Psalms 102 · The Lantern

A prayer of the afflicted, when he faints and pours out his complaint before the LORD. LORD, hear my prayer, and let my cry for help come to you.

The Prayer of the Afflicted

Do not hide your face from me in the day of my distress; stretch out your ear to me; in the day I call, quickly answer me.

For my days have been finished in smoke, and my bones are scorched like a hearth.

My heart is struck like grass and has dried up, for I have forgotten to eat my bread.

I am smitten like grass, and my heart is withered. Just as it is also written elsewhere: 'Man, his days are like grass.' For such is the life of men: it is green, and quickly it withers. Because I have forgotten to eat my bread. He did not say, I had no desire to eat, or I despised eating.

Look back to Adam, whence the human race sprung. For how but from him was misery propagated? whence but from him is this hereditary poverty? Let him then, who in his own body was at one time in despair, now that he is set in Christ's body, say with hope, "My heart is smitten down, and withered like grass" (ver. 4). Deservedly, since all flesh is grass.

"For I forgot to eat my bread. At the sound of my groaning, my bones stuck to my flesh." I lost appetite for any food, and was completely bereft of my former good condition, my body being consumed by the wasting of discouragement; I am but skin and bones.

From the voice of my sighing my bone clings to my flesh.

By reason of the voice of my groaning my bone has cleaved to my flesh. Let those who do penance learn how they ought to do penance. For I so dried myself up, that I was without flesh, and my skin clung to my bones. He said 'flesh' for 'skin.'

"For the voice of my groaning, the bones cleave unto my flesh" (ver. 5). For many groan, and I also groan; even for this I groan, because they groan for a wrong cause.

And again he saith, "For I have forgotten to eat my bread, and by reason of the voice of my groanings my flesh cleaveth unto my bones." It was not sufficient for him, through his remembrance of God to turn away from his natural food, but he forgot entirely this corruptible food because his mind was meditating upon that which belonged to the spirit; and by reason of the severity…

I am like a pelican of the wilderness; I have become like an owl of the ruins.

I lie awake, and I have become like a bird alone on a roof.

All the day my enemies reproach me; those who rave against me swear by me.

For I have eaten ashes like bread, and mixed my drink with weeping,

So then the prophet comforted David as we have seen, but that blessed man, though he received most gladly the assurance, "The Lord has put away your sin," did not, king as he was, draw back from penitence. Indeed he put on sackcloth in place of his purple robe, and the king sat in ashes on the bare earth instead of on his gilded throne.

Indeed, to the penitent confession alone does not suffice, unless correction of the deed follows, with the result that the penitent does not continue to do deeds that demand repentance.

And again, he teacheth thee also concerning that which he took as a preparation for his meat, saying, "For I have eaten ashes like bread:" these were the condiments and dainties which were laid upon the table of this righteous king when he ate his food.

because of your indignation and your wrath, for you lifted me up and threw me away.

My days are like a stretched-out shadow, and I dry up like grass.

But you, LORD, sit forever, and your remembrance to generation and generation.

You yourself will rise and have compassion on Zion, for it is time to be gracious to her, for the appointed time has come.

For your servants have delighted in her stones, and they are gracious to her dust.

And the nations will fear the name of the LORD, and all the kings of the earth your glory,

for the LORD has built Zion; he has appeared in his glory.

He has turned to the prayer of the destitute, and has not despised their prayer.

Let this be written for a generation to come, and a people yet to be created will praise the LORD.

For he has looked down from his holy height; the LORD from heaven has gazed on the earth,

to hear the groaning of the prisoner, to set free the sons of death,

to recount the name of the LORD in Zion, and his praise in Jerusalem,

when peoples are gathered together, and kingdoms, to serve the LORD.

He has afflicted my strength on the way; he has shortened my days.

And this is true. For no one is able to comprehend the works of God altogether. Moreover, the world is the work of God. No one, then, can find out as to this world what is its space from the beginning and to the end, that is to say, the period appointed for it and the limits before determined for it; in view of the fact that God has set the whole world as a realm of ignorance i…

For although it is hidden and unknown to all, what period of time is allotted to each and how it is allotted, yet every one knows this, that as there is a time for spring and for summer, and for autumn and for winter, so, as it is written, there is a time to die and a time to live.

"She answered Him in the way of His strength" [Psalm 102:23]....The preceding words show, that either "His praise," or "Jerusalem," answered: for it was said, "And His praise in Jerusalem; in the nations gathering together in one, and the kingdoms, that they may serve the Lord. Respondit ei." We cannot say, "the kingdoms answered," for he would have said responderunt.

I say, “My God, do not take me up in the middle of my days — your years are through generation of generations.”

Of old you founded the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands.

They will perish, but you will stand; and all of them will wear out like a garment; like clothing you will change them, and they will pass away.

For this very reason, a certain one of the interpreters seems to me to have handed over beautifully and accurately the same thought through another title, saying, "For the lilies," in place of, "For them that shall be changed." He thought that it was appropriate to compare the transitoriness of human nature with the early death of flowers.

"They shall perish, but Thou shalt endure" [Psalm 102:26]. The Apostle Peter saith this openly: "By the word of God the heavens were of old," etc. He hath said then that the heavens have already perished by the flood: and we know that the heavens perished as far as the extent of this atmosphere of ours.

That the divine being is immutable is shown by authority. The Psalm: You shall change them, and they shall be changed, but You are the selfsame; the Gloss says: "immutable." For inasmuch as it is simple, it is immutable from itself: for it has nothing that is not its own essential being, which indeed "is not an accident, but a subsistent truth," as Hilary says.

But you are he, and your years will not be finished.

The sons of your servants will dwell, and their seed will be established before you.

Psalms102

The Prayer of the Afflicted