Title: - “A prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed, and poureth out his complaint before the Lord.” This psalm is a prayer far more in spirit than in words. The formal petitions are few, but a strong stream of supplication runs from beginning to end, and like an under-current, finds its way heavenward through the moanings of grief and confessions of faith which make up the major part of the psalm. To help the memory we will call this psalm.
Division: - In the first part of the psalm, from 1-11, the moaning monopolises every verse, the lamentation is unceasing, sorrow rules the hour. The second portion, from 12-28, has a vision of better things, a view of the gracious Lord, and His eternal existence and care for his people. Therefore, it is interspersed with sunlight as well as shaded by the cloud, and it ends up right gloriously with calm confidence for the future, and sweet restfulness in the Lord. The whole composition may be compared to a day which, opening with wind and rain, clears up at noon and is warm with the sun, continues fine with intervening showers and finally closes with brilliant sunset.
Verse 13. “Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion: for the time to favour her, yea, the set time is come.” The rainy morning of the previous part of the psalm has passed, and now the psalmist sees the sun breaking through. To many people’s minds this verse will always stand connected with William Chalmers Burns and that time of blessing that he knew at the hand of the Lord while preaching in his father’s church at Kilsyth. “When I entered the pulpit,” he tells us, “I saw before me an immense multitude … from the town and neighbourhood, filling the seats, stairs, passages and porches … I began by singing Psalm 102, and was affected deeply when in reading it I came to these lines:
Behold, is now come to an end.’
That word now touched my heart, as with divine power, and encouraged the sweet hope that the set time really was now at hand.” Burns was not mistaken, and there began a great work in Kilsyth that day that overflowed to other parts of Scotland. No doubt, neither Burns himself, nor his old father the minister, nor any person in that neighbourhood, would ever have dreamed that God’s instrument in that time of favouring His Zion was the old minister’s renegade son who had left home some years earlier dreaming of wealth and fortune, and no thought of God whatsoever!
Verse 14. “For thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and favour the dust thereof.” 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 favour Zion will come.
Verse 16. “When the Lord shall build up Zion, He shall appear in his glory.” The sun is ever glorious, even in the most cloudy day, but does not appear so until it has scattered the clouds that muffle it from the sight of the lower world. God is glorious, even when the world sees Him not; but His declarative glory fully appears when the glory of His mercy, truth, and faithfulness breaks forth in His people’s salvation.
Verse 17. “He will regard the prayer of the destitute, and not despise their prayer.” It is worthy of observation that he ascribes the redemption and restoration of the people to the prayers of the faithful. It is truly a free gift, and dependent wholly upon the divine mercy; and yet, God Himself often attributes it to our prayers to stir us up and render us the more active in the pursuit of prayer.
Verse 24. “I said, O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days; thy years are throughout all generations.” There appears a greater desire to live long, than to live well. Measured by man’s desire – he cannot live long enough; measured by his good deeds – he has not lived long enough; measured by his evil deeds – he has lived too long. If God grant us a long life, may God also grant us a good life in His service and to the glory of His Zion.