Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible · Psalms Capitolo 102

Psalms 102:0.

The Prophet in his prayer maketh a grievous complaint: he taketh comfort in the eternity and mercy of God. The mercies of God are to be recorded: he sustaineth his weakness by the unchangeableness of God.

A prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed, and poureth out his complaint before the LORD.

Title. לעני תפלה tehillah leaani.] This prayer of the afflicted was probably written by Nehemiah in the time of the captivity (see Nehemiah 1:3; Nehemiah 1:11.) for the use of himself and other pious persons, who lamented the desolation of Jerusalem, and the ruin of the temple: though at the same time they had comfortable hopes that the nations round about should shortly see their wonderful restoration, and thereby be invited to embrace their religion, which was a lively emblem of the coming of the Gentiles into the church of Christ, the eternity of whose kingdom is foretold in the conclusion of this psalm. Mudge is of opinion, from the 13th verse, that it was composed about the time that God had promised a restoration to his people; i.e. after a term of 70 years; and that this was a form of prayer directed to be used by every particular person in the captivity.

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Psalms 102:3. For my days are consumed like smoke— Or, according to the original בעשׁן beashan, in smoke. "My afflictions have had the same effect upon me, as smoke has on things which are hung up in it; i.e. have dried me up, and deformed me." As an hearth, is rendered by some as dry wood; which is most applicable to the subject here spoken of. The bones being burned up as dry wood, denotes the speedy exhausting of the radical moisture, which soon ends in the consumption of the whole body.

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Psalms 102:4. So that I forget— Because I forget. Green. Mudge joins the end of this to the next verse, I forget to eat my bread for the voice of my groaning.

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Psalms 102:6. I am like a pelican of the wilderness— There are two species of pelicans, one of which lives in the water, upon fish; the other in the wilderness, upon serpents and reptiles. By the owl of the desert, many understand the bittern; and by the bird which sits solitary on the house-top, the owl. Houbigant, instead of sparrow alone, reads, the solitary bird; and for pelican, onocrotalus. See Dr. Shaw's Travels, p. 427. Bochart's works, vol. 3: p. 272 and Watson's Animal World displayed, p. 242.

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Psalms 102:8. And they that are mad against me, &c.— And my slanderers, &c. Mudge renders, And in their madness swear against me; and Green, The insolent boasters use my name in their oaths: Psalms 102:9. Because I eat ashes, &c.: Psalms 102:10. On account of thy indignation and wrath, &c. According to him, the phrase, Use my name in their oaths, means, "Their form of swearing is this; if we break our oaths, may the gods pour down their vengeance upon us, and make us as miserable as this captive Jew!"

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Psalms 102:9. For I have eaten ashes— The serpent in Genesis is condemned to go on his belly, and to eat dust, to which his prone posture inevitably subjects him. Casting ashes upon themselves, or rolling themselves in ashes, was a ceremony to express deep distress and sorrow among the Orientals; and if we may suppose that the Psalmist lay prostrate upon the ground in his sorrow, he might be said literally to eat ashes, as well as the serpent is said to eat dust; and his affliction must be highly aggravated in our ideas by such an image as this. See Boch. Hieroz. Psalms 50:4 : Psalms 100:2.

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Psalms 102:11. My days are like a shadow that declineth— My days are as a shadow which is gone down. The shadow which is gone down, seems not so much to describe a common shadow, as the shadow of a dial; which in that of Ahaz is said to go down, (the same original word) as the hour goes on. Mudge.

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Psalms 102:13. Yea, the set time is come— The time fixed for the continuance of the Babylonish captivity was 70 years. The set, or fixed time, here seems to mean, the time appointed for the restoration of the people, and the rebuilding of the temple. See Jeremiah 39:10-11, and the first note on this psalm.

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Psalms 102:14. For thy servants take pleasure, &c.— Thy servants also bear an affection to her ruins, and commiserate her dust: Green; in conformity to the version of the Liturgy of the church of England, as well as to many of the ancient versions.

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Psalms 102:18. And the people which shall be created, &c.— And the people to be born shall praise the Lord. Mudge; who reads the two next verses in a parenthesis.—Ver. 19. (When the Lord looketh out from the height of his holiness; from the heaven he beholdeth the earth.—Ver. 20. To hear, &c.)—Ver. 21. In order to record in Zion the name, &c. The words, this shall be written, seem to intend the particular case of this prayer of the prisoner; that it should be written for times to come, in order to publish the glory of the Lord at Jerusalem; when the whole Gentile world should be assembled there to do him homage.

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Psalms 102:23. He weakened my strength— The connection is this, "Notwithstanding these glorious hopes of being speedily restored to my native country, I find that through continual afflictions God hath weakened my strength, even whilst I thought that I was in the way to that happiness; and that on account of the short remainder of my life I shall not be able to attain it." But he goes on, "Though I do not live to have any share in the public joy for that restoration; yet thou, who art an everlasting and immutable God, whose years are throughout all generations, wilt not fail to make those who survive me happy therein."

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Psalms 102:25. Of old hast thou laid the foundation, &c.— See Isa 51:6 where the prophet tells us, that the heaven and earth shall wax old like a garment; but the Psalmist here goes one step further than the prophet; and not only acquaints us that the heavens and the earth shall wax old as a garment, but, like a worn-out garment, shall be changed for new—What, but the new heavens and the new earth, mentioned by St. Peter in the New Testament, and said to be the expectation of believers, according to God's promise?—See 2Pe 3:13 and Peters on Job, p. 413.

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Psalms 102:26. As a vesture shalt thou change them— This refers to changes of raiment. God should invest himself with new heavens, as a man would change his garment. This passage is quoted by the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, Heb 1:12 who has followed the LXX in reading, Thou shalt fold them up.

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