“Do not take me away, my God, in the midst of my days; your years go on through all generations. In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. Like clothing you will change them and they will be discarded. But you remain the same,
and your years will never end. The children of your servants will live in your presence; their descendants will be established before you.”

Psalm 102:24-28

Psalm 102 enables us to express distress. Yet it helps us to view our lament in a context of hope. There are times when we feel abandoned. We feel our own mortality keenly as we wither away inside. Troubled day and night, we feel unheard, and there are people criticizing us. Worst of all, God does not seem to hear us.

The mix of personal affliction and a sense of deep grief for the spiritual malaise of God’s people makes for a perfect storm. It’s heavy sometimes to be a believer. ‘But God’ (see v. 12) is a New Testament transition from darkness to light. Here the psalmist gives his heart reasons for hope, with reminders of God’s perpetual reign and his compassionate listening ear. God is the Lord who has made promises that we can cling to, promises that secure his listening, healing, and restoring. The repeated ‘you will’ and ‘will’ (see vv. 13, 15, 16, 21, 26, 27) exude optimistic confidence as the psalmist considers a future in which God will be glorified. The lament of the psalmist is real and not to be minimized. It is echoed by compatriots (perhaps in exile) who are like prisoners on death row (v 20). These are real feelings, not easily dismissed, but the trajectory must always be toward belief in a God who transforms.

CLOSING PRAYER

Thank you, Jesus, that you are the God of the brokenhearted and are able to heal where time cannot. You empathize with our every weakness and sorrow.

(Edited from Encounter with God)