Ps. 102:0 This Psalm contains a form of prayer and expostulation with God, composed for the use of all true Israelites, in the name and behalf of their mother the church of Israel. It seems to have been composed in the time of their captivity, and near the end of it, Ps. 102:13–14.

Like smoke; which passeth away in obscurity, and swiftly, and irrecoverably. Or, into smoke; as wood or any combustible matter put into the fire wasteth away in smoke and ashes. My bones; the most strong and solid parts of my body, which seemed safest from the fire.

Like grass; which is smitten and withered by the heat of the sun, either whilst it stands, or after it is cut down. I forget to eat my bread, because my mind is wholly swallowed up with the contemplation of my own miseries.

My flesh being quite consumed with excessive sorrows.

Pelican; or, bittern, as the same word is translated, Isa. 34:11, Zeph. 2:14. It is a solitary and mournful bird, as also the owl here following is.

A sparrow which hath lost its mate, and then is very sad and solitary, as some report; although that be uncertain and improbable. But this Hebrew word doth not only signify a sparrow, but in general any bird, as Lev. 14:4, Deut. 14:11, Dan. 4:12, Dan. 4:14, Dan. 4:21.

Or, and being mad or enraged at or against me, they swear against me; they swear they will do me yet more mischief: or, they swear by me; they make use of my name and misery in their forms of swearing and imprecation; as when they would express their malicious and mischievous intentions against…

For; so this verse gives a reason either of his great sadness, expressed Ps. 102:6–7, or why they swore by him in the sense last given. Or, surely, as this particle is oft used. Or, therefore, because of those bitter reproaches last mentioned.

Because of thine indignation and thy wrath; because I do not only conflict with men, but with the Almighty God, and with his anger. For thou hast lifted me up, and cast me down; as a man lifts up a person or thing as high as he can, that he may cast it down to the ground with greater force.

My days; my hopes, and comforts, and happiness; days being oft put for happy days, or a happy state, as Ps. 37:18, Lam. 5:21, as elsewhere they are put more generally for the events which happen in those days; in both which cases it is a metonymy of the adjunct.

But this is my comfort, although we die and our hopes vanish, yet our God is everlasting and unchangeable, and therefore invincible by all his and our enemies, constant in his counsels and purposes of mercy to his church, stedfast and faithful in the performance of all his promises; and therefore…

Upon Zion; upon Jerusalem, or thy church and people. The set time; the end of those seventy years which thou hast fixed; of which see Jer. 25:12, Jer. 29:10, Dan. 9:2.

Thy people value the dust and rubbish of the holy city more than all the palaces of the earth, and passionately desire that it may be rebuilt.

Which was in some sort fulfilled when the rebuilding of the temple and city of God was carried on and finished through so many and great difficulties and oppositions, to the admiration, envy, and terror of their enemies, as we read, Neh. 6:16, Ps.

His glorious power, and wisdom, and goodness shall be manifested to all the world.

Of the destitute, i.e. of his poor forsaken, despised people in Babylon. Not despise, i.e. will accept and answer.

This shall be written; this wonderful deliverance shall not be lost nor forgotten, but carefully recorded by thy people. For the generation to come; for the instruction and encouragement of all succeeding generations. The singular number put for the plural, as is ordinary.

He hath looked down, to wit, upon us, not like an idle spectator, but with an eye of pity and relief, as the next verse declares. From the height of his sanctuary; from his higher or upper sanctuary, to wit, heaven, as the next clause explains it, which is called God’s high and holy place, Isa.

To release his poor captives out of Babylon, and, which is more, from the chains and fetters of sin and Satan, and from eternal destruction.

That they being delivered might publish and celebrate the name and praises of God in his church.

When the Gentiles shall gather themselves to the Jews, and join with them in the praise and worship of the true God, and of the Messias. This verse seems to be added to intimate, that although the psalmist in this Psalm respects the deliverance of the Jews out of Babylon, yet he had a further…

He, to wit, God, to whom he ascribes these calamities, Ps. 102:10; to whom therefore he addresseth himself for relief. In the way; either, 1. In the midst of our expectations.

Take me not away; do not wholly cut off and destroy thy people of Israel. In the midst of my days; before they come to a full age and stature, and to the plenary possession of thy promises, and especially of that great and fundamental promise of the Messias, in and by whom alone their happiness is…

The eternity of God looks both backward and forward, it is both without beginning and without end. The former is affirmed and illustrated Ps. 102:24, Ps. 102:26–27, the latter is clearly implied in this verse.

They shall perish; either, 1. As to the substance of them, which shall be annihilated. Or, 2. As to their present nature and use: see Isa. 65:17, Isa. 66:22, 2 Pet. 3:7, 2 Pet. 3:10–11.

Though the heavens and the earth perish, and though we thy servants pine away in our iniquities, according to thy righteous sentence and threatening, Lev.