TRV
Translation
King James Version
Hide not thy face from me in the day when I am in trouble; incline thine ear unto me: in the day when I call answer me speedily.
Complete Jewish Bible
Don't hide your face from me when I am in such distress! Turn your ear toward me; when I call, be quick to reply!
Berean Standard Bible
Do not hide Your face from me in my day of distress. Incline Your ear to me; answer me quickly when I call.
American Standard Version
Hide not thy face from me in the day of my distress: Incline thine ear unto me; In the day when I call answer me speedily.
World English Bible Messianic
Don’t hide your face from me in the day of my distress. Turn your ear to me. Answer me quickly in the day when I call.
Geneva Bible (1599)
Hide not thy face from me in the time of my trouble: incline thine eares vnto me: when I call, make haste to heare me.
Young's Literal Translation
Hide not Thou Thy face from me, In a day of mine adversity, Incline unto me Thine ear, In the day I call, haste, answer me.
In the KJVVerse 15,524 of 31,102
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Commentary on Psalms 102 verses 1–11
1 ¶ A Prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed, and poureth out his complaint before the LORD. Hear my prayer, O LORD, and let my cry come unto thee.
2 Hide not thy face from me in the day when I am in trouble; incline thine ear unto me: in the day when I call answer me speedily.
3 For my days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned as an hearth.
4 My heart is smitten, and withered like grass; so that I forget to eat my bread.
5 By reason of the voice of my groaning my bones cleave to my skin.
6 I am like a pelican of the wilderness: I am like an owl of the desert.
7 I watch, and am as a sparrow alone upon the house top.
8 Mine enemies reproach me all the day; and they that are mad against me are sworn against me.
9 For I have eaten ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping,
10 Because of thine indignation and thy wrath: for thou hast lifted me up, and cast me down.
11 My days are like a shadow that declineth; and I am withered like grass.
The title of this psalm is very observable; it is a prayer of the afflicted. It was composed by one that was himself afflicted, afflicted with the church and for it; and on those that are of a public spirit afflictions of that kind lie heavier than any other. It is calculated for an afflicted state, and is intended for the use of others that may be in the like distress; for whatsoever things were written aforetime were written designedly for our use. The whole word of God is of use to direct us in prayer; but here, as often elsewhere, the Holy Ghost has drawn up our petition for us, has put words into our mouths. Hos 14:2, Take with you words. Here is a prayer put into the hands of the afflicted: let them set, not their hands, but their hearts to it, and present it to God. Note, 1. It is often the lot of the best saints in this world to be sorely affected. 2. Even good men may be almost overwhelmed with their afflictions, and may be ready to faint under them. 3. When our state is afflicted, and our spirits are overwhelmed, it is our duty and interest to pray, and by prayer to pour out our complaints before the Lord, which intimates the leave God gives us to be free with him and the liberty of speech we have before him, as well as liberty of access to him; it intimates also what an ease it is to an afflicted spirit to unburden itself by a humble representation of its grievances and griefs. Such a representation we have here, in which,
I. The psalmist humbly begs of God to take notice of his affliction, and of his prayer in his affliction, Psa 102:1, Psa 102:2. When we pray in our affliction, 1. It should be our care that God would graciously hear us; for, if our prayers be not pleasing to God, they will be to no purpose to ourselves. Let this therefore be in our eye that our prayer may come unto God, even to his ears (Psa 18:6); and, in order to that, let us lift up the prayer, and our souls with it. 2. It may be our hope that God will graciously hear us, because he has appointed us to seek him and has promised we shall not seek him in vain. If we put up a prayer in faith, we may in faith say, Hear my prayer, O Lord! "Hear me," that is, (1.) "Manifest thyself to me, hide not thy face from me in displeasure, when I am in trouble. If thou dost not quickly free me, yet let me know that thou favourest me; if I see not the operations of thy hand for me, yet let me see the smiles of thy face upon me." God's hiding his face is trouble enough to a good man even in his prosperity (Psa 30:7, Thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled); but if, when we are in trouble, God hides his face, the case is sad indeed. (2.) "Manifest thyself for me; not only hear me, but answer me; grant me the deliverance I am in want of and in pursuit of; answer me speedily, even in the day when I call." When troubles press hard upon us, God gives us leave to be thus pressing in prayer, yet with humility and patience.
II. He makes a lamentable complaint of the low condition to which he was reduced by his afflictions. 1. His body was macerated and emaciated, and he had become a perfect skeleton, nothing but skin and bones. As prosperity and joy are represented by making fat the bones, and the bones flourishing like a herb, so great trouble and grief are here represented by the contrary: My bones are burnt as a hearth (Psa 102:3); they cleave to my skin (Psa 102:5); nay, my heart is smitten, and withered like grass (Psa 102:4); it touches the vitals, and there is a sensible decay there. I am withered like grass (Psa 102:11), scorched with the burning heat of my troubles. If we be thus brought low by bodily distempers, let us not think it strange; the body is like grass, weak and of the earth, no wonder then that it withers. 2. He was very melancholy and of a sorrowful spirit. He was so taken up with the thoughts of his troubles that he forgot to eat his bread (Psa 102:4); he had no appetite to his necessary food nor could he relish it. When God hides his face from a soul the delights of sense will be sapless things. He was always sighing and groaning, as one pressed above measure (Psa 102:5), and this wasted him and exhausted his spirits. He affected solitude, as melancholy people do. His friends deserted him and were shy of him, and he cared as little for their company (Psa 102:6, Psa 102:7): "I am like a pelican of the wilderness, or a bittern (so some) that make a doleful noise; I am like an owl, that affects to lodge in deserted ruined buildings; I watch, and am as a sparrow upon the house-top. I live in a garret, and there spend my hours in poring on my troubles and bemoaning myself." Those who do thus, when they are in sorrow, humour themselves indeed; but they prejudice themselves, and know not what they do, nor what advantage they hereby give to the tempter. In affliction we should sit alone to consider our ways (Lam 3:28), but not sit alone to indulge an inordinate grief. 3. He was evil-spoken of by his enemies, and all manner of evil was said against him. When his friends went off from him his foes set themselves against him (Psa 102:8): My enemies reproach me all the day, designing thereby both to create vexation to him (for an ingenuous mind regrets reproach) and to bring an odium upon him before men. When they could not otherwise reach him they shot these arrows at him, even bitter words. In this they were unwearied; they did it all the day; it was a continual dropping. His enemies were very outrageous: They are mad against me, and very obstinate and implacable. They are sworn against me; as the Jews that bound themselves with an oath that they would kill Paul; or, They have sworn against me as accusers, to take away my life. 4. He fasted and wept under the tokens of God's displeasure (Psa 102:9, Psa 102:10): "I have eaten ashes like bread; instead of eating my bread, I have lain down in dust and ashes, and I have mingled my drink with weeping; when I should have refreshed myself with drinking I have only eased myself with weeping." And what is the matter? He tells us (Psa 102:10): Because of thy wrath. It was not so much the trouble itself that troubled him as the wrath of God which he was under the apprehensions of as the cause of the trouble. This, this was the wormwood and the gall in the affliction and the misery: Thou hast lifted me up and cast me down, as that which we cast to the ground with a design to dash it to pieces; we lift up first, that we may throw it down with the more violence; or, "Thou hast formerly lifted me up in honour, and joy, and uncommon prosperity; but the remembrance of that aggravates the present grief and makes it the more grievous." We must eye the hand of God both in lifting us up and casting us down, and say, "Blessed be the name of the Lord, who both gives and takes away." 5. He looked upon himself as a dying man: My days are consumed like smoke (Psa 102:3), which vanishes away quickly. Or, They are consumed in smoke, of which nothing remains; they are like a shadow that declines (Psa 102:11), like the evening-shadow, or a forerunner of approaching night. Now all this, though it seems to speak the psalmist's personal calamities, and therefore is properly a prayer for a particular person afflicted, yet is supposed to be a description of the afflictions of the church of God, with which the psalmist sympathizes, making public grievances his own. The mystical body of Christ is sometimes, like the psalmist's body here, withered and parched, nay, like dead and dry bones. The church sometimes is forced into the wilderness, seems lost, and gives up herself for gone, under the tokens of God's displeasure.
Matthew Henry (1662–1714) — Commentary on the Whole Bible. This section covers verses 1–11. Public domain.
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Augustine of HippoAD 430
Exposition on Psalm 102
"Hear my prayer, O Lord: and let my crying come unto You" [Psalm 102:1]. "Hear my prayer, O Lord," is the same as, "Let my crying come unto You:" the feeling of the suppliant is shown by the repetition. "Turn not Your face away from me." When did God turn away His Face from His Son? When did the Father turn away His Face from Christ? But for the sake of the poverty of my members, "Turn not away Your face from me: whatsoever day I am troubled, incline Your ear unto me" [Psalm 102:2]....You are in trouble this day, I am in trouble; another is in trouble tomorrow, I am in trouble; after this generation other descendants, who succeed your descendants, are in trouble, I am in trouble; down to the end of the world, whoever are in trouble in My body, I am in trouble....Peter prayed, Paul prayed, the rest of the Apostles prayed; the faithful prayed in those times, the faithful prayed in the following times, the faithful prayed in the times of the Martyrs, the faithful pray in our times, the faithful will pray in the times of our descendants. "Right soon:" for I now ask that which You are willing to grant. I ask not earthly things, as an earthly man; but redeemed at last from my former captivity, I long for the kingdom of heaven; "Hear me right soon:" for it is only to such a longing that You have said, "Even while You are speaking, I will say, Here I am." [Isaiah 58:9] Wherefore do you call? In what tribulation? In what want? O poor one, before the gate of God all-rich, in what longing do you beg? From what destitution do you ask relief? From what want do you knock, that it may be opened unto you?
Source: Quotations drawn from early Church Fathers and historical Christian theologians (AD 100–1500). Some quotes address the surrounding passage context rather than this verse alone.
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SUMMARY
Psalms 102:2 is a profound and urgent lament from an individual overwhelmed by affliction, pleading with God for immediate divine attention and swift intervention. It captures the raw anguish of a soul in deep distress, expressing a fervent desire for God's revealed presence and responsive action rather than a perceived absence or indifference. This verse encapsulates the psalmist's desperate need for the Lord to "incline His ear" and "answer speedily," reflecting a foundational trust in God's capacity and willingness to deliver from trouble.
CONTEXT
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
Psalms 102:2 employs several powerful literary techniques to convey its urgent plea. The entire psalm is a classic example of a lament, a common genre in the Psalms where the speaker expresses deep sorrow, suffering, and complaint to God, often coupled with a fervent plea for deliverance and an affirmation of trust. This verse, with its direct appeal and urgent tone, functions as a powerful supplication, a humble and earnest prayer for divine aid. The verse also features prominent anthropomorphism by attributing human characteristics to God, specifically a "face" and an "ear." This literary device makes the divine relatable and comprehensible, allowing the psalmist to express the desire for God's active presence ("hide not thy face") and attentive listening ("incline thine ear") in vivid, tangible terms. Finally, the repetition of the phrase "in the day [when] I..." ("in the day [when] I am in trouble" and "in the day [when] I call") creates a form of parallelism that emphasizes the immediacy and consistency of the psalmist's distress and prayer, underscoring the urgency and the continuous nature of the plea for divine intervention.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
Psalms 102:2 profoundly illustrates the accessibility of God to His suffering people and the divine expectation of earnest prayer. It underscores the theological truth that God is not a distant, unfeeling deity but one who "inclines His ear" to the cries of the afflicted. The psalmist's plea for God not to "hide His face" speaks to the fundamental human need for divine presence and favor, which is often perceived as withdrawn during times of deep suffering or perceived abandonment. This verse also highlights the tension between human urgency and divine timing, yet it maintains an unwavering faith in God's ultimate responsiveness and capacity to act swiftly. It serves as a model for honest, vulnerable prayer, affirming that even in our deepest despair, we can boldly approach the throne of grace, confident in His compassion.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
Psalms 102:2 offers profound encouragement and guidance for believers navigating overwhelming difficulties. It validates the raw, honest expression of distress before God, affirming that it is not only permissible but vital to articulate our deepest fears and most urgent needs. In moments when we feel God's presence is distant, or His favor withdrawn, this verse reminds us to persist in prayer, confident that our cries do reach His attentive ear. It challenges us to examine our own faith in God's responsiveness, particularly when His timing differs from our own. The psalmist's plea for a speedy answer reminds us that while God always hears, His perfect wisdom dictates the "when" and "how" of His intervention, yet we are still called to pray with fervent expectation. This passage ultimately invites us to cultivate a radical dependence on God, trusting that even in our most vulnerable state, He is near and willing to engage with our suffering, transforming our lament into a testimony of His faithfulness.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
Why does the psalmist ask God not to "hide His face"?
Answer: In biblical thought, God "hiding His face" (Hebrew: satar panim) signifies a withdrawal of His favor, blessing, or even His active presence, often interpreted as a sign of divine displeasure or abandonment. The psalmist, overwhelmed by trouble, desperately seeks the opposite: God's benevolent gaze, His active involvement, and the assurance of His presence. This plea reflects a deep spiritual need for connection with the divine and a fear of being left alone in suffering, a sentiment echoed in Psalm 13:1.
What does "incline thine ear" imply about God?
Answer: The phrase "incline thine ear" (Hebrew: natah ozen) is an anthropomorphism that portrays God bending down or leaning in to listen intently and compassionately to the petitioner. It implies more than just hearing; it suggests a close, personal, and empathetic attention to the cries of the afflicted. This imagery reassures the psalmist, and us, that God is not distant or indifferent but actively engaged with our prayers and suffering, demonstrating His profound care and willingness to respond, as seen in Psalm 116:1-2.
Is it wrong to ask God to answer "speedily"?
Answer: No, it is not wrong to ask God to answer "speedily." The psalmist's plea for a swift response (Hebrew: maher) reflects the genuine urgency and depth of their distress. It is a natural human desire for immediate relief from suffering. While God's timing is always perfect and often differs from our own, expressing our urgent need is an act of honest and fervent prayer, demonstrating a trust that God is capable of acting decisively. The Bible encourages persistence and boldness in prayer, even when asking for quick intervention, as exemplified by Jesus' parable of the persistent widow in Luke 18:1-8.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
Psalms 102:2 finds its ultimate fulfillment in the person and work of Jesus Christ, who perfectly embodies both the suffering psalmist and the responsive God. Jesus, the Lamb of God, experienced the ultimate "day of trouble" on the cross, crying out in profound lament, even feeling the Father's face hidden from Him as He bore the sin of the world (Matthew 27:46). Yet, through His suffering, He became our great High Priest, one who can deeply sympathize with our weaknesses because He was tempted in every way, just as we are, yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15). Now, as our ascended Lord, Christ continually "inclines His ear" to our prayers, interceding for us before the Father (Romans 8:34). The "speedy" answer the psalmist longed for is ultimately realized in God's decisive act of salvation through Christ, offering immediate access to grace and the promise of future deliverance from all trouble. In Christ, we are assured that God's face is eternally turned towards us in favor, and His ear is always open to our cries, because of the perfect sacrifice and ongoing advocacy of our Savior.