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…

Psalm 110:1, "The Lord said to my Lord, sit you at my right hand," applied to Christ by himself (Matthew 22:44). Psalm 102:15, 16, 17, "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, yea, all o…

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…

And this also is spoken by our Apostle with respect to the narration of Moses wherein mention is made neither of the one, nor of the other. And it belongs to his conformity to the Son of God, or that wherein he represented him; for as to his divine Person, the Lord Christ had ne…

Heaven not as considered absolutely, but as the place of God's glorious presence, the temple of the living God, where the worship of the Church is represented, and all its affairs transacted. This is called God's Sanctuary (Psalm 102:19): He looked down from the height of his Sa…

Let an Angel live never so long, he waxes not old, because he cannot die. Waxing old is absolutely opposed to an eternal duration (Psalm 102:26, 27). It being the removal of the Old Covenant and all its administrations that is respected, it may be inquired why the Apostle expres…

The strength of Israel is not a man that he should repent (1 Samuel 15:29). And in opposition to all change or mutability it is said of God [illegible] (Psalms 102:27), which the Apostle renders by [illegible], you are He always, in all respect one and the same. Hence among the…

2. The changeableness of our condition in this world, requires a surety for us, to render the covenant firm, stable and unalterable. So the Psalmist complaining of our frail and mutable condition shows, that it is in Christ alone that we have all our establishment (Psalm 102:25,…

The Synod having said in the conclusion of their fifth argument for confirming this fifth proposition, that the more holy, reforming, and glorious that the [illegible] are or shall be, the more eminently is a successive continuation, and propagation of the church therein designe…

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…

By INCREASE MATHER Teacher of a Church in Boston in New-England. Psalm 102:18. This shall be written for the generation to come. James 5:17, 18. Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and it rained not on the Earth by…

And if we shall read that which follows (Isaiah 2:5), as the Chaldee Paraphrase does, "And the men of the house of Jacob shall say, Come you, &c." then the building of the Temple there spoken of, shall appear to be joined with the Jews' conversion; but however, it is joined with…

And if such things begin to reappear, pray them down again into the bottomless pit from where they came, and be earnest with God for those in authority, that he would give them reforming spirits, and for your ministers, that Christ would hold the Stars in his right hand, and giv…

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.

There is a certain set time for God's great actions. He lets the powers of darkness have their hour and God will take his hour (Psalm 102:13). You shall arise and have mercy upon Zion, for the time to favor her, indeed the set time is come.

All the intelligent elect creation, all God's holy creatures in Heaven and Earth, are truly and properly waiting for, and earnestly expecting that event. 'Tis abundantly represented in Scripture as the spirit and character of all true saints, that they set their hearts upon, lov…

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…

As there is a three transgressions and a four of rebels for which God will not turn away their punishment (Amos 1:3), so a three afflictions and a four of the people of God, after which he will not shut out their supplications. Hence that confidence of the Prophet (Psalm 102:13,…

Verse 10, 11, 12. In the following verses, the Apostle by another illustrious testimony taken out of Psalm 102 confirms his principal assertion in the words ensuing. Vers. 10, 11, 12. Vers. 10. [in non-Latin alphabet]. Vers. 11. [in non-Latin alphabet]; Vers. 12. [in non-Latin a…

He that abides thus the same after all, shall stand on the Earth. But the word also is often joined with [illegible], a generation, a time, a season (Psalm 48:4, 6, 14; Psalm 102:19), and denotes the futurition of it; that it is to come, and shall come. So also with [illegible],…

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;…

This trouble of his mind in his sorrow for sin, David on all occasions expresseth to God; and sometimes it riseth to a great and dreadful height, as it is expressed (Psalms 88) throughout. Hereby the soul is sometimes overwhelmed, yet so as to relieve itself by pouring out its c…

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).

3. I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised. Hannah, Jonah, Hezekiah, David the afflicted soul (Psalm 102), graciously sad and heavy, pray and call on God in that case. 3. The disposition of felt mercy brings forth praises; Psalm 30:5. O Lord, you have brought up m…

A sight of the Lord in the wilderness of Judah (Psalm 63), when David cannot have sanctuary-presence, is good. A prayer of the prisoner, or a groan, or (Psalm 102:19, 20) tears by the rivers of Babylon, and a praying eye and heart looking out at Daniel's window, when all those a…

2. Nor should Christians be unwilling to know the spiritual condition one of another; you may fall upon some, in your very course and kind. It is like David (Psalm 71:7), Heman (Psalm 88:15), the suffering Church (Lamentations 1:12; Psalm 102:6, 7), Elias (1 Kings 19:10), Isaiah…

1. Sometimes the unwritten bill is answered (Isaiah 65:24), and the Lord yields to our blank papers, and subscribes them. 2. Sometimes he hears the dumb man's signs, and his breathing, instead of his praying (Isaiah 38:14, 20; Lamentations 3:56; Psalm 6:8; Psalm 102:19, 20). 3.…

Any who believes that the wind blows where it lists, and that the influences of the Spirit are various as touching their degrees may see the truth of this. 2. The children of God appear dead, cold, and unbelievingly to complain in the beginning of praying, and of a Psalm, as is…

1 John 3:3. He that has this hope in him, purifies himself, as he also is pure. 2. Yield not to indispositions, complain of them to God, and pray them away, as Psalm 61:2; Psalm 31:22; Psalm 102:3, 4, 5; Lamentations 1:2, 3, 4, 5, &c. 22, 23. Obj. But it is easy so to say, Be st…

Strengthen you me according to your word. It appears to be spiritual sorrow that breaks out in prayer (Matthew 26:38, 39; Psalm 18:4, 5, 6; Psalm 61:2; Psalm 102). 4. There are in the fourth class two affections, hope and audacity, or fool-hardiness, which would be taken heed to.

Verse 9: Lord I have called daily to you, I have stretched out my hands to you. Psalm 102, the afflicted soul says (verse 4): My heart is smitten and withered like grass. And here though buried and dead bones scattered at the grave mouth, as when one hews timber, speak and pray…

And is he not above their tears? Yes, 34. let Heaven and Earth praise him; then must he be great and high above the mourners, yet he owns their tears (Psalm 102:19, 20). 3. And the Lord's sovereignty hinders him not to give a sort of reckoning of his doings, Isaiah 5. Judge betw…