“A Prayer of one afflicted, when he is faint and pours out his complaint before the LORD. Hear my prayer, O LORD; let my cry come to You! Do not hide Your face from me in the day of my distress! Incline Your ear to me; answer me speedily in the day when I call! For my days pass away like smoke, and my bones burn like a furnace. My heart is struck down like grass and has withered; I forget to eat my bread. Because of my loud groaning my bones cling to my flesh. I am like a desert owl of the wilderness, like an owl of the waste places; I lie awake; I am like a lonely sparrow on the housetop.” Psalm 102:1-7
Devotional Thought For The Day
We all have times when we have to listen to the complaints of the “afflicted.” We all have times of dire illness or misfortune that drive us to such distress. And there are times when the Lord seems to leave us alone in our misery, when regardless of all of our efforts, all of the help we can afford to enlist from others, and all our prayers, things remain the same or even get worse. The psalmist at this point was far from acceptance and resignation – he later comments that he is only in mid-life [v.24]; at the end of his time on earth he came to peace with his demise [see 1 Kgs. 2]. We are blessed to hear his complaints and his prayer to God for mercy, compassion, healing, and deliverance, that we may learn to pray in the same manner in our troubles. However, when we come to the end of life we too must learn acceptance and resignation – in faithful hope in the promises of God, that we have eternal life and will rise again in glory on the Last Day.
The psalmist’s woes were physical, political, and spiritual; in the first few verses he dwells on the physical and spiritual aspects of his suffering, in the next few verses he will speak of his enemies, how they despised him and sought to ruin his reputation. Young people find it difficult to grasp the physical symptoms described: “my bones burn like a furnace. My heart is struck down like grass and has withered; I forget to eat my bread. Because of my loud groaning my bones cling to my flesh.” Perhaps there are some older people who have experienced exceptional health and have had very little of this kind of physical suffering, but with time most of us are “blessed” to experience the ravages of illness and aging – maladies of bones and joints, heart and respiratory decline, problems with appetite and digestion, and the “sagging” loss of muscle mass. We are then privileged to pray the prayer of “one afflicted, when he is faint and pours out his complaint before the Lord.”
I would recommend doing just this – pouring out our complaints, especially the incurable ones, to the Lord. He alone is able to do something about them, if it is His will. We can weary our loved ones with our complaints, and afflict them with grief and sorrow. While it is true that misery loves company, I don’t really think that we want or need to make our loved ones miserable along with us. And being a constant complainer may drive even your closest friends and family away from you. Although communication is a wonderful thing, there are some experiences we have that are uniquely personal, and there is no one to share them with – except the Lord, Who knows all things. So the psalmist describes himself as a solitary owl in the wilderness and a lonely sparrow. This is real – and no amount of conversation, complaining, and trying to drag others into our misery will bring us company. We are alone with God, and this is certainly no bad thing. We know that God is love.
We recall that these physical and spiritual afflictions were also suffered by our Savior, in His suffering and death on the cross. They were multiplied beyond comprehension as He suffered for the sin of the whole world – Divine wrath and punishment for every single sin ever committed, and all yet to be committed until the end of this age. Only God Himself, the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal and almighty Word could endure this and absorb all of our guilt and punishment. It is in this way, by contemplating this supreme expression of His love for us, that we are strengthened in humble faith and trust in Him. And we can be sure that there is never a time when we are suffering something that He doesn’t understand fully and completely and first hand. Nor should we ever doubt His compassion toward us in the worst and most acute suffering we endure, or the certainty that we will end up being safe, secure, and blessed forever, for “In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the angel of His presence saved them; in His love and in His pity He redeemed them; He lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.” [Is. 63:9] There is no question that He does the same for His dear people of faith today – just as He was doing for the psalmist even in the midst of this despairing prayer. So let us also commend ourselves to His grace, mercy, and love – knowing that He is working all things together for our greatest good.
Prayer For The Day
Dear Lord Jesus, our struggles and suffering are part of what You warned Adam and Eve about in the garden. Our time spent in the misery of sin and its consequences is instructive and blessed, if we allow You to draw us back to faith and trust in You and Your love. Prepare our hearts and minds to endure all things, knowing that when we have no strength left You are still there carrying us, and that Your grace will always be sufficient for us. Remind us that we are never alone, and that it is never a bad thing to be alone with You. Amen.