Psalm 102
8,8,8,8
^1Lord, hear my pray'r, and let my cry
Have speedy access unto thee;
^2In day of my calamity
O hide not thou thy face from me.
Hear when I call to thee; that day
An answer speedily return:
^3My days, like smoke, consume away,
And, as an hearth, my bones do burn.
^4My heart is wounded very sore,
And withered, like grass doth fade:
I am forgetful grown therefore
To take and eat my daily bread.
^5By reason of my smart within,
And voice of my most grievous groans,
My flesh consumed is, my skin,
All parch'd, doth cleave unto my bones.
^6The pelican of wilderness,
The owl in desert, I do match;
^7And, sparrow-like, companionless,
Upon the house's top, I watch.
^8I all day long am made a scorn,
Reproach'd by my malicious foes:
The madmen are against me sworn,
The men against me that arose.
^9For I have ashes eaten up,
To me as if they had been bread;
And with my drink I in my cup
Of bitter tears a mixture made.
^10Because thy wrath was not appeas'd,
And dreadful indignation:
Therefore it was that thou me rais'd,
And thou again didst cast me down.
^11My days are like a shade alway,
Which doth declining swiftly pass;
And I am withered away,
Much like unto the fading grass.
^12But thou, O Lord, shalt still endure,
From change and all mutation free,
And to all generations sure
Shall thy remembrance ever be.
^13Thou shalt arise, and mercy yet
Thou to mount Sion shalt extend:
Her time for favour which was set,
Behold, is now come to an end.
^14Thy saints take pleasure in her stones,
Her very dust to them is dear.
^15All heathen lands and kingly thrones
On earth thy glorious name shall fear.
^16God in his glory shall appear,
When Sion he builds and repairs.
^17He shall regard and lend his ear
Unto the needy's humble pray'rs:
Th' afflicted's pray'r he will not scorn.
^18All times this shall be on record:
And generations yet unborn
Shall praise and magnify the Lord.
^19He from his holy place look'd down,
The earth he view'd from heav'n on high;
^20To hear the pris'ner's mourning groan,
And free them that are doom'd to die;
^21That Sion, and Jerus'lem too,
His name and praise may well record,
^22When people and the kingdoms do
Assemble all to praise the Lord.
^23My strength he weaken'd in the way,
My days of life he shortened.
^24My God, O take me not away
In mid-time of my days, I said:
Thy years throughout all ages last.
^25Of old thou hast established
The earth's foundation firm and fast:
Thy mighty hands the heav'ns have made.
^26They perish shall, as garments do,
But thou shalt evermore endure;
As vestures, thou shalt change them so;
And they shall all be changed sure:
^27But from all changes thou art free;
Thy endless years do last for aye.
^28Thy servants, and their seed who be,
Establish'd shall before thee stay.