Psalm 102

A prayer of one afflicted........

The psalmist is in intense distress.......physical, psychological and spiritual elements are indicated.

He is in pain, it seems, possibly feverish (v3), wasting away due to lack of appetite and nourishment.  He is alone, as if in a wilderness.  Day in and day out hounded by his enemies. He is shaken to the core, and sees his life as but a breath.....smoke that disappears quickly. It seems his life is passing (v3, v11).

He is wise, though.   He cried out to God.....the only sure source of hope and comfort.  And he recognizes that his suffering is the result of sin......and God's indignation and anger.

Against the brevity of his own life, he lifts up God's infinity.  He is never shaken, 'enthroned forever', always the same, having pity and mercy for His own.

He hears the cries of the afflicted. He will rescue and save.  The story will be told to future generations of His salvation and deliverance, and they will praise Him.

The earth and it's nations, and it's peoples will change.
  We are born, and then we die.
  Nations rise up, and nations fall.
  Seasons change, and the earth will pass away.
But God.....remains the same forever.

We have hope for those to come after us......because God will not change.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`
As I was reading through the psalm, I was thinking at first of a personal crisis for the writer, but then as he moved into parts about the people crying out, and  God having mercy on Zion.....I was reminded of the siege of Jerusalem and the great suffering that occurred there. I wonder if his suffering is more related to the siege than a personal crisis?   It seems I recall a prophet of perhaps a king of Judah mentioned somewhere in the OT mourning in the streets of Jerusalem, speaking of the horrific suffering going on.  Perhaps Jeremiah or Hezekiah?  I can't search it out now.   The NKJV notes didn't indicate this, but RSB notes mentioned the possibility of the psalm having been written shortly after the Babylonian captivity.

I have not experienced anything like that degree of either personal suffering or national crisis.  But still, I struggle with similar feelings at times.   Life is short, nothing stays the same.  People come, and people go; the Lord gives and the Lord takes away.  Circumstances vary and change, families grow close and apart, friends move away, communities crumble.

But what comfort to know that God hears the cry of His own, and has great pity and mercy for them!  Yes, my life is but a breath, useless smoke that drifts then disappears, but He is the same forever and ever.  And I am His.  That is all I really need.