March 19th

Psalm 102

No stranger to the rain

I know your life
On earth was troubled
And only you could know the pain
You weren't afraid to face the devil
You were no stranger to the rain         [Vince Gill] 

When our brother-in-law was dying he chose five songs to be played at his funeral service.  One of them was ‘Go rest high on that mountain’ by Vince Gill.  I was struck by the line ‘You were no stranger to the rain.’  

The Israelites, exiles in Babyon, could relate.  Taunted by their captors, their God mocked and derided, working sometimes in hard labour, these exiles experienced much pain and suffering.  And all the while they remembered Jerusalem, the city they loved, now in ruins.  They were ‘no strangers to the rain.’

Our psalmist gives full expression to her people’s pain. 

¹ Hear my prayer, O Lord;
   let my cry come to you.
² Do not hide your face from me
   on the day of my distress.
Incline your ear to me;
   answer me speedily on the day when I call.   

The repetition of ‘day’ represents the shortness of the psalmist’s time.  Days ‘pass away like smoke;’ ‘I am too wasted to eat my bread;’ ‘I am like a lonely bird on the housetop;’ ‘I wither away like grass;’ I mingle tears with my drink.’  

But then, in verses 12-22, the focus shifts dramatically to God.  Whereas human existence is transient, God is ‘eternal’ for ‘all generations.’  Because God is sovereign, God’s name will always endure   The two occurrences of ‘prayer’ in vs. 17 suggest that this hope is related to the struggles related in verses 1-11.   ‘He will regard the prayer of the destitute, and will not despise their prayer.’    

¹⁸ Let this be recorded for a generation to come,
   so that a people yet unborn may praise the Lord:
¹⁹ that he looked down from his holy height,
   from heaven the Lord looked at the earth,
²⁰ to hear the groans of the prisoners,
   to set free those who were doomed to die….
 

Such is our experience as people of faith.  We move from deep despair in the midst of suffering to affirming hope (against all odds) that God ‘looks down and hears the groans…’   These verses remind us of the Israelite slaves groaning in Egypt and how God looked down and hearing their cries, called Moses to lead them into freedom.  In the scriptures whenever God ‘looks down’ salvation is at hand.

For Christians, Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection are the ultimate demonstration of God’s reign, which takes the form of mercy and grace.  Jesus is the seal of God’s constancy:  ’Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and for ever.’ (Heb. 13.8), and the church professes to find its hope in the words of Jesus in Matt. 28.20 (And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’) which makes the same promise of Psalm 102.28.  By the grace of God we Christians are indeed ‘established in God’s presence’  (v.28).     

Two things stand out for me in this prayer:

Verses 25-27 are quoted in Hebrews: God alone endures.

‘In the beginning, Lord, you founded the earth,
   and the heavens are the work of your hands;
¹¹ they will perish, but you remain;
   they will all wear out like clothing;
¹² like a cloak you will roll them up,
   and like clothing they will be changed.
But you are the same,
   and your years will never end.’    [Hebrews 1.10-12]

Second, verse 28 affirms that though the psalmist’s life may end prematurely, her children and children’s children will have a future.  At breakfast I look at my two young grandchildren (age three and four) and know that I will not see their adulthood and the shape of their adult lives, but I entrust them to the One who endures and who looks down upon them in compassion (v.13).  Thanks be to God!