in the earth” will not be difficult to him. We can neither
continue our own existence nor give being to others; but the Lord not only is,
but he is the Maker of all things that are; hence, when our affairs are at the
very lowest ebb we are not at all despairing, because the Almighty and Eternal
Lord can yet restore us. And the heavens are the work of thine hands.
Thou canst therefore not merely lay the foundations of Zion, but complete its
roof. When a great labor is to be performed it is eminently reassuring to
contemplate the power of him who has undertaken to accomplish it; and when our
own strength is exhausted it is supremely cheering to see the unfailing energy
which is still engaged on our behalf.
26. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure. The power which made them will dissolve them, as the city of
thy love was destroyed at thy command; yet neither the ruined city nor the
ruined earth can make a change in thee, reverse thy purpose, or diminish thy
glory. Thou standest when all things fall. Yea, all of them shall wax old
like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed.
Time impairs all things. The visible creation, which is like the garment of the
invisible God, is waxing old and wearing out, and our great King is not so poor
that he must always wear the same robes; he will ere long fold up the worlds
and put them aside as worn-out vestures, and he will array himself in a new
heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. How readily will all
this be done. As in the creation, so in the restoration, omnipotence will work
its way without hindrance.
27. But thou art the same, or, “thou art he.” As a man remains the same when he has
changed his clothing, so is the Lord evermore the unchanging One, though his
works in creation may be changed, and the operations of his providence may
vary. When heaven and earth flee away from the dread presence of the great
Judge, he will be unaltered by the terrible confusion, and the world in
conflagration will effect no change in him; even so, the psalmist remembered
that when Israel was vanquished, her capital destroyed, and her temple leveled
with the ground, her God remained the same self-existent, all-sufficient being,
and would restore his people, just as he will restore the heavens and the
earth, bestowing at the same time a new glory never known before. And thy
years shall have no end. God lives on; no decay can happen to him, or
destruction overtake him. What a joy is this! We may lose our dearest earthly
friends, but not our heavenly Friend. Men’s days are often suddenly cut short,
and at the longest they are few, but the years of the right hand of the Most
High cannot be counted, for they have neither first nor last, beginning nor
end. O my soul, rejoice in the Lord always, since he is always the same.
28. The children of thy servants shall continue. The psalmist had early in the psalm looked forward to a
future generation, and here he speaks with confidence that such a race would
arise and be preserved and blessed of God. Some read it as a prayer: “Let the
sons of thy servants abide.” Any way, it is full of good cheer to us; we may
plead for the Lord’s favor to our offspring, and we may expect that the cause
of God and truth will revive in future generations. Let us hope that those who
are to succeed us will not be so stubborn, unbelieving and erring as we have
been. If the church has been brought low by the lukewarmness of the present
race, let us intreat the Lord to raise up a better order of people, whose zeal
and obedience will win and hold a long prosperity. May our own children be
among the better generation who continue in the Lord’s ways, obedient to the
end. And their seed shall be established before thee. God does not
neglect the children of his servants. It is the rule that Abraham’s Isaac
should be the Lord’s, that Isaac’s Jacob should be beloved of the Most High,
and that Jacob’s Joseph should find favor in the sight of God. Grace is not
hereditary, yet God loves to be served by the same family time out of mind.
Here is Zion’s hope: her offspring will restore her former glories. We may,
therefore, not only for our own sakes but also out of love to the church of
God, daily pray that our sons and daughters may be saved, and kept by divine
grace even unto the end—established before the Lord.
We have thus passed through the cloud, and in the next psalm
we shall bask in the sunshine. Such is the checkered experience of the
believer. Paul in Romans 7 cries and groans, and then in Romans 8 rejoices
and leaps for joy; and so we now advance to the dancing of Psalm 103, blessing
the Lord that “though weeping may endure for a night, joy cometh in the
morning.”
Excerpt from:
The Treasury of David
By Charles H Spurgeon
