Affliction in Light of Eternity - Nov. 28th, 2021

Introduction:

Psalm 102 KJV 1900

A Prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed, and poureth out his complaint before the Lord. 1 Hear my prayer, O Lord, And let my cry come unto thee. 2 Hide not thy face from me In the day when I am in trouble; incline thine ear unto me: In the day when I call answer me speedily. 3 For my days are consumed like smoke, And my bones are burned as an hearth. 4 My heart is smitten, and withered like grass; So that I forget to eat my bread. 5 By reason of the voice of my groaning my bones cleave to my skin. 6 I am like a pelican of the wilderness: I am like an owl of the desert. 7 I watch, and am as a sparrow alone upon the house top. 8 Mine enemies reproach me all the day; And they that are mad against me are sworn against me. 9 For I have eaten ashes like bread, And mingled my drink with weeping, 10 Because of thine indignation and thy wrath: For thou hast lifted me up, and cast me down. 11 My days are like a shadow that declineth; And I am withered like grass. 12 But thou, O Lord, shalt endure for ever; And thy remembrance unto all generations. 13 Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion: For the time to favour her, yea, the set time, is come. 14 For thy servants take pleasure in her stones, And favour the dust thereof. 15 So the heathen shall fear the name of the Lord, And all the kings of the earth thy glory. 16 When the Lord shall build up Zion, He shall appear in his glory. 17 He will regard the prayer of the destitute, And not despise their prayer. 18 This shall be written for the generation to come: And the people which shall be created shall praise the Lord. 19 For he hath looked down from the height of his sanctuary; From heaven did the Lord behold the earth; 20 To hear the groaning of the prisoner; To loose those that are appointed to death; 21 To declare the name of the Lord in Zion, And his praise in Jerusalem; 22 When the people are gathered together, And the kingdoms, to serve the Lord. 23 He weakened my strength in the way; He shortened my days. 24 I said, O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days: Thy years are throughout all generations. 25 Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: And the heavens are the work of thy hands. 26 They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: Yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; As a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed: 27 But thou art the same, And thy years shall have no end. 28 The children of thy servants shall continue, And their seed shall be established before thee.

A. THE AUTHORSHIP OF THIS PSALM—It is another of the fifty anonymous psalms. The superscription says it is “A prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed, and poureth out his complaint before the Lord,” but it does not identify the afflicted one.

B. THE NATURE OF THIS PSALM—It is “a Prophetic-Messianic Psalm” (a psalm which at the time of its writing was prophecy to be fulfilled by the Messiah at the time of His first advent). The Psalmist, whoever he was, no doubt speaks words which reflect his own afflictions and sufferings but he is led by the Holy Spirit to speak words which go beyond his own experience to reflect the afflictions and sufferings of Christ during the last few hours of His life here on the earth.

Scholars list this psalm as one of the seven (6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, and 143) “Penitential Psalms” but really psalm 102 is not a penitential psalm.

C. THE THEME OF THIS PSALM—The consolation given to Christ in the midst of His overwhelming afflictions

[Roy E. Gingrich, The Book of Psalms (Book Four) (Memphis, TN: Riverside Printing, 1995), 24.]

Unfading life is found in the afflicted Son of God. We shall see that this is the comfort of this psalm. It is ‘a prayer of an afflicted person’, in principle any believer who ‘has grown weak’, by which each of us may ‘pour out a lament before the LORD’. But we shall see that, before it becomes your prayer or mine, it is the prayer of the Son of God.

[Christopher Ash, Teaching Psalms: A Christian Introduction to Each Psalm, ed. Jonathan Gemmell and David Jackman, vol. 2, Teach the Bible (Ross-shire, Scotland; London: Christian Focus; PT Resources, 2018), 210.]

Sometimes the troubles of this life can feel overwhelming. We feel weak and unable to stand under the load. Such was the case for the author of Psalm 102, as the title indicates: “A Prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed,” The title also indicates the best way of working through those feelings of being overwhelmed—it comes when he “poureth out his complaint before the LORD.” Honest prayer is a key to moving from being overwhelmed to being an overcomer in life.

[Mark D. Futato, “The Book of Psalms,” in Cornerstone Biblical Commentary, Vol 7: The Book of Psalms, The Book of Proverbs (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2009), 323.]

Body:

I. Pour Out Your Problems Before the Lord (Ps. 102:1-11)

[Go Slow]

A. Call on Him to Intervene (Ps. 102:1-2)

Psalm 102:1–2 KJV 1900

1 Hear my prayer, O Lord, And let my cry come unto thee. 2 Hide not thy face from me In the day when I am in trouble; incline thine ear unto me: In the day when I call answer me speedily.

When the load of life’s troubles gets so heavy that we feel we have no strength to go on, there is a path to renewed strength and confident living. That path begins by calling on the Lord to intervene (Ps. 102:1–2), coupled with honestly pouring out our problems before him (Ps. 102:3–11). There will be days of distress; in those days, we call on the Lord to intervene. “Lord, hear.… Listen.… Hide not Thy face.… incline Thine ear, and answer me speedily” (Ps. 102:1–2). Days of distress are days when we cry out to God to respond quickly to deliver us from the distress.

[Futato, 323.]

When I fancied that I stood alone I was really in the ridiculous position of being backed up by all of Christendom. ~ G.K. Chesterton

[Mark Water, The New Encyclopedia of Christian Quotations (Alresford, Hampshire: John Hunt Publishers Ltd, 2000), 621.]

B. Face Your Problems Honestly Before Him (Ps. 102:3-11)

Psalm 102:3–11 KJV 1900

3 For my days are consumed like smoke, And my bones are burned as an hearth. 4 My heart is smitten, and withered like grass; So that I forget to eat my bread. 5 By reason of the voice of my groaning my bones cleave to my skin. 6 I am like a pelican of the wilderness: I am like an owl of the desert. 7 I watch, and am as a sparrow alone upon the house top. 8 Mine enemies reproach me all the day; And they that are mad against me are sworn against me. 9 For I have eaten ashes like bread, And mingled my drink with weeping, 10 Because of thine indignation and thy wrath: For thou hast lifted me up, and cast me down. 11 My days are like a shadow that declineth; And I am withered like grass.

Metaphorical and literal language are combined in a powerful outpouring of problems in Ps. 102:3–11. The language is that of illness: “My bones are burned as an hearth.… I forget to eat my bread.… my bones cleave to my skin” (Ps. 102:3–5). Death seems to be imminent, as the psalmist’s days “are consumed like smoke” (Ps. 102:3) and his days pass “like a shadow that declineth” (Ps. 102:11). Added to illness is isolation. The psalmist likens himself to a lonely [pelican or] owl sitting far off, isolated from community in a desolate place. In the middle of sleepless nights, he is like a lonely [sparrow] on a rooftop. Then there is the animosity directed toward him by the “enemies” who have disdain for him and not compassion. Most painful, however, are the feelings of abandonment by God: “Thou hast lifted me up, and cast me down” (Ps. 102:10). The psalmist was sick in heart as well as in body. And he let nothing go unspoken in prayer. From his example, the Holy Spirit teaches us to pour out our problems before the Lord with complete candor.

[Futato, 324.]

Illustration: The seeds in the crevices

Quote: Mark Twain. The psalmist’s description of his emaciated body in 102:3–11 is a bit reminiscent of the decrepit estate in Ecclesiastes 12:1–8. While the psalmist does not openly confess his sins, the early church included this psalm among the penitential psalms for a reason; likely they saw this lament as a description of the deteriorating state of sin in the psalmist’s life. Our sins, though they may seem small and insignificant, have a way of growing in boldness and audacity and, with time, disrupting and even destroying our lives. On one of his world tours Mark Twain and his fellow travelers visited the Crusader-era fortress of Nimrod near the city of Banias in what is today the Golan Heights. He wondered how the mighty structure could have been toppled, even by the massive forces of an earthquake, though the facts spoke clearly that such a disruption had occurred there:

We wondered how such a solid mass of masonry could be affected even by an earthquake, and could not understand what agency had made Baniyas a ruin; but we found the destroyer after a while, and then our wonder was increased tenfold. Seeds had fallen in crevices in the vast walls; the seeds had sprouted; the tender, insignificant sprouts had hardened; they grew larger and larger, and by a steady, imperceptible pressure forced the great stones apart, and now are bringing such destruction upon a giant work that has even mocked the earthquakes to scorn! Gnarled and twisted trees spring from the old walls everywhere, and beautify and overshadow the gray battlements with a wild luxuriance of foliage.[6]

[6 Twain, Innocents Abroad, 337.]

[C. Hassell Bullock, Psalms 73–150, ed. Mark L. Strauss and John H. Walton, vol. 2, Teach the Text Commentary Series (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books: A Division of Baker Publishing Group, 2017), 225–226.]

Application:

Days of deep distress are often days when we feel the fleeting nature of our human existence on this planet. The repetition of the word “days” in Ps. 102:3 and Ps. 102:11 and the related metaphors of smoke and fleeting shadows envelop this section and bring to expression feelings of meaningless transience. [cf. Ps. 39; 90] In the darkness of this sense of transience is a ray of light that eventually dispels the darkness, inasmuch as human transience provides the backdrop for a grand display of divine eternality.

[Futato, 324.]

Transition:

Once you have poured out your problems to the Lord, next,

II. Put Your Focus on the Lord (Ps. 102:12-22)

[Climb Higher]

A. Focus on His Eternal Kingship (Ps. 102:12)

“But Thou, O LORD,” sounds a note of contrast and, therefore, of hope. There is someone who is not subject to the fleeting nature of human existence—Someone who is characterized by “for ever,” who will “endure unto all generations” (Ps. 102:12). And this One does not just exist forever. He will rule forever. Above and in all the troubles of this life is the Lord, who reigns as King of the creation he has made. Focusing on his eternal reign is our turning point in the move from being overwhelmed to being overcomers in life. Contrary to appearances and our perspective skewed by trouble, life is not ultimately a fleeting experience of chaotic activity, because there is a divine King who reigns.

[Futato, 324.]

B. Focus on His Mercy (Ps. 102:13-17)

And this King is no harsh tyrant, for He is not only characterized by eternality but also by showing “mercy” and “favour” to His people (Ps. 102:13). The scope has broadened in Ps. 102:12–22 from the individual to the community. Restoration of the [remnant] is the hope of the individual who prays, “The Lord will build up Zion” (Ps. 102:16) and “will regard the prayer of the destitute” (Ps. 102:17). Ultimately the one and the many are interconnected, [cf. Ps. 103:3-5 (individual) and Ps. 103:6-10 (community)] . . . Love for the [restored remnant] is beautifully expressed in Ps. 102:14: “For Thy servants take pleasure in her stones and favour the dust thereof.” And [the hope of restoration by God’s mercy extends even beyond Zion to] the “heathen” and the “kings of the earth” [that] come into view in Ps. 102:15.

[Futato, 324.]

Application:

In the context of Ps. 102:15, the “people which shall be created” in Ps. 102:18 [carries Messianic overtones]. As God once “looked down” from heaven to see the misery of captive Israel (Exod 2:25; 14:24), so He once again has “looked down … to hear the groaning of the prisoner, to loose those that are appointed to death” (Ps. 102:19–20). [One day, in the Kingdom of King Jesus,] the [“kingdoms”] “multitudes/nations” (Ps. 102:22), which gather together to worship the true God. Thus, God is not now looking down from heaven on the whole human race to see if any are righteous (Ps. 14:2; 53:2) but to deliver the nations from their groans and condemnation.

[Futato, 324–325.]

The Lord will deliver the Great-Tribulation, suffering, Jewish remnant, Zechariah 12:1–9; 13:9; 14:1–15, that this delivered remnant might declare the Lord’s name in Zion when the people of the earth are gathered at Jerusalem to serve the Lord, Isaiah 2:3; 60:11, 12; Zechariah 14:16–19.

[Gingrich, 25.]

Transition:

Pour out your problems in honest prayer before the Lord, but remember who it is to whom you speak, and focus on His eternal Godhead and everlasting mercy new each morning, then,

III. Pray with Confidence to the Lord (Ps. 102:23-28)

[Take Fire]

A. Renew Your Prayer to Him Whose Years Are Throughout Every Generation (Ps. 102:23-24)

The individual does not get lost in the community. The final section opens with a return to the cry of the one. While the truth of who God is and what He is doing is a turning point from being overwhelmed to being an overcomer, the pain of the problems may yet remain. The short “days” of the psalmist are back in view in Ps. 102:23, as his thoughts come back to his true “midlife” crisis. So he renews his prayer to God, who is characterized not by fleeting “days” but by “years” that go on from generation to generation, who is always “the same,” and who lives forever (Ps. 102:27).

[Futato, 325.]

Hope must be based on some reason, or else it is false hope. It does not have to be tangible, but it has to be substantive. This psalm leans on the substance of hope in God’s changeless character. Even the heavens may perish and wear out like a garment, but God remains (Ps. 102:26), and his years, unlike humanity’s, have no end. Hebrews 13:8 is a restatement of this truth, applied to Christ, as that writer also applies the truth of verses 25–27 to Christ in Hebrews 1:10–12. The fact that God does not change provides stability in our changing world and undergirds our hope for the future.

[C. Hassell Bullock, Psalms 73–150, ed. Mark L. Strauss and John H. Walton, vol. 2, Teach the Text Commentary Series (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books: A Division of Baker Publishing Group, 2017), 224.]

B. Look Beyond the Present Distress to a Future of Security (Ps. 102:25-28)

In this closing section, the psalmist looks back not to the Exodus but to God’s initial act of creation: his founding the earth and establishing the heavens. As ancient and therefore seemingly permanent as the heavens and the earth may appear, they will perish and be discarded like old clothes, says the psalmist. This . . . provides a counterpoint for the magnification of the Lord, who "shalt endure” (Ps. 102:26). Since God will remain forever, the psalmist and future generations [“shall continue or] “will live in security” and [“their seed shall be established” or] “thrive” in the divine presence. It is on this great note of confidence that the psalm comes to an end.

[Futato, 325.]

Hebrews 1:10–12 KJV 1900

10 And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands: 11 They shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment; 12 And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail.

Conclusion:

A. Call to Act/Summary of Message/Application:

Even in the overwhelming troubles of life, we are overcomers, because there is an eternal and merciful divine king ruling the cosmos. Despite overwhelming troubles, “we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us” (Rom 8:37) because God not only looked down from heaven, but he also came down in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ so that nothing can ever separate us from his love (Rom 8:35).

Romans 8:35 KJV 1900

35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

[Futato, 325.]

B. Gospel Invitation: