Psalm 102:18

Verse 12 is the hinge of the psalm. The first part (Psalm 102:1–11) is the cry of a man whose days are consumed like smoke, whose bones burn, who is withered like grass and as lonely as a desolate bird. Then he says, “But thou, O LORD”. His eyes move from himself to God, from the suffering “I” to the eternal “Thou”. Lament psalms often make this turn, as Psalm 73 and Psalm 42 do. His circumstances are as they were. What has changed is where he looks, and his hope now rests on who God is.

He calls God the LORD, Yᵉhôvâh, the personal name God made known to Moses at the burning bush (Exodus 3:14). The God who endures for ever is the God who bound himself to Israel by covenant and keeps his promises, so his eternity is good news for his people.

The verb translated “endure”, yâshab, properly means to sit down, and from that to dwell, remain or continue. While the psalmist withers, the LORD sits enthroned and remains. Lamentations voices the same confidence in a time of ruin, that the LORD remains for ever and his throne from generation to generation (Lamentations 5:19). “For ever” is ʻôwlâm, perpetuity, time with no end in view. God’s years stretch back as far as they stretch forward, for he is God from everlasting to everlasting (Psalm 90:2), and he is the unchanging LORD of Malachi 3:6.

The second line speaks of God’s “remembrance”. His name is remembered and called upon in every generation, and with it his faithfulness to his covenant and his mighty deeds. The word for generations, dôwr, means a generation and also a period or age, and “unto all generations” means each generation in its turn. Another psalm sets “everlasting” and “to all generations” side by side in the same way: “his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations” (Psalm 100:5). The psalmist’s days decline like a shadow, and the LORD is remembered as long as there are people on the earth. That contrast is the ground of everything he goes on to hope for.

“Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion.” To arise, qûwm, is to rise or stand up, and when Scripture says that God arises, it pictures him going into action for his people after a time when he has looked inactive. The psalmist speaks of it as certain. Mercy here is râcham, compassion, and “the time to favour her” uses chânan, which Strong’s explains as bending or stooping in kindness to an inferior, and so to show favour and grace. Zion’s favour rests on God’s own steadfast love and covenant faithfulness. The LORD proclaimed himself to Moses as “merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth” (Exodus 34:6), and he will have mercy on whom he will have mercy (Romans 9:15). Isaiah calls heaven and earth to sing because the LORD has comforted his people and will have mercy on his afflicted (Isaiah 49:13).

The verse speaks of the time in two ways. “The time” is ʻêth, the ordinary word for a time or season, and “the set time” is môwʻêd, an appointment. Môwʻêd is used of a meeting, an assembly, the Tent of Meeting, an appointed time and Israel’s appointed feasts, and here it is God’s own appointment for Zion. The psalmist says it “is come”, speaking of what God will do as already settled. God has a season for every purpose under heaven (Ecclesiastes 3:1), and his promises arrive at the moment he has fixed.

The psalm leaves its occasion unnamed. Zion’s scattered stones and dust fit the Babylonian exile best, after Jerusalem and its temple were destroyed in 586 BC, and the hope of a set time fits a people who knew the LORD’s promise through Jeremiah that after seventy years at Babylon he would visit them and bring them back (Jeremiah 29:10). Zion here is the city of Jerusalem in its ruin, and with it the people of God and the place where he chose to dwell.

God’s servants love Zion because it is the place God chose for his dwelling (Psalm 76:2), and they love it even as it lies in ruins. “Thy servants”, ʿăḇādeykā, are the faithful in Israel who stay loyal to God and his covenant after the city has fallen. The stones, ʼeben, are the building blocks of houses and walls, now broken and scattered, and the dust is the rubble. They “take pleasure” in them, râtsâh, a verb meaning to be pleased with, to accept and delight in. Their pleasure is in what the stones stand for, the memory of God’s faithfulness in the past and the promise of what he will build again.

“And favour the dust thereof” uses chânan, the same verb as “the time to favour her” in verse 13. God shows favour to Zion, and his servants show favour to her dust, the lowest and most broken part of her, so their hearts move with his. The verse opens with “For” and stands beside the promise of verse 13: God’s servants already treasure what he has set his time to rebuild.

Scripture shows this love elsewhere too. Nehemiah’s face was sad before the king because Jerusalem lay waste (Nehemiah 2:3). In Lamentations the elders of Zion sit in silence (Lamentations 2:10), and Isaiah sets watchmen on Jerusalem’s walls who keep calling on the LORD for her (Isaiah 62:6–7) and promises that Zion will be vindicated (Isaiah 62:1–5).

“When the LORD shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory.” The builder is the LORD himself, and the work is his from start to finish. The verb bânâh means to build, construct or establish, and here it covers the whole restoration of Zion: walls and houses rebuilt, the people gathered back, true worship set up again and God’s blessing on the city. Another psalm says that the LORD builds up Jerusalem and gathers its scattered exiles (Psalm 147:2), and Ezekiel tells of God gathering his people from the nations and giving them a new heart (Ezekiel 36:24–28), under the new covenant Jeremiah promised (Jeremiah 31:31–34).

When he builds, he appears. “Appear” comes from râʼâh, to see, here in the sense of being seen. His glory, kâbôwd, is his honour, splendour and majesty, the visible display of his greatness. Israel remembered the cloud of glory that filled the tabernacle (Exodus 40:34–35) and Solomon’s temple (1 Kings 8:10–11), and the prophets promised that glory again. Isaiah tells Zion that the glory of the LORD has risen upon her (Isaiah 60:1–3), his message of comfort to God’s people looks toward that day (Isaiah 40:1–5), and Habakkuk says that the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD (Habakkuk 2:14). Building and glory belong together, because the restored Zion is the place where God’s presence is plainly seen and his faithfulness shown before everyone.

This promise runs on into Christ. Jesus said, “upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). John writes, “the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). And the New Jerusalem shines without sun or moon, “for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof” (Revelation 21:23).

“So the heathen shall fear the name of the LORD, and all the kings of the earth thy glory.” The “So” ties this to verses 13 and 14: when God shows mercy to Zion, the whole world takes notice. The heathen, gôwy, are the nations outside Israel, the Gentiles who served other gods. The kings, melek, of the earth, ʼerets, are rulers from every land, the highest human power there is. Their fear, yârêʼ, covers both dread and reverent awe, and when it is used of God it means a recognition of his holiness and power that leads to worship and obedience. What they fear is his name, shêm, which stands for all that he is, his character, reputation and authority, and his glory, the same word kâbôwd as in verse 16.

The nations of the psalmist’s day each served their own gods, so this was a bold hope to hold from a ruined city. Scripture shows the fear of verse 15 coming about in two ways. Many will come to worship, as verse 22 says, and those who have opposed him will bow before him. The LORD swears that every knee shall bow to him (Isaiah 45:23), and Paul says that every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:9–11). The song in Revelation asks, “Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name?” (Revelation 15:4), and the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ (Revelation 11:15).

The gospel carries this fear and glory to the nations now. The risen Christ sends his disciples to teach all nations (Matthew 28:18–20). He is the brightness of God’s glory (Hebrews 1:3), and the Lamb who was slain has redeemed people to God out of every kindred, tongue, people and nation (Revelation 5:9–10).

He does, and verse 17 says so plainly: “He will regard the prayer of the destitute, and not despise their prayer.” The word ʻarʻâr, “destitute”, comes from a root meaning to be stripped or bare. It describes a person with nothing left and no human help, wholly dependent on God. In Israel that took in the poor, the widow, the orphan, the stranger and the sick, people God’s law told Israel to care for (Deuteronomy 15:7–11). The psalmist counts himself among them. His opening plea was that God would hear his prayer, and here he is sure that God will.

“Regard” is pânâh, to turn or to face, so God turns his face toward the prayer of the destitute. “Despise”, bâzâh, means to disesteem, scorn or treat with contempt, and the psalmist rules that out entirely: however weak and plain the prayer, God receives it. God dwells with the humble (Isaiah 57:15). Jesus told of a widow who kept coming to a judge, and asked whether God will avenge his own elect who cry to him day and night (Luke 18:7–8). He called the poor in spirit blessed (Matthew 5:3).

Jesus is God’s regard for the destitute in person. He went through the towns healing, and he was moved with compassion for the crowds, who were like sheep without a shepherd (Matthew 9:35–36). He emptied himself, took the form of a servant and became obedient to death on a cross (Philippians 2:7–8). As our high priest he “was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin”, and so we come boldly to the throne of grace (Hebrews 4:15–16). He is at the right hand of God interceding for us (Romans 8:34), and he ever lives to make intercession for those who come to God by him (Hebrews 7:25).

“This shall be written for the generation to come: and the people which shall be created shall praise the LORD.” What God has done for the afflicted and for Zion is to outlast one lifetime, so it is written down. The verb kâthab means to engrave or inscribe, and so to write, and it points to a lasting record meant to be handed on. Moses wrote the law in a book and had it placed beside the ark (Deuteronomy 31:24–26), and Israel was told to remember what they had seen and teach it to their children (Deuteronomy 4:9) and to keep God’s words in their hearts and teach them diligently (Deuteronomy 6:6–7). “The generation to come” is dôwr with ‘achărôwn, which means behind, latter or to come: the generation coming after. We belong to it. The psalm was written, and God’s people have read it in every age since, so it reaches us as part of his written word.

“The people which shall be created” names those later readers in a striking way. The verb is bârâʼ, and when it means to create, God is always its subject. In this verse it is passive (‘am nibrā, “a people created”), so the people receive God’s creating work. The generation that praises him will exist because God brings it into being and makes it new, as he formed Israel for his glory (Isaiah 43:7). The New Testament speaks of believers in the same way: “if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature” (2 Corinthians 5:17), born again (John 3:3), “created in Christ Jesus unto good works” (Ephesians 2:10), and chosen “that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light” (1 Peter 2:9). Their purpose is the one the psalm gives: they “shall praise the LORD”.

“For he hath looked down from the height of his sanctuary; from heaven did the LORD behold the earth.” The “For” gives the reason the coming generation will praise him. “Looked down”, shâqaph, is to lean out and look down from a height. The sanctuary, qôdesh, is a holy place, and set beside “heaven” (shâmayim) it is God’s heavenly dwelling, the seat of his holiness and rule. With the temple in Jerusalem in ruins, the psalmist looks to the sanctuary that still stands. Scripture often pictures God there: his throne is in heaven (Psalm 11:4), heaven is his throne (Isaiah 66:1), and he looks from heaven on the earth (Psalm 33:13–14). “Behold”, nâbaṭ, means to look, see or gaze, and at times to consider. Verse 20 tells us what his looking is for.

“To hear the groaning of the prisoner; to loose those that are appointed to death.” The groaning, ʼănâqâh, is the cry of someone in pain and distress, and the prisoner, ʾâçîyr, is one who is bound, a captive. “Those that are appointed to death” is literally “sons of death” (bĕnê tĕmûtâ). In Hebrew, “son of” something often means one who belongs to it or is bound for it, and bên, “son”, is used that way here of people condemned to die or at death’s door. “To loose” is pâthach, to open or set free. God hears, and then he acts.

This answers the psalm’s first words, “Hear my prayer, O LORD, and let my cry come unto thee” (Psalm 102:1). It also echoes Israel’s beginnings. When Israel groaned in slavery in Egypt, God heard their groaning and remembered his covenant (Exodus 2:23–25). He told Moses that he had seen the affliction of his people (Exodus 3:7), and he promised to deliver them (Exodus 6:5–6). The psalms say the same again and again. The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous (Psalm 34:15), the righteous cry and the LORD hears (Psalm 34:17), and the LORD looses the prisoners (Psalm 146:7). God promised Solomon that he would hear from heaven when his people humbled themselves and prayed (2 Chronicles 7:14), and Lamentations looks to his justice from above (Lamentations 3:59–60).

Psalm 102 is counted among the seven penitential psalms of the church’s tradition, prayers from deep suffering that turn toward hope, and these verses show where that hope comes from.

“To declare the name of the LORD in Zion, and his praise in Jerusalem; When the people are gathered together, and the kingdoms, to serve the LORD.” The prisoners God sets free are freed for this. “Declare” is çâphar, to count or number, and also to recount, tell and declare, a full telling of who God is and what he has done. God’s name, shêm, is declared, which is his whole character and his deeds. “Praise” is tᵉhillâh, a song of praise or a hymn, from hâlal, to praise. Zion, first a fortified hill in Jerusalem and then the temple mount and the city itself, is where the ruin was and where the praise will be. The place of the psalmist’s grief becomes the place of public worship.

Verse 22 widens the scene. “The people” are ‘ammim, peoples, and “gathered together” is qâbats (in this verse behiqqavets), a verb for people coming together, or being brought together, for a common purpose. The kingdoms, mamlâkâh (here mamlakhot), are realms and dominions, the structures of earthly rule. “To serve”, ʻâbad (here la’avod), means to work, to serve and to worship. Peoples and kingdoms that once served other gods now serve the LORD, and earthly rule itself is brought under his reign and used for his glory.

This is the hope the prophets shared. Isaiah and Micah saw all nations flowing to the mountain of the LORD’s house to learn his ways (Isaiah 2:2–4, Micah 4:1–3), and Zechariah saw many peoples coming to seek the LORD in Jerusalem (Zechariah 8:20–23). It goes back to God’s promise to Abraham, “in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed” (Genesis 12:3). The psalms call God’s people to declare his glory among the nations (Psalm 96:3), and in Revelation the call goes out to worship him that made heaven and earth (Revelation 14:7).

In Christ this gathering has begun. Jesus spoke of his own body as the temple: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19–21), so Zion’s praise now centres on him. By his cross he broke down the middle wall of partition between Jew and Gentile and made of the two one new man (Ephesians 2:14–16). The gathering went out from Jerusalem when his disciples became his witnesses there, in Judea, in Samaria and to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8), and it goes on wherever the gospel is preached. It will be complete when a great multitude of all nations, kindreds, people and tongues stands before the throne and before the Lamb (Revelation 7:9–10).

These verses set the eternal LORD and the lowly prayer side by side. The God who sits enthroned for ever, whose name lasts through all generations, is the God who turns toward the prayer of a man stripped of everything and listens to the groaning of a prisoner. His height above the earth is the very place from which he looks down to see. His eternity makes his promises certain, and his set time comes when he has appointed it.

The passage also shows that God’s mercy to one ruined city reaches the whole world. What he does for Zion makes the nations fear his name, brings a newly created people to praise him, and gathers peoples and kingdoms to serve him. We who read the psalm now belong to the generation to come for whom it was written. The psalmist could pray in his worst days because he looked away from his own withering to the LORD who endures, and that same LORD still regards the prayer of the destitute.