Read
(A prayer for someone who hurts and needs to ask the Lord for help.)
A Prayer in Time
1I pray to you, Lord!
Please listen.
2Don't hide from me
in my time of trouble.
Pay attention to my prayer
and quickly give an answer.
3My days disappear like smoke,
and my bones are burning
as though in a furnace.
4I am wasting away like grass,
and my appetite is gone.
5My groaning never stops,
and my bones can be seen
through my skin.
6I am like a lonely owl
in the desert
7or a restless sparrow
alone on a roof.
8My enemies insult me all day,
and they use my name
for a curse word.
9Instead of food,
I have ashes to eat
and tears to drink,
10because you are furious
and have thrown me aside.
11My life fades like a shadow
at the end of day
and withers like grass.
12Our Lord, you are King forever
and will always be famous.
13You will show pity to Zion
because the time has come.
14We, your servants,
love each stone in the city,
and we are sad to see them
lying in the dirt.
15Our Lord, the nations
will honor you,
and all kings on earth
will praise your glory.
16You will rebuild
the city of Zion.
Your glory will be seen,
17and the prayers of the homeless
will be answered.
18Future generations must also
praise the Lord,
so write this for them:
19“From his holy temple,
the Lord looked down
at the earth.
20He listened to the groans
of prisoners,
and he rescued everyone
who was doomed to die.”
21All Jerusalem should praise
you, our Lord,
22when people from every nation
meet to worship you.
23I should still be strong,
but you, Lord, have made
an old person of me.
24You will live forever!
Years mean nothing to you.
Don't cut my life in half!
25 In the beginning, Lord,
you laid the earth's foundation
and created the heavens.
26They will all disappear
and wear out like clothes.
You change them,
as you would a coat,
but you last forever.
27You are always the same.
You are God for all time.
28Every generation of those
who serve you
will live in your presence.
Reflect
The composer, who is described in the title of the psalm as “someone who hurts,” calls on God to make his healing presence known to him. His physical pain is overwhelming, and he seems close to death (vv 3-5); indeed his torment is bone deep (v 3). He feels that his life is temporary like smoke or short-lived grass (vv 4, 11). He likens himself to a lonely owl and a restless sparrow to speak of his anxious alienation (vv 6-7). His condition leads his enemies to ridicule him (v 8).
But why? Why does he suffer in this way? He recognizes that his condition is the result of God’s anger against him (v 11), though he does not tell us the reason for God’s attitude. In any case, he approaches God in order to get him to move from anger to restoration.
While much of the psalm sounds like the lament prayer of an individual who suffers in lonely isolation, the psalmist connects his plight with the community as a whole. He identifies himself with a broader group of God’s “servants” who “love each stone in the city [Jerusalem]” and are “sad to see them lying in the dirt” (v 14). He looks with confidence to the future when God will rebuild “the city of Zion” and make his glory manifest there again. This language suggests a poem written in the aftermath of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 586 BC.
The psalmist ends his poem with a contrast between his fragile existence and God’s eternal nature (vv 23-28). He is the one who created everything and will outlast his creation. Christians today should also take this to mind, and interestingly, the author of Hebrews cites vv 25-28 to Christ who is the creator of all (John 1:1-3) and superior to angels as well as humans (Hebrews 1:10-12).
Respond
Triune God, who created everything and who will outlast the cosmos, we ask you to be with us in our suffering and pain and loneliness. We thank you that in a fragmented and temporary world, you are eternal and unshakeable. Amen.
Tremper Longman III
Dr. Tremper Longman III (B.A. Ohio Wesleyan University; M.Div. Westminster Theological Seminary; M.Phil. and Ph.D. Yale University) is Distinguished Scholar and Professor Emeritus of Biblical Studies at Westmont College. He has written over 30 books which have been translated into seventeen different languages. In addition, as a Hebrew scholar, he is one of the main translators of the popular New Living Translation of the Bible. His most recent book is How to Read Daniel. Tremper and Alice currently reside in Alexandria, VA and have three sons (Tremper IV, Timothy, Andrew) and four granddaughters (Gabrielle, Mia, Ava, and Emerson). For exercise, he enjoys playing squash.