Psalms · 28 verses
Psalms 102
Every verse links to the people and places named in it, and to the passages readers connect it with.
The chapter
What happens here
Atlas's own reading, written from this chapter and nothing else, and published only once a person has approved it. Each scene names the verses it covers; the names inside it link to the people and places they name.
The afflicted man has eaten ashes like bread and poured tears into his drink, yet the prayer eventually looks beyond his vanishing days to a people not yet created.
A table of ashesvv. 1–11
The speaker begins faint, calling for the LORD to hear quickly, and then gives grief a kitchen of its own. Bread has become ashes, drink has become tears, the heart has withered, and the skin hangs on the bones. Even solitude arrives in bird form: a desert owl among ruins, then a lone bird awake on a housetop, while enemies provide the noisy accompaniment.
Stones, dust, and a people unbornvv. 12–22
The prayer turns from the speaker’s shortening days to the LORD enthroned forever, and from there to Zion. Its servants delight in her stones and pity her dust, which is a wonderfully exact sort of devotion. The rebuilding of Zion will draw the nations and kings, while the prayer is carefully written down for a generation not yet made—a future audience with no present seats at the table.
The earth wears out; the LORD does notvv. 23–28
The speaker’s strength is broken on the way, and the old plea returns: do not take me in the midst of my days. Above this shortening life stand the foundations of the earth and the work of the heavens, though even those great things will wear out like clothing and be changed. The LORD remains the same, and the final picture is of servants’ children and descendants established before Him.
The text
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Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.
Ps 102:1A prayer of one who is afflicted, when he grows faint and pours out his lament before the LORD. Hear my prayer, O LORD; let my cry for help come before You.
Ps 102:2Do not hide Your face from me in my day of distress. Incline Your ear to me; answer me quickly when I call.
Ps 102:3For my days vanish like smoke, and my bones burn like glowing embers.
Ps 102:4My heart is afflicted, and withered like grass; I even forget to eat my bread.
Ps 102:5Through my loud groaning my skin hangs on my bones.
Ps 102:6I am like a desert owl, like an owl among the ruins.
Ps 102:7I lie awake; I am like a lone bird on a housetop.
Ps 102:8All day long my enemies taunt me; they ridicule me and curse me.
Ps 102:9For I have eaten ashes like bread and mixed my drink with tears
Ps 102:10because of Your indignation and wrath, for You have picked me up and cast me aside.
Ps 102:11My days are like lengthening shadows, and I wither away like grass.
Ps 102:12But You, O LORD, sit enthroned forever; Your renown endures to all generations.
Ps 102:13You will rise up and have compassion on Zion, for it is time to show her favor—the appointed time has come.
Ps 102:14For Your servants delight in her stones and take pity on her dust.
Ps 102:15So the nations will fear the name of the LORD, and all the kings of the earth will fear Your glory.
Ps 102:16For the LORD will rebuild Zion; He has appeared in His glory.
Ps 102:17He will turn toward the prayer of the destitute; He will not despise their prayer.
Ps 102:18Let this be written for the generation to come, so that a people not yet created may praise the LORD.
Ps 102:19For He looked down from the heights of His sanctuary; the LORD gazed out from heaven to earth
Ps 102:20to hear a prisoner’s groaning, to release those condemned to death,
Ps 102:21that they may proclaim the name of the LORD in Zion and praise Him in Jerusalem,
Ps 102:22when peoples and kingdoms assemble to serve the LORD.
Ps 102:23He has broken my strength on the way; He has cut short my days.
Ps 102:24I say: “O my God, do not take me in the midst of my days! Your years go on through all generations.
Ps 102:25In the beginning You laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands.
Ps 102:26They will perish, but You remain; they will all wear out like a garment. Like clothing You will change them, and they will be passed on.
Ps 102:27But You remain the same, and Your years will never end.
Ps 102:28The children of Your servants will dwell securely, and their descendants will be established before You.”
02 — Read alongside
Where this is echoed
Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 336 passages were voted onto 28 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.
- 25Genesis 1:1In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
- 26Isaiah 51:6Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth below; for the heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment, and its people will die like gnats. But My salvation will last forever, and My righteousness will never fail.
- 13Galatians 4:4But when the time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law,
- 13Isaiah 40:2“Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her forced labor has been completed; her iniquity has been pardoned. For she has received from the hand of the LORD double for all her sins.”
- 13Isaiah 60:1Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you.
- 25Exodus 20:11For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them, but on the seventh day He rested. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy.
- 26Matthew 24:35Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away.
- 13Psalms 44:26Rise up; be our help! Redeem us on account of Your loving devotion.
- 13Zechariah 2:10–12“Shout for joy and be glad, O Daughter of Zion, for I am coming to dwell among you,” declares the LORD.
- 13Psalms 69:35–36For God will save Zion and rebuild the cities of Judah, that they may dwell there and possess it.
- 27Hebrews 13:8Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
- 132 Peter 3:8Beloved, do not let this one thing escape your notice: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.
- 25Hebrews 1:10–12And: “In the beginning, O Lord, You laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands.
- 25Jeremiah 32:17“Oh, Lord GOD! You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too difficult for You!
- 13Acts 1:7Jesus replied, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by His own authority.
- 13Revelation 11:15–18Then the seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and loud voices called out in heaven: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He will reign forever and ever.”
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