Mazmur 102:1-7

Psalm 102 ¹ 

The prayer of an oppressed man, as he grows faint and pours out his lament before the Lord.

102:1 O Lord, hear my prayer!

Pay attention to my cry for help! ² 

102:2 Do not ignore me in my time of trouble! ³ 

Listen to me! ⁴ 

When I call out to you, quickly answer me!

102:3 For my days go up in smoke, ⁵ 

and my bones are charred like a fireplace. ⁶ 

102:4 My heart is parched ⁷  and withered like grass,

for I am unable ⁸  to eat food. ⁹ 

102:5 Because of the anxiety that makes me groan,

my bones protrude from my skin. ¹⁰ 

102:6 I am like an owl ¹¹  in the wilderness;

I am like a screech owl ¹²  among the ruins. ¹³ 

102:7 I stay awake; ¹⁴ 

I am like a solitary bird on a roof.

[102:1]  ¹ sn Psalm 102. The psalmist laments his oppressed state, but longs for a day when the Lord will restore Jerusalem and vindicate his suffering people.

[102:1]  ² tn Heb “and may my cry for help come to you.”

[102:2]  ³ tn Heb “do not hide your face from me in the day of my trouble.” The idiom “to hide the face” can mean “to ignore” (see Pss 10:11; 13:1; 51:9) or carry the stronger idea of “to reject” (see Pss 29:7; 30:7; 88:14).

[102:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “turn toward me your ear.”

[102:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “for my days come to an end in smoke.”

[102:3]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew noun מוֹ־קֵד (mo-qed, “fireplace”) occurs only here, in Isa 33:14 (where it refers to the fire itself), and perhaps in Lev 6:2.

[102:4]  ⁷ tn Heb “struck, attacked.”

[102:4]  ⁸ tn Heb “I forget.”

[102:4]  ⁹ sn I am unable to eat food. During his time of mourning, the psalmist refrained from eating. In the following verse he describes metaphorically the physical effects of fasting.

[102:5]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “from the sound of my groaning my bone[s] stick to my flesh.” The preposition at the beginning of the verse is causal; the phrase “sound of my groaning” is metonymic for the anxiety that causes the groaning. The point seems to be this: Anxiety (which causes the psalmist to groan) keeps him from eating (v. 4). This physical deprivation in turn makes him emaciated – he is turned to “skin and bones,” so to speak.

[102:6]  ¹¹ tn The Hebrew term קָאַת (qa’at) refers to some type of bird (see Lev 11:18; Deut 14:17) that was typically found near ruins (see Zeph 2:14). Modern translations have frequently rendered this as some type of owl (NIV, REB “desert owl”; NRSV “owl”).

[102:6]  ¹² tn The Hebrew term כוֹס (khos) refers to a bird (see Lev 11:17; Deut 14:16), probably a type of owl (cf. NIV, REB “owl”; NRSV “little owl”).

[102:6]  ¹³ sn By comparing himself to a screech owl among the ruins, the psalmist may be highlighting his loneliness (see v. 7), though he may also be comparing his cries for help to the owl’s screech.

[102:7]  ¹⁴ tn This probably refers to the psalmist’s inability to sleep. Another option is to translate, “I keep watch,” in which case it might refer to watching for a response from the Lord (see vv. 1-2).