Prayer of an Afflicted Man for Mercy on Himself and on Zion.
A Prayer of the Afflicted when he is faint and [a]pours out his complaint before the Lord.
102 Hear my prayer, O Lord!
And let my cry for help come to You.
2 Do not hide Your face from me in the day of my distress;
Incline Your ear to me;
In the day when I call answer me quickly.
3 For my days have been [b]consumed in smoke,
And my bones have been scorched like a hearth.
4 My heart has been smitten like [c]grass and has withered away,
Indeed, I forget to eat my bread.
5 Because of the [d]loudness of my groaning
My bones [e]cling to my flesh.
6 I [f]resemble a pelican of the wilderness;
I have become like an owl of the waste places.
7 I lie awake,
I have become like a lonely bird on a housetop.8 My enemies have reproached me all day long;
Those who [g]deride me [h]have used my name as a curse.
9 For I have eaten ashes like bread
And mingled my drink with weeping
10 Because of Your indignation and Your wrath,
For You have lifted me up and cast me away.
11 My days are like a [i]lengthened shadow,
And [j]I wither away like [k]grass.
The “afflicted man” paints quite the picture of his suffering, even comparing his plight to a pelican in the wilderness or an owl of “waste places”–meaning someplace terribly desolate. A pelican doesn’t belong in the wilderness, it ought to be by water, a river or the sea. We get pelicans on the river from time to time, and when we see them, we know there are fish, and they are eating good. I can’t imagine pelicans willingly ever go where there is a shortage of food.
So besides desolation, there is also this picture of isolation, of being separated from home, and not belonging. This all fits in with the second section (vv. 8-11), where we find that the psalmist has been “cast away” by God because of His “indignation and wrath”. But that’s certainly not to say that the only time we could possibly feel alone and desolate is because we’ve sinned against God.
However, we’re certainly not where we belong if we have turned away from God. I’ll admit I had to “cheat” a little bit and read the rest of the psalm, because the psalmist is in a terribly sad place, a place I’ve been before. And it’s not where God wants us to be either. He had no desire to “cast away” the psalmist, but it had to happen.
The result is hopefully the same for us. If we are feeling lonely, desolate, cast out, no matter the cause, we need to look to God. There is where we belong, with him, in relationship with him, talking to him, and especially listening for his voice. We may not hear from God right away, and like the psalmist in the first couple verse, we might beg God to answer us quickly, and not turn His ear.
The good news? Even if we haven’t heard God yet, He has most definitely heard us. He knows right where we are, and like the song from TobyMac, “it may be midnight, or mid-day, He’s never early, never late… but help is on the way.”