Text -- Psalms 102:1-4 (NET)

Psalm 102

102:1 The prayer of an oppressed man, as he grows faint and pours out his lament before the Lord. O Lord, hear my prayer! Pay attention to my cry for help! 102:2 Do not ignore me in my time of trouble! Listen to me! When I call out to you, quickly answer me! 102:3 For my days go up in smoke, and my bones are charred like a fireplace. 102:4 My heart is parched and withered like grass, for I am unable to eat food.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Psa 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.

² tn Heb “and may my cry for help come to you.”

NET Notes: Psa 102:2

¹ 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).

² tn Heb “turn toward me your ear.”

NET Notes: Psa 102:3

¹ tn Heb “for my days come to an end in smoke.”

² 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.

NET Notes: Psa 102:4

¹ tn Heb “struck, attacked.”

² tn Heb “I forget.”

³ 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.