Psalms 102

With whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. (Psalm 102:27) You are the same. All created things are full of vicissitude.

Things seem to be carried in the world very unequally; the wicked flourish (Psalm 73); they who tempt God are delivered (Malachi 3:15). The ripe clusters of grapes are squeezed into their cup, and in the meantime, the godly who wept for sin, and served God, are afflicted (Psalm…

And because of all other afflictions, this of darkness in a man's spirit most of all needs prayer. Therefore David composed a psalm on purpose, not for his own private use only but for the benefit and use of all others in the like distress, as appears by the title: Psalm 102, 'A…

The children of Israel are said to have tempted Jehovah (Numbers 14:[22], 27): and Paul says, that he whom they tempted was Christ (1 Corinthians 10:9). Jehovah founded the earth, and the same is said of Christ (Psalm 102:15, with John 1:3). 2. Christ the Son of God is by name c…

From where may they expect relief and comfort but from him? Psalm 102 is entitled, A Psalm for the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed, and pours out his complaint before the Lord. And happy were it if every afflicted soul would choose this way to express his sorrows.

Ecclesiastes 7:17, Why should you die before your time? Psalm 102:24, O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days. Isaiah 38:10, I am deprived of the residue of my years.

God only goes between the mightiest angel in heaven, and Nothing: All things under the moon must be sick of vanity and death, when the heir of all things, coming in among dying creatures, out of dispensation, by law must die. If the Lord's soul, and the soul of such a Lord die a…

Why does David complain that he was as a bottle in the smoke, and pray so often that God would quicken him, if under a dead disposition we were not to pray? 4. If often the saints beginning to pray do speak words of unbelief and from a principle of nature, and if words flowing f…

1. Observe, that God may leave his children and servants to great straits; for Christ himself was sorely hungry: so God suffers his people to hunger in the wilderness before he gave them manna. Therefore it is said (Psalm 102:23): "He weakens the strength of the people in the wa…

Title, is Maschil of David; a Prayer when he was in the Cave. And this is for instruction to us, so Maschil signifies: Indeed he purposely compiles Psalm 102 as a pattern to all that may be in his case, that is solitary, As a pelican in the wilderness, an owl in the desert, or a…

As in Zechariah he witnesses, that as often as his children are oppressed by any, they even touch the apple of his eye (Zechariah 2:8). He sees the tears and hears the groans of the afflicted which call upon him (Psalm 12:5, Psalm 38:9, Psalm 102:20). And however this always com…

The particle Chi, is here to be read in its proper signification; to wit, For; because the Prophet gives a reason why the shame of Israel should be taken away: that is, he should have children raised up to him again, as it were from death to life. In that the Lord calls them the…

Now although the members of the Church are not always of one rank in this world, yet it is one and the same body knit by joints and bands to one head Jesus Christ. Thus then, The Lord will keep and defend the city, and will cause the children of his servants to continue, that th…

True it is that God has neither hands, nor any bodily shape: but thus it pleases the Holy Ghost to stoop down to our slender and weak capacities, that he might the better set forth the infinite love which he bears us. And because the Church is in many places called the Temple, o…

He therefore puts salvation in the first place, and then he adds righteousness, which is the solid foundation wherewith this salvation is upheld: when dangers threaten us on all sides then, let us learn to flee to this city of refuge. To this sentence also belongs that which is…

And to this purpose it is said in (Psalm 93:1), that the Lord shall reign, and that the world shall be established that it cannot be moved. And in (Psalm 102:26-28), the heavens shall perish, but the Church of God shall remain forever. In the word mercy we are to note what the f…

The people of God then object this short time to him, not as accusing him of breach of promise; but to put him in mind of his covenant, and that he should rather have respect to his own goodness, than to the chastisements which they had justly deserved. And after this manner the…

He therefore exhorts and provokes all those who entirely love the Church, and hold nothing more dear to them than her salvation, to rejoice. Hereby showing that no man has any part or portion in this so great a benefit, unless such only as bear a holy love to the Church, and are…

Providence rings the changes all the world over. He encreaseth the nations, and destroyeth them; he enlarges the nations, and straitneth them again, Job 12:23 The same it does with persons, Psalm 102:10 Thou hast lifted me up, and cast me down. See what a sad Alteration Providen…

The phrase imports the uninterruptedness (as we may so speak) of his sorrows: that he had no stop, no breathing time, which was not a sighing time, no not for a meal time; while he was eating, with every bit of food, he had a morsel of sorrows. He might say, as the Psalmist (Psa…

And if there be not, what madness is it of us either to call or to take them for our hope and refuge, which do so lowly always submit themselves both to God and his creatures? If we would a little ponder these words of the salutation of Mary, conferring them with the saying of D…

3. If there be a season (to speak so) wherein these perfections may be conceived more lovely and shining than another (for in themselves they are ever the same) they are so in our Lord Jesus Christ; it is ever harvest, summer and youth with him; he is that tree spoken of (Revela…

London, seek the Lord of Hosts, who has come forth against you in battle, and wounded you with his sharp arrows, and yet has not laid down his weapons; get to your knees; hang about God's feet and arms; fill your mouths with arguments to stay him in the course of his judgments;…

We have seen how other things came to an end one after another, how states, and kingdoms, and empires, one after another, fell and came to nothing, even the greatest and strongest of them; we have seen how the world has been often overturned, and will be more remarkably overturn…

What service are you fit to perform to him, in such a condition? Your days will consume like smoke, while your heart is smitten and withered like grass (Psalm 102:3-4). Your months will be months of vanity, they will fly away and see no good (Job 7:3).

Does God look at any man the worse for want of these things? God is no respecter of persons; if he looks at any with high esteem, he looks at the poor, and humble, and contrite: God delights to look down into the world upon those that are poor; he reserves a poor people that sha…

Namely, Incorruptible, undefiled, and that fades not away. All things that we see, being compounded, may be dissolved again, the very visible heavens that are the purest piece of the material world (notwithstanding the pains the philosopher takes to exempt them) the Scriptures t…

For the first. Though the church be never so afflicted, (Psalm 102:14). when all is defaced, as to external appearance, lying in a ruinous heap, yet it is beloved and pitied by God's servants: Your servants take pleasure in her stones, and favor the dust thereof. There is nothin…

But when Peter, explaining those words, says that although we are nothing but corruption by nature and wither in a brief moment, nevertheless we are strengthened by the efficacy of that incorruptible seed, so that the divine power appears in us and exerts its strength in us, to…

3. It is base disingenuity: we do not deal with God as we would have God to deal with us. If we have any business or errand at the throne of grace, we would be heard presently, and are ready to complain if we have not a quick dispatch (Psalm 102:3). Lord hear me speedily — here'…

1. We are hasty for mercy, slow to duty. (Psalm 102:2) When I call, answer me speedily. We cry, How long?

1. A bottle in the smoke is dry and wrinkled, and shrunk up: so he was worn out, and dried up with sorrow, and long suspense of expectation. This notes the decay of his bodily strength: so also elsewhere, Psalm 102:3: My days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burnt as a…

Secondly, immutable: as without beginning and end, so without any change. Psalm 102:25-27. Of old you have laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of your hands. They shall perish, but you shall endure, yes, all of them shall wax old like a garment: as a v…

It is a preparative to many daily performances in our Christian course; it quickens the holy dispensations of the soul, charges it with confessions and petitions seasonable and savory, that they may be delivered with feeling and affections when the heart is boiling of a good mat…

The blossoms of the fig tree are soon blown off; creatures cannot do for us what once they could. But God is a constant fullness (Psalm 102:27): You are the same. God can never be exhausted; his fullness is overflowing and ever-flowing.

Christ is an enduring good; other things are like a lamp which, while it shines, spends itself. The heavens shall grow old like a garment (Psalm 102:26). But Jesus Christ is a permanent good; with him are durable riches (Proverbs 8:18) that last as long as eternity itself lasts.

2. It is a more Gospel way to bear in the threat of everlasting wrath than of temporal rods. 3. Desertions and trials under the Law were more legal and sharp and sad upon David, Hezekiah, Job, Jeremiah, Heman (Psalm 6; Psalm 38; Psalm 77; Psalm 102; Psalm 88; Isaiah 38; Jeremiah…

Now the people and Levites, and house of David were never so multiplied in the Jews, after the deliverance from Babylon, and therefore must be extended to the New Testament. And if God establish David's seed forever (Psalm 89:4) and the seed of his people shall possess the gates…

As (1.) sullenness and dumpish sadness, in refusing comforts, and being full of unbelieving heaviness, in David (Psalm 69:20; Psalm 42:11), whereas we are always to rejoice (Psalm 119:52; Philippians 4:4). (2.) Fainting at the greatness of the affliction (Isaiah 20:3; John 14:1)…

Psalm 69:4. Psalm 102. In this sense it is rendred by , John 15:25.

God is always the same. That is his name: "You are he, always the same" (Psalm 102:27). All things that are make no addition to God, no change in his state.

1. Any thing of Christ is desirable; but to lay hold on the skirt of a Jew (Zechariah 10:23), because Christ that is with him is good. Indeed, the dust of Zion is a thing that the servants of God take pleasure in (Psalm 102:14). The dust and stones of Zion are not like the earth…

What better, I ask you, is the finest of the web in the whole system of creation? Certainly the heavens must be a thread of better wool than the clay-earth, yet if you should break your immortal spirit, and bend all the acts to the highest extent of your affections, to conquer t…

Objection: But if prayers must be fervent, even to vocal crying and shouting, then I cannot pray, who am often so confounded that I cannot speak one word. Answer: So was the servant of God, in a spiritual kind of praying, in uttering Psalm 77, when he says (verse 4): You hold my…

A second difference in the effect is this. Take you a heart that is pricked, and it is wrought to a weaned affection, from not only inordinate affections, to the profits and pleasures of this world; but in truth sometimes, from the lawful use of lawful things; it will take off t…

They may have some private corruption, which is not fit for them to reveal, if they may be helped by their own private endeavors. Reas. 3 Taken sometimes from the strong work of God in them, so as they are not able to express their estates in company, full of sighs and groans un…