Psalms 102 · The Lantern

O Yahweh, hear thou my prayer, and let, my cry for help, unto thee, enter in.

Do not hide thy face from me, In the day when I am in distress,—Bend down unto me thine ear, In the day when I call, speedily answer me.

For, consumed in smoke, are my days, And, my bones, like a burning mass, are scorched through;

Smitten like herbage, so is my heart dried up, For I have forgotten to eat my food.

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.

At the noise of my groaning, my bone, hath cleaved, 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 the pelican of the desert, I have become as an owl among ruins.

I have watched and am become, Like a bird sitting alone upon a housetop.

All the day, have mine enemies, reproached me, And, they who are mad against me, by me, have sworn.

For, ashes—like bread, have I eaten, And, my drink—with my tears, have I mingled;

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 thine indignation and thy wrath, For thou hast lifted me up, and cast me down.

My days, are like a shadow extended, And, I, as green herbage, do wither.

But, thou, O Yahweh, age-abidingly wilt remain, And the memorial of thee, to generation after generation.

Thou, wilt arise, wilt have compassion upon Zion, Surely it is time to favour her, Surely the time appointed, hath come;

Seeing that thy servants, take pleasure, in her stones, And, her dust, they favour:

That the nations may revere thy Name, O Yahweh, And all the kings of the earth, thy glory.

When Yahweh, hath built up, Zion, Hath appeared in his glory;

Hath turned towards the prayer of the destitute, And not despised their prayer,

This, shall be written, for a later generation, And, a people to be created, will give praise unto Yah:—

That he looked down, out of his holy height, Yahweh, from the heavens unto the earth, directed his gaze;—

To hear the groaning of the prisoner, To set free, them who were appointed to death.

To the end the Name of Yahweh, might be celebrated in Zion, And his praise in Jerusalem:

When the peoples, gather themselves together, And the kingdoms, to serve Yahweh.

He hath prostrated, in the way, my strength,—He hath 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…

Now as these things are written in the Scriptures, the case is clear, that the saints know that a certain time is measured to every person, but that no one knows the end of that time is plainly intimated by the words of David, "Declare to me the shortness of my days." He desired information about that which he did not know.

"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 said, O my GOD, do not remove me in the midst of my days, Throughout the generation of generations, are thy years;

Of old—the earth, thou didst found, And, the work of thy hands, are the heavens;

For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son? And again, when he bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him. And of the angels he saith, Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire.

But this opinion of prophecy could not withstand the evidence, which the divine majesty of the Lord Jesus Christ also confirmed in the Gospel. For David said: In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth, O Lord, and the works of your hands are the heavens.

Thou, Lord, in the beginning didst lay the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of thy hands; they shall perish, but thou shalt remain.

They, shall perish, But, thou, wilt abide; And, they all, like a garment, shall fall in pieces, As a vesture, wilt thou change them and they shall vanish;

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.

Suppose they say, though, that the Lord's own divine substance is not the same when he is with the Father as it was when he wished to show himself on earth without taking a body, then what else have the poor fools committed themselves to, but saying that the divine substance is subject to change in place and time?

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, thou, art, the same,—And, thy years, shall have no end:

The children of thy servants, shall continue,—And, their seed, before thee, be established.

Psalms102