Psalm 102

1-2 God, listen! Listen to my prayer, listen to the pain in my cries. Don't turn your back on me just when I need you so desperately. Pay attention! This is a cry for help! And hurry—this can't wait!
3-11 I'm wasting away to nothing, I'm burning up with fever. I'm a ghost of my former self, half-consumed already by terminal illness. My jaws ache from gritting my teeth; I'm nothing but skin and bones. I'm like a buzzard in the desert, a crow perched on the rubble. Insomniac, I twitter away, mournful as a sparrow in the gutter. All day long my enemies taunt me, while others just curse. They bring in meals—casseroles of ashes! I draw drink from a barrel of my tears. And all because of your furious anger; you swept me up and threw me out. There's nothing left of me— a withered weed, swept clean from the path.
12-17 Yet you, God, are sovereign still, always and ever sovereign. You'll get up from your throne and help Zion— it's time for compassionate help. Oh, how your servants love this city's rubble and weep with compassion over its dust! The godless nations will sit up and take notice —see your glory, worship your name— When God rebuilds Zion, when he shows up in all his glory, When he attends to the prayer of the wretched. He won't dismiss their prayer.
18-22 Write this down for the next generation so people not yet born will praise God: "God looked out from his high holy place; from heaven he surveyed the earth. He listened to the groans of the doomed, he opened the doors of their death cells." Write it so the story can be told in Zion, so God's praise will be sung in Jerusalem's streets And wherever people gather together along with their rulers to worship him.
23-28 God sovereignly brought me to my knees, he cut me down in my prime. "Oh, don't," I prayed, "please don't let me die. You have more years than you know what to do with! You laid earth's foundations a long time ago, and handcrafted the very heavens; You'll still be around when they're long gone, threadbare and discarded like an old suit of clothes. You'll throw them away like a worn-out coat, but year after year you're as good as new. Your servants' children will have a good place to live and their children will be at home with you."

Psalm 102

1 Hear my prayer, O Jehovah, And let my cry come unto thee.

2 Hide not thy face from me in the day of my distress: Incline thine ear unto me; In the day when I call answer me speedily.

3 For my days consume away like smoke, And my bones are burned as a firebrand.

4 My heart is smitten like grass, and withered; For I forget to eat my bread.

5 By reason of the voice of my groaning My bones cleave to my flesh.

6 I am like a pelican of the wilderness; I am become as an owl of the waste places.

7 I watch, and am become like a sparrow That is alone upon the house-top.

8 Mine enemies reproach me all the day; They that are mad against me do curse by me.

9 For I have eaten ashes like bread, And mingled my drink with weeping,

10 Because of thine indignation and thy wrath: For thou hast taken me up, and cast me away.

11 My days are like a shadow that declineth; And I am withered like grass.

12 But thou, O Jehovah, wilt abide for ever; And thy memorial name unto all generations.

13 Thou wilt arise, and have mercy upon Zion; For it is time to have pity upon her, Yea, the set time is come.

14 For thy servants take pleasure in her stones, And have pity upon her dust.

15 So the nations shall fear the name of Jehovah, And all the kings of the earth thy glory.

16 For Jehovah hath built up Zion; He hath appeared in his glory.

17 He hath regarded the prayer of the destitute, And hath not despised their prayer.

18 This shall be written for the generation to come; And a people which shall be created shall praise Jehovah.

19 For he hath looked down from the height of his sanctuary; From heaven did Jehovah behold the earth;

20 To hear the sighing of the prisoner; To loose those that are appointed to death;

21 That men may declare the name of Jehovah in Zion, And his praise in Jerusalem;

22 When the peoples are gathered together, And the kingdoms, to serve Jehovah.

23 He weakened my strength in the way; He shortened my days.

24 I said, O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days: Thy years are throughout all generations.

25 Of old didst thou lay the foundation of the earth; And the heavens are the work of thy hands.

26 They shall perish, but thou shalt endure; Yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; As a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed:

27 But thou art the same, And thy years shall have no end.

28 The children of thy servants shall continue, And their seed shall be established before thee.