Psalms 102

Psalms 102THEME: Prayer of trouble and sorrowThis is a messianic psalm that pictures the Lord Jesus in Gethsemane. The writer of this psalm is not mentioned. Since there have been all sorts of guesses as to who wrote it, I will guess that it was David. The inspired inscription of this psalm is “A Prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed, and poureth out his complaint before the LORD.” This psalm pictures the affliction and humiliation of our Lord in the Garden of Gethsemane. As we will soon find, the Holy Spirit has marked out this psalm as messianic in the New Testament.

Psalms 102:1

Dr. Gaebelein’s translation is: “Jehovah, hear My prayer and let My cry come unto Thee!” Here is a case where Jehovah prays to Jehovah! He came in humiliation; yet He was Jehovah manifested in the flesh. In Genesis we find a remarkable statement: “Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven” (Gen_19:24). In other words, Jehovah on earth asks Jehovah in heaven to bring down judgment. Dr.

Gaebelein adds this comment: “But here in humiliation, facing His great work as the sinbearer, the fellow of Jehovah (Zec_13:7) cries unto Him ’that was able to save Him out of death.’ We have here in prophecy ’the prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears’ of Gethsemane (Heb_5:7).” And He was heard. But we find here that the wrath of the holy and righteous God fell upon Him because He bore your sins and my sins. What a glorious and wonderful psalm this is! Now here we see the deepest woe and agony that man can have:

Psalms 102:8

This expresses the depth of despair.

Psalms 102:10

The words indignation and wrath are the strongest terms you can use in the Hebrew language. The Lord endured this. Why? He did it “…for the joy that was set before him …” (Heb_12:2).

Psalms 102:12

He will have mercy upon Zion! And so it was “…for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame …” (Heb_12:2). He died, you see, for the nation Israel. Joh_11:50-51 mentions that it was necessary for one to die for the nation. And Christ did die for that nation. And He is going to build Zion again when He appears in His glorywhich will be at His second coming.

Psalms 102:16

Our Lord knew that through His sacrificial death Zion would ultimately be redeemed.

Psalms 102:25

The Holy Spirit quotes this passage in Heb_1:10-12, and we would not have known that Psalms 102 was a messianic psalm if it hadn’t pleased the Author of the Bible, the Spirit of God, to reveal the meaning of this section in the first chapter of Hebrews. Psalms 102 applies to the Lord Jesus Christ. It is His prayer of trouble and sorrow. This is the King in GethsemaneHis humiliation before His exaltation, as set forth in Heb_5:7, which says, “Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared.” Because He suffered for us, He can sympathize with us. I like to think of Psalm 102 as the psalm of Gethsemane.