PSALM 102

¹A prayer for the lowly when he grows faint and pours out his plea before the LORD.

    ²LORD, O hear my prayer,

          and let my outcry come before You.

    ³Hide not Your face from me

          on the day when I am in straits.

    Incline Your ear to me.

          On the day I call, quickly answer me.

    ⁴For my days are consumed in smoke,

          and my bones are scorched like a hearth.

    ⁵My heart is stricken and withers like grass,

          so I forget to eat my bread.

    ⁶From my loud sighing,

          my bones cleave to my flesh.

    ⁷I resemble the wilderness jackdaw,

          I become like the owl of the ruins.

    ⁸I lie awake and become

          like a lonely bird on a roof.

    ⁹All day long my enemies revile me,

          my taunters invoke me in curse.

    ¹⁰For ashes I have eaten as bread,

          and my drink I have mingled with tears—

    ¹¹because of Your wrath and Your fury,

          for You raised me up and flung me down.

    ¹²My days inclined like a shadow,

          and I—like grass I withered.

    ¹³And You LORD, forever enthroned,

          and Your name—for all generations.

    ¹⁴You, may You rise, have mercy on Zion,

          for it is the hour to pity her, for the fixed time has come.

    ¹⁵For Your servants cherish her stones

          and on her dust they take pity.

    ¹⁶And the nations will fear the name of the LORD,

          and all kings of the earth, Your glory.

    ¹⁷For the LORD has rebuilt Zion,

          He is seen in His glory.

    ¹⁸He has turned to the prayer of the desolate

          and has not despised their prayer.

    ¹⁹Let this be inscribed for a generation to come,

          that a people yet unborn may praise Yah.

    ²⁰For the LORD has gazed down from His holy heights,

          from heaven to earth He has looked

    ²¹to hear the groans of the captive,

          to set loose those doomed to die,

    ²²that the name of the LORD be recounted in Zion

          and His praise in Jerusalem

    ²³when peoples gather together

          and kingdoms, to serve the LORD.

    ²⁴He humbled my strength on the highway,

          he cut short my days.

    ²⁵I say, “O my God.

          Do not take me away in the midst of my days!

                Your years are for all generations.

    ²⁶Of old You founded the earth,

          and the heavens—Your handiwork.

    ²⁷They will perish and You will yet stand.

          They will all wear away like a garment.

    Like clothing You change them, and they pass away.

          ²⁸But You—Your years never end.

    ²⁹The sons of Your servants dwell safe,

          their seed in Your presence, unshaken.”