The afflicted one cries out - Psalm 102

Psalm 102 is one of the rare psalms in Book IV to receive a title, and an intriguing one at that. So far we've had:

1. 90: A prayer of Moses the man of God
2. 92: A psalm, a song, for the Sabbath
3. 98: A psalm
4. 100: A psalm, for thanksgiving
5. 101: Davidic, a psalm
6. 102: A prayer of an afflicted one who has grown weak and pours out a lament before Yhwh
7. 103:Davidic

As you can see, this is long and unique among the psalter, but especially among 90-106. Commentators often work hard to find a time in the life of David or another king (often Hezekiah) to correlate to the experience described here, but I don't know this is particularly fruitful. 

What the title does give us however is some vocabulary which will be important throughout the psalm. For instance:

1. תפלה, a prayer, also 1x in v2(1) and 2x in v18(17)
2. ענה, to afflict, or, here, an afflicted one, also in v24(23) as a verb (Yhwh is the one who afflicted the psalmist), and also a homograph meaning "to answer" in v3(2) - perhaps a pun? "answer your afflicted one
3. √פנה, usually as לפני, meaning before, but also face, occurs 4x throughout the psalm, in v3(2), 11(10), 26(25) (meaning perhaps "before"), and 29(28). There's also the related verb meaning "to turn" in 18(17)

These three lexemes and related roots are important throughout the psalm; it as a whole stands as a prayer of the afflicted one, to the one who has afflicted them, that they might turn their face and respond.

Another word which is important from a Sitz in der Literatur perspective is the word for complaint (or praise? in Ps 104), שׂיח, which occurs at or near the beginning of four other psalms (55, 64, 142) and at the end of another (104). We also meet it the same number of times in Job (7:13; 9:27; 10:1; 21:4; 23:2). 

But these three repeated words go some way to explaining the recursive nature of the psalm, which seems to follow a back-and-forth pattern as follows:

1. Heading: for the one who suffers   1(0) 

2. Plea for Yhwh to hear   2-3(1-2) 

3. Explanation/description of human finitude  4-12(3-11) 

4. A plea to Yhwh the eternal one   13-16(12-15) 

5. Description of Yhwh’s eternal glory and concern for those who call out in their suffering   17-23(16-22) 

6. Plea based on the contrast of man’s brevity but Yhwh’s eternity   24-29(23-28) 

The net effect of this alternation is to call on Yhwh to show mercy from his eternity to this poor afflicted one whose days are brief, are only halfway done (25(24)).


As an exodus psalm (see my series) this looks back to the plight of Israel post-the golden calf incident, as Moses appeals for Yhwh not to destroy his people despite their great apostacy. In this connection it is noteworthy that the name of God that he revealed to Moses at the beginning of the exodus appears some nine times in this psalm. 

On the other side of the exodus, parts of this psalm are applied in praise to the other name, Jesus, as the one who sits on an eternal throne (Hebrews 1:10-12). This posits the people who know God through Jesus as the afflicted ones who cried out to God for rescue, and were answered in that prayer by the coming of Jesus to bring his salvation.