Six times the psalmists call out to God with the words, “Hear my prayer.” Once they call out with “Hear my cry” and four times with “Hear my voice.” The psalmists were quick and eager to turn to the Lord in their moments of need. One such occasion is in Psalm 102.
The psalmist begins with that call, “Hear my prayer, O Lord, And let my cry come to You. Do not hide Your face from me in the day of my trouble; Incline Your ear to me; In the day that I call, answer me speedily” (102:1-2). It is apparent in these first verses and throughout the 28 verses of the psalm that the writer is in great distress. Let us see what we can learn and apply from this open-hearted message.
When I focus on ME, it is HOPELESS. The psalmist described “my days” like “smoke” (102:3) and “a shadow that lengthens” (102:11), being “alone” (102:7), and having “mingled my drink with weeping” (102:9). He describes his body as burning “like a furnace” (102:3) and being “stricken and withered like grass” (102:4, 11). He depicts his “enemies” as those who “reproach him all day long” (102:8). Even when looking at his earthly abode, he recognizes that it shall “perish” and “grow old like a garment” and “they will be changed” (102:26). Yes, when I focus on ME and MY, it is HOPELESS.
When I focus on HIM, it is HOPEFUL. The contrast in this psalm is stark. The first 11 verses lay out the grim picture and desperate situation in which the psalmist finds himself. Then, verse 12 shifts with, “But You, O Lord.” He’s going to do that three times in this psalm: “But You…but You…But You…” (102:12, 26, 27). Life is short and unpredictable. Eventually everything around us is going to come to an end. The contrast brings heaven’s light to this dark reality. “But You, O Lord, shall endure forever…They will perish, but You will endure…And they will be changed. But You are the same, and Your years will have no end” (102:12, 26, 27). My whole perspective can change when I put my focus on HIM. Then, then, I have HOPE!
When I remember HIM, I can have PEACE. Note what the psalmist says that God will do. “You will arise and have mercy” (102:13). “He shall regard the prayer of the destitute” (102:17). While things look bad in those early verses, look at the confident peace in the final verse: “The children of Your servants will continue, and their descendants will be established before You” (102:28).
It is easy to focus on all the negatives in MY life and lose hope. But when I FOCUS on Him and REMEMBER Him, that’s where my faith in His hope (Rom. 4:18) gives me peace (Phil. 4:7). No wonder the psalmist said that whose “yet to be created” would read this and “praise the Lord” (102:18).