Psalm 102

Psalm 102  •  10 min. read  •  grade level: 10
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This Psalm is neither judgment on enemies of Christ nor the declaration of the fruit of His work—though there are facts that are such—but Christ looked at personally in sorrows, cut off in the midst of His days. How could He have a part in the future blessing of Israel? The answer is His divine Person—the same and forever, and the children of His servants would continue. It has thus its own very peculiar character.
What is so peculiar in this Psalm is that it brings out the Person of Christ—His divine nature in answer to His sufferings and cutting off. It is not grace to others by His sufferings, nor judgment on others because of their iniquity in inflicting them, but in reply to His utter loneliness in sorrow, and touching appeal to Jehovah of a heart withered like grass, He is owned as Jehovah, the Creator Himself. It is not what He is for others through His suffering and humiliation, but Himself—the answer is His own glory—the blessed title of His Person. This it is which gives it such a peculiar interest.
This Psalm is the righteous faith of Christ in the Lord's enduringness, in the weakness in which He could sympathize with the Jews as cut off in the midst of His days, and His connection with Zion. It applies, to the Jews in the latter day, His faithfulness in intercession by pleading for them in Spirit, in the Spirit of His faith and faithfulness. As the suffering but faithful Man, He pleads in verses 11, 12 and the reply, the testimony, comes to Him in verses 25-27. On the petition specially in verse 24, the great character of Christ comes out. The application of all this is from verse 14 to 22, in which the abidingness of Christ (the Jew) is the revealed security of them, and the people, and their restoration and blessing witness of it, as His glory hung upon that.
It is a song still upon Jehovah. Verse 4 seems Christ's answer of His own experience, and the testimony to Him, to reach the necessities of the case. The stability of Zion was as the new heavens and earth (not the old, which were removable) as depending on Christ the Lord, to whom verses 25, 26, we know, apply.
10. He does not say “Wrath against me," which I think of moment. In Psa. 22, it is “Why hast thou forsaken me?" It is a most important and impressive Psalm-the circumstances of Christ connected with all this Jehovah-blessing; He is Jehovah. It begins with the suffering of Christ (a sort of résumé of all the Psalms after Psa. 1 and 2) instead of blessing in the midst of Israel. He is a Suppliant in the midst of the nation-but note, this is the salvation of the nation, for He has identified Himself with it—Suppliant to Jehovah, for this is all “of Jehovah" the God of the Jews—having title to the earth also. Nothing could exceed His depression and kenos*. Still (strange as all that might be, as He declares, for His faith and truth fail not) Jehovah endures forever. This faith is in the sufferings of Christ. The Pillar of the nation, He holds them up, while they reject Him—the evidence of their evil, even though against Him, being the occasion of His intercession and effective sufferings. "Thou," saith He to Jehovah, "Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Zion." The set time was come-utter desolation, no help, but the memorial of it presented by the Spirit of Jesus. So, for Jehovah was interested in it, the heathen would fear Jehovah's name, etc. See how He keeps up the thought of identifying Jerusalem and Jehovah, even in her dust. Then comes a revelation, "When Jehovah shall build up Zion, he shall appear." In mercy to the destitute He hath looked down from heaven for this—to declare the name of Jehovah in Zion, such was the manner of it—and the peoples and the kingdoms are gathered together to serve Jehovah. If this be all so—if He hears the destitute and delivers—if this be the name of the Lord, and His glory in Jerusalem-how concerning the Lord? As to Him, His strength was weakened and His days shortened—He cried in this position to His God not to be cut off. Then the glory of the Lord bursts forth in all its splendor—"Of old thou hast laid the foundation of the earth." Creation hangs on this smitten poor One. He made it. Creation shall change, shall be rolled up, renewed, but Thou, He (attah hu) exists ever the same. Such might have been His work, but His nature was eternal existence—His years in time shall have no end. Such is the rejected Messiah. Not only shall Jerusalem be the scene then of His praise, but all Creation shall welcome the return of her Lord in blessing, relieved by these very circumstances. In the midst of it the children of His servants should have an abiding portion—honored those who honored Him—and their seed shall be established before Him. Thus is the power of this blessing of Jerusalem and Creation fully revealed in the Person of Christ—His sufferings seen.
I have spoken of attah hu (Thou He) in this Psalm. In Isa. 43:1010Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. (Isaiah 43:10), we have Ani hu (I, He) spoken by Jehovah. This confirms the force of hu (He) as the he on, the existing One, see 2 Sam. 7:2828And now, O Lord God, thou art that God, and thy words be true, and thou hast promised this goodness unto thy servant: (2 Samuel 7:28). Of the force of ani (I) or a-no-chi Jehovah (I Jehovah) I am not quite sure, i.e., how far "am" is to be added for its full correct force in such phrases as ani Jehovah v'en od (I Jehovah and none else). It would give a peculiar force to "Jehovah"; "am" may be all right to make an English sentence, but what is the force of it? Ki ani-El v'en od (for I God, and none else) is plain enough; Isa. 45:2222Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else. (Isaiah 45:22) and 5. But the hu (He) is essential and immutable existence. It is in Jehovah, but Jehovah takes in time, as in Revelation he on kai he en kai he erchomenos (He who is and who was and who is to come). Perhaps the force of ani (I) is "I am"—the One who subsists as Jehovah, and there is none besides me; see Isa. 42:88I am the Lord: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images. (Isaiah 42:8), Ani Jehovah hu sh'mi (I Jehovah: that my name).
It appears to me there are two parts in this very beautiful and most holy Psa. 1 speak of it thus as concerning the Person of Jesus. The first part closes at the end of verse 16, though the one is the answer to the other—the latter, the revelation of the Person of Jesus Christ the Messiah down to the end of verse 16. It is the Spirit of Christ as identified with the trial and trouble of the Jews, "praising even in their calamities"—He not altering, though they did.
To the end of verse 12 is the presenting, in the full power of His own identification of experience, and therefore all prevailingly with God, the misery and destitution of the Jewish Remnant, and an appeal to interest even from the cause of sorrow in verse 11; so we find in verse 22.
13-16. Here we have the reference to the continuance of Jehovah; why then not of that He loved? His Spirit in the servants affecting Zion showed where the Lord's mind, and His heart tender. It was there discoverable; and in verse 16, there was appeal, if we may so speak, to the interest of Jehovah. But this was the interference of the power merely of Jehovah—the external results and the manner of them shown in verses 14 and 16, and identified with Zion; but this was the prayer of the humbled Jesus, i.e., identified with their sorrow, the Spirit making intercession as for them—instructing us in His thoughts, and the reference to Jehovah simply for help. The answer by the same Spirit, taking now the form of an answer, for when we speak of any person in the Psalms, it is the Spirit exercising itself as in the place of that person, thus generalizing it, and thus here the testimony continues but becomes a revelation in answer. "He will regard the prayer of the destitute," but how so? "When the Lord shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory." This shall be Hallelujah to the people that shall be created. I admit the principle of grace here. Am niv'ra (the people to be created) lets in the Gentiles here in principle. So the Spirit of God testifies in 2 Cor. 5 and Eph. 2, but it seems to me here to put the Jews directly under grace in that day, the latter day. Dor akharen (the generation to come) is just the Jews not of this generation; compare Psa. 22, last verses, and Deut. 32:5, 20, 295They have corrupted themselves, their spot is not the spot of his children: they are a perverse and crooked generation. (Deuteronomy 32:5)
20And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be: for they are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith. (Deuteronomy 32:20)
29O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end! (Deuteronomy 32:29), and Matt. 24:3434Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled. (Matthew 24:34). It is as in Psa. 22 and Acts 13, resurrection principle, and stability in the hand of Christ; thus was the generation akharon (afterward) and am niv'ra (the people to be created). Jehovah would declare the Name, unalterable in its purpose, power and accomplishment, of Jehovah in Jerusalem appearing in His glory. Three points are connected with it—hearing the groaning of the prisoner, for Jehovah bath looked down from heaven—to declare the Name of Jehovah—and the Ammim (peoples) gathered together to serve Jehovah. This is the full manifestation of glory in result (not merely vexing in wrath), not merely, nor now, declaring the decree, etc., but the Name of Jehovah in Zion. Thus shall Jehovah be declared then—this is the answer, but there must be a more particular account of the Person of Messiah, in whom it is wrought, who is this.
23. Here then He declares this humiliation, and is presented as in that He feared, His strength afflicted and bowed down in the way—there He drank of the brook; He took days which might be shortened, in which He could feel death and was humbled to "cry to him who," etc., to God as His God.
He was simply everlasting. Such was Messiah. He who was the Intercessor in Spirit in the previous supplication, the other part of His character, rather what He was, is given in the revelation of the answer "Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth," etc. Messiah was the Creator in old time or in the beginning. He endured—was the same—and, though His days might be shortened, His years indeed had no end—He still wielded the folding up of Creation as a garment. But He had intrinsic duration, or so existed—folding up others, but Himself the same. Nor should His given or communicated life, His years have end; and Messiah would withal communicate the same enduringness—they would have it, "The children of thy servants shall dwell" ("continue") "and their seed shall be established in thy sight," or "before thee," compare Psa. 37:27, 2927Depart from evil, and do good; and dwell for evermore. (Psalm 37:27)
29The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein for ever. (Psalm 37:29). Though there are also mansions (mone) in the Father's house, perhaps it is thus left at large here to let in this also for those faithful during the Lord's absence; John 13 and 14 just touches this very point—His days were shortening, and He was explaining the very truth of the abiding place in the Father's house.
The twofold nature of our Lord is wonderfully brought out in verses 24, 25, and 26-28; verse 27 is our portion therein.