PSALM 102 - Anchored In Heaven

Introduction

When did staircases get steeper? Anyone else notice this? I mean, I used to be able to bound up stairs two at a time and not think twice; I don’t know if it’s new building codes or what, but all of a sudden they seem to be constructing staircases to be a lot steeper, risers are a lot taller than they used to be. (In fact, I can’t prove it but I am pretty sure that some ninja carpenter has snuck into our house and replaced the staircase from our basement to the kitchen...)

We all get to a point where we realize that there is more road behind us than in front of us, don’t we? You start attending a lot more funerals than you used to; (in fact, while I was writing this sermon, Jodee sent me three separate obituaries of people we knew!); your annual physical is no longer the only time you see your doctor; there are a lot more pills in your daily routine. Even happy events (like a granddaughter on the way!!) still point to the fact that you’re getting older, and that you won’t be around forever.

The world around us hates that inevitable reality; look around and you’ll see the battle being waged against time: From exercise regimens and anti-aging creams to mid-life crises with new wives and fancy sports cars and all the way up to the growing “transhumanist” movement that chases

the dream of harnessing our knowledge of biotechnology and artificial intelligence to put an end to aging and free ourselves from the shackles of mortality. (Retrieved 6/26/2026 from https://shs.cairn.info/dossiers-2022-5-page-1?lang=en)

It’s true though, that coming face to face with our own mortality isn’t easy—for someone who has never given a second thought (or refused to give a second thought) to the fragility and brevity of their life, being confronted with that fact can cause a real crisis of anxiety, denial, fear and anger that they try to deal with in variously healthy or unhealthy ways. The knowledge of our mortality can weigh heavily on us—especially when we are grieving a loss or coming to terms with our own illnesses or growing frailties.

This is in fact the opening cry of the psalmist in Psalm 102—this is a song that comes out of a heart that has been laid low by illness, frailty and the sense of desolation that comes from facing his mortality:

Psalm 102:3–5 LSB

For my days have vanished in smoke, And my bones have been scorched like a hearth. My heart has been stricken like grass and it has dried up, Indeed, I forget to eat my bread. Because of the sound of my groaning My bones cling to my flesh.

Here’s the truth of the matter: Being a Christian does not exempt you from the anxiety and fear and desolation of being faced with your mortality; you are not emotionally or mentally superior to a terrified transhumanist trying to see if he can upload his consciousness to Grok before he dies. The only consolation that you have in the face of your own mortality, Christian, is to embrace what Psalm 102 teaches:

God is ETERNAL and YOU are NOT

The only comfort you have in the shadow of the death that is coming for everyone in this room is to do what this poor psalmist did: Cry out to the eternal God in the heavens, the One Who made heaven and earth and Who will never age or fade or fail!

At those times when your mortality weighs on you, Christian—when you look at your life and say, “Where did the time go?”, that your “days have vanished in smoke”, you need an anchor to hold fast your hope. Let me suggest that there are at least four anchors in this psalm—four lifelines you can take hold of because God is eternal and you are not.

First, you have a great anchor in the truth that God is eternal because it means

I. He is the one you can CRY OUT to (Psalm 103:1-7)

Psalm 102:1–3 LSB

O Yahweh, hear my prayer! And let my cry for help come to You. Do not hide Your face from me in the day of my distress; Incline Your ear to me; In the day when I call answer me quickly. For my days have vanished in smoke, And my bones have been scorched like a hearth.

The psalmist feels his strength ebbing away, and so his first impulse is to call on the One Whose strength will never fade! What good is it to look for help from another fading, failing source? But because God is eternal, you can cry out to Him for strength

When you are WEAK (vv. 3-4)

In Verse 4 and again down in Verse 11, the psalmist describes himself as “dried up like grass”:

Psalm 102:4 LSB

My heart has been stricken like grass and it has dried up, Indeed, I forget to eat my bread.

Psalm 102:11 LSB

My days are like an outstretched shadow, And as for me, I dry up like grass.

We are fast approaching those “dog days” of August when the front lawn goes from lush, green and soft to withered, dry and crumbling—the image of life that has drained away; what used to be alive and fresh and vibrant is now weak, faded and harsh. Verse 11 adds another image—that of the end of a day, when the setting sun casts long shadows back into the coming darkness.

When the weakness of your mortal life weighs on you, the eternal God is the One you can cry out to. Cry out when you are weak, and cry out

When you are FORSAKEN (vv. 5-7)

The psalmist cries out to God with vivid images of abandonment and isolation:

Psalm 102:5–7 LSB

Because of the sound of my groaning My bones cling to my flesh. I resemble a pelican of the wilderness; I have become like an owl of the waste places. I lie awake, I have become like a lonely bird on a roof.

One of the most bitter pills of our mortality is that we lose each other; loved ones pass away and leave us desolate—or (worse yet), their bodies remain alive but with minds that have faded and worn away. There is no loneliness like living with a spouse who no longer recognizes you. The psalmist pours out that anguish in his prayer—he is “a lonely bird on a roof...” And so he cries out to the God who will never die, the God who sees him in his loneliness.

Take note here, Christian—this poor psalmist, betrayed by a weakening body and abandoned by the loss of his loved ones, cried out to the only sure hope he had—the eternal YHWH who hears and answers our weak and lonely prayers!

God is eternal and you are not—so He is the One you can cry out to—and in Verses 8-11, see that because He is eternal,

II. He is the One you must FEAR (Psalm 102:8-11)

Psalm 102:8–11 LSB

My enemies have reproached me all day long; Those who ridicule me swear against me. For I have eaten ashes like bread And mixed my drinks with weeping Because of Your indignation and Your wrath, For You have lifted me up and cast me away. My days are like an outstretched shadow, And as for me, I dry up like grass.

The psalmist’s enemies stand by jeering at him because of his weakness—it’s a cruel image that we can see around us even today (think of the celebrations and ridicule surrounding Charlie Kirk’s assassination, for example). But although the psalmist is weighed down by their hatred, he does not identify them as the source of his sorrow:

Psalm 102:9–10 LSB

For I have eaten ashes like bread And mixed my drinks with weeping Because of Your indignation and Your wrath, For You have lifted me up and cast me away.

His enemies hate him, but their hatred is not the source of his sorrow—see here, Christian, that

Mortal REPROACH is MEANINGLESS (v. 8; cp. Ps. 118:6)

in light of God’s eternal nature! Out of this entire psalm of 28 verses, his enemies get one verse, in passing, about their wicked enjoyment of his suffering. There are other psalms, to be sure, that describe in detail the pain that wicked enemies cause, but here in a psalm devoted to God’s eternal nature their presence and influence just seems so insignificant, doesn’t it? The psalmist acknowledges them, standing off to the side laughing at him in his suffering, but their laughter is inconsequential compared to God’s indignation.

Take note, Christian—the psalmist is not swayed or steered by his enemies; he is not worried about what their reproach and ridicule will do to him. When your attention is fixed on Who God has revealed Himself to be, the reproach of mere mortals is nothing but an afterthought:

Psalm 118:6 LSB

Yahweh is for me; I will not fear; What can man do to me?

It is not his enemies’ hatred and ridicule that has caused the psalmist so much bewildered anguish— “Why are they laughing at me??”—his anguish is caused by the thought that YHWH has brought this on him!

Psalm 102:9–10 LSB

For I have eaten ashes like bread And mixed my drinks with weeping Because of Your indignation and Your wrath, For You have lifted me up and cast me away.

Mortal reproach is meaningless, but

Divine WRATH is MORTIFYING (vv. 9-10)

Once again, we don’t have any specific details about why the psalmist is experiencing such anguish—there is no reference to a particular sin, and he doesn’t ever approach God for help on the basis of his repentance. He isn’t particularly bothered by the taunts of his enemies, but the thought of God’s indignation is enough to lay him low.

So many people would rather die than be booted out of their social circle, to have their friends turn on them because of their commitment to obey God and live for Him. Given the choice, they would far sooner offend God than offend their friends. But see here that this psalmist, anchored in the reality of God’s eternal nature, is far more devastated by the prospect that God has cast him off.

These verses come into further focus when we consider again the place in the Psalms—Book IV—that they occupy. Remember that Book IV is a “Back To The Foundations” movement of the cantata—as this psalm is expressing the psalmist’s mourning over being cast off and separated from God, so the exiles that are returning from captivity in Babylon and Persia are recognizing that their fathers had been “cast away” out of the Land seventy years before. So this psalm serves as a good word of worship for people returning from their captivity—they have been cast away, their days are numbered, they are dry and wilting as grass under His displeasure.

But their hope is in the fact that God is the same, yesterday, today and forever! This is the cry of the psalmist starting in Verse 12: he is weak, forlorn and failing—

Psalm 102:12 LSB

But You, O Yahweh, abide forever, And the remembrance of Your name from generation to generation.

See here again, beloved—because God is eternal and you are not, He is the One you can cry out to, He is the One you must fear, and

III. He is the One to PROMISE you a FUTURE (Psalm 102:12-22)

Notice the basis on which the psalmist goes on to plead for YHWH’s mercy in the next couple of verses:

Psalm 102:12–13 LSB

But You, O Yahweh, abide forever, And the remembrance of Your name from generation to generation. You will arise and have compassion on Zion— For it is time to be gracious to it, For the appointed time has come.

He says to God, “I am fading and failing, but You abide forever—all generations remember You and Your Name. All generations of your people know that You are YHWH — the God of the Covenant, the God Who is the Great “I AM” that never breaks His promises!”

The psalmist knew that he could call on the eternal God Who does not change,

Because He KEEPS His PROMISES (cp. Jer. 29:10-13)

All generations of God’s people knew that He was the faithful, covenant-keeping God Who had promised to deliver His people. That promise was given decades earlier through the prophet Jeremiah:

Jeremiah 29:10–13 LSB

“For thus says Yahweh, ‘When seventy years have been fulfilled for Babylon, I will visit you and establish My good word to you, to return you to this place. ‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares Yahweh, ‘plans for peace and not for calamity, to give you a future and a hope. ‘Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. ‘You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.

You have a great anchor for your hope in God’s eternal nature, because He is a God Who eternally keeps His promises! And see in the following verses that He keeps His promises

Because He is GLORIFIED by His PROMISES (vv. 14-22)

God delights to keep His promises because He delights in His own glory! What is sinful and wicked for you and me—top promote our own glory and demand it of others—is not sinful or wicked for God, since He is the One Who should be glorified and honored above all else. For God to desire something other than Himself to be glorified would make Him an idolator—and so for God, His own glory is His greatest delight.

At first, this sounds like cold comfort to us, doesn’t it? If the eternal God Who never changes from generation to generation is concerned most of all with the magnification of His own glory, where does that leave us? Does that mean He doesn’t care about us? That we are afterthoughts in the mind of God? Is He so busy expanding and publishing and declaring His own glory that we get shoved to the back burner when we are weak or desolate or weighed down by the consequences of our sin?

Not at all! In fact, what the Scriptures teach us so clearly—here in Psalm 102 in particular—is that God delights to glorify Himself by keeping His promises to His children! How is God glorified in Verses 15-17?

Psalm 102:15–17 LSB

So the nations will fear the name of Yahweh And all the kings of the earth Your glory. For Yahweh has built up Zion; He has appeared in His glory. He has turned toward the prayer of the destitute And has not despised their prayer.

Do you see it? Why will all the nations of the earth fear the Name and glory of YHWH? Because He has built up Zion! Because He has turned toward the prayer of the destitute, because He has not despised them or ignored their prayers! Here is the greatest security you can have in this weary, fading life Christian—that Almighty YHWH has irrevocably attached His glory to your salvation! He has determined that the way that He will glorify Himself will be through saving you! The mighty acts by which He makes the kings of the earth fear Him are His mighty acts of hearing and answering your cries for help!

See it again in Verses 18-22:

Psalm 102:18–22 LSB

This will be written for the generation to come, And a people yet to be created will praise Yah. For He looked down from His holy height; From heaven Yahweh gazed upon the earth, To hear the groaning of the prisoner, To set free those who were doomed to death, To recount the name of Yahweh in Zion And His praise in Jerusalem, When the peoples are gathered together, And the kingdoms, to serve Yahweh.

Your great anchor in the eternal nature of God is that He is the One Who will grant you a future—because He is eternal and stays the same from generation to generation He always keeps His promises; and because He is determined to bring glory to His Name and has determined to do so by hearing and delivering and saving you, you have an unbreakable hope in Him!

There is great and powerful and unstoppable hope in the truth that God is eternal and you are not: He is the One you can cry out to, He is he One you must fear, He is the One to promise you a future, and

IV. He is the One to REDEEM your AFFLICTION (Psalm 102:23-28)

Verses 23-24 begin with an assertion from the psalmist that at first glance sounds anything but encouraging—in fact, it sounds downright ominous:

Psalm 102:23 LSB

He has afflicted my strength in the way; He has shortened my days.

So many Christians are in a tremendous hurry to try to explain away verses like these—as if they want to get God off the hook for being hard or cruel. Is it really true that God is the One Who shortens our days? When afflictions and trials come our way, is it really appropriate to say that God afflicts us?

Verse 24 gives us a helpful perspective:

Psalm 102:24 LSB

I say, “O my God, do not take me away in the midst of my days, Your years are from generation to all generations.

The truth that we see here is that

God GOVERNS your WEAKNESSES (vv. 23-24)

Ask yourself—would you rather live in a world where God has His hand on the switch for every affliction you have ever suffered, Who is in unquestioned, unbreakable control of every sorrow you have ever borne, who counts every tear you have ever shed and keeps track of them one by one, a God Who has complete sovereign reign over every disease, pain, tragedy or suffering so as to command them “Thus far and no farther!” in your life? Or would you rather live in a world where God had no role in your suffering at all; where He stands helplessly by and says, “Oh, that looks like it hurts—I’m so sorry about that; get well soon!”?

Christian, there is enormous stability in a life of weakness and sorrow to know that there is no affliction that has found you that did not have to pass through His everlastingly loving hands to get to you! Every sorrow or trial or pain or disease that has ever entered your life, Christian, has done so obediently. It has been given precise limits, it has been given exact timing, and it has been directed to do exactly what the Almighty Creator God has ordained for your greatest good and His greatest glory! You can anchor your hope in His goodness, even when you cannot see it through the clouds of your weakness!

His years are from generation to all generations—His sovereign control over the wearisome circumstances of your life will never fade. And in the closing verses of this psalm, the psalmist reminds us of one last great hope that we have in our eternal God: The day will come when your weakness will be banished forever, on the Day when

He will RENEW all CREATION (vv. 25-27)

Look at this last word of praise for our God’s everlasting and eternal nature:

Psalm 102:25–27 LSB

“Of old You founded the earth, And the heavens are the work of Your hands. “Even they will perish, but You will remain; And all of them will wear out like a garment; Like clothing You will change them and they will be changed. “But You are the same, And Your years will not come to an end.

I don’t think I’m the only one here married to a woman who is always trying to throw out their husband’s favorite pair of jeans? You know what I’m talking about, right? They are the most comfortable, most perfectly-fitted pair of trousers that you’ve ever owned, but the woman that God gave you keeps trying to throw them out just because they’re getting a little faded and threadbare—and also have a rip in the crotch that can’t be patched?

The psalmist uses that image—an old garment that is just plain worn out—and says, “This is what the universe looks like compared to YHWH!” But look at the promise here in these verses—instead of throwing out those old faded garments of the heavens and earth, He will change them. See how the psalmist poetically emphasizes his point: “You will change them and they will be changed!!”

Christian, do you not have the strongest, surest, most glorious hope in the midst of your fading years and failing strength, groaning under the long burden of your failures and disappointments—all of this is going to be made new someday!

God is not going to throw out the heavens and the earth; He isn’t going to discard them because they are just too far gone to save—His aim has always been to renew and restore and resurrect this creation!

Revelation 21:1–5 LSB

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain. The first things passed away.” And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And He said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.”

Centuries after the psalmist wrote of the eternal presence of YHWH, before Whom the heavens and the earth wear out like an old pair of ripped jeans, the writer of Hebrews would show us exactly Who these verses were written about:

Hebrews 1:10–12 LSB

And, “You, Lord, in the beginning founded the earth, And the heavens are the works of Your hands; They will perish, but You remain; And they all will wear out like a garment, And like a mantle You will roll them up; Like a garment they will also be changed. But You are the same, And Your years will not come to an end.”

What the psalmist saw from far away, the writer of Hebrews saw in person—Jesus Christ Himself is the Eternal God, the undying, unfading YHWH in frail human flesh; the One Who first spread the heavens and earth out like a tent; the One Whose days cannot be numbered. And this undying, eternal God found a way to die so that He might be resurrected and bring the entire creation with Him!

1 Corinthians 15:20–24 LSB

But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming. Then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power.

He is the same; His years never come to an end; and in His death all death has been defeated—all mourning and crying and pain and frailty and headaches and heartaches of this worn-out world will someday be swallowed up in life forever.

And friend, if He does not throw away worn-out, faded heavens and earth, He certainly will not throw out a worn-out, faded, broken life. He died on that Cross to take away the penalty of your sins forever. He was cast off for your sins; He was stricken for your shame. His days vanished in smoke, His bones clung to His flesh, he mourned in isolation from His Father as He hung on that Cross—the undying God dying in your place so that when you come to Him in repentance and plead for His forgiveness He will arise and have compassion on you; He will hear your desperate prayer, He will free you from your groaning in the prison of your sin and shame; He will change you and you will be changed!

You will dwell securely, and you will be established before Him for all eternity as His precious child! He looks down from His holy height today, ready to set free all those who are doomed to death—He has done everything that needs to be done; He calls you today. Turn away from the fading, weak, failing false promises of this world with all of its weary disappointments and come to the Eternal One Who has appeared in His glory and is calling all nations to fear His Name and rejoice in His light—your Savior, Jesus Christ!

BENEDICTION

Hebrews 13:20–21 LSB

Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, our Lord Jesus, equip you in every good thing to do His will, by doing in us what is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

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