Hoping in Heaven while Suffering on Earth
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A Prayer of one afflicted, when he is faint and pours out his complaint before the Lord.
Difficulties are an inevitable part of life in a fallen world. Some of them are caused by our own foolishness, some of them are caused by the foolishness of others. Yet others are simply an unfortunate part of living in a broken, sin-cursed world. All ages experience difficulties. The young have afflictions that seem great to them. We who are adults should not look down on their problems, for we developed the strength to handle such things by going through the same things. As adults we also have difficulties. Some are great, like loosing your job or the death of a loved one. Some are less difficult, but still hard. Conflict at work or at home. Financial difficulties. One great way to find encouragement is to read the psalms. There you will find people who suffered and who found strength in God. is one such psalm. Turn there with me as we seek encouragement in trials.
A Prayer of one afflicted, when he is faint and pours out his complaint before the Lord.
Some psalm titles tell us who the author is; it might be ascribed to David, or the Sons of Korah, or even Solomon or Moses. Some psalms are anonymous. No one knows for sure who wrote them because it does not say anything about the author. This psalm has a title that tells us something about the author, but it is anonymous. It tells us what he was going through but not who he was. This psalmist was experiencing trials, though we do not know what kind. And when we read the psalm, it starts off like we would expect a prayer about trials to start. He asks God to help him, and describes in emotional language how badly he is suffering. But then in the middle, it shifts from a personal lament to national hope in verse 12. It sounds almost like a different psalm entirely, but he switches again to his personal problems in verse 23. Can we find a theme that explains this huge shift in subject and emotions? We get a clue verse 17. God’s promise to bring in the Kingdom of God and restore Jerusalem is ultimately what he does to respond to the anguished cries of his servants in trouble. While God often ends our trials on earth, his ultimate response is to welcome us into the joys of heaven.
Some psalm titles tell us who the author is; it might be ascribed to David, or the Sons of Korah, or even Solomon or Moses. Some psalms are anonymous. No one knows for sure who wrote them because it does not say anything about the author. This psalm has a title that tells us something about the author, but it is anonymous. It tells us what he was going through but not who he was. This psalmist was experiencing trials, though we do not know what kind. And when we read the psalm, it starts off like we would expect a prayer about trials to start. He asks God to help him, and describes in emotional language how badly he is suffering. But then in the middle, it shifts from a personal lament to national hope in verse 12. It sounds almost like a different psalm entirely, but he switches again to his personal problems in verse 23. Can we find a theme that explains this huge shift in subject and emotions? We get a clue verse 17. God’s promise to bring in the Kingdom of God and restore Jerusalem is ultimately what he does to respond to the anguished cries of his servants in trouble. While God often ends our trials on earth, his ultimate response is to welcome us into the joys of heaven.
Some psalm titles tell us who the author is; it might be ascribed to David, or the Sons of Korah, or even Solomon or Moses. Some psalms are anonymous. No one knows for sure who wrote them because it does not say anything about the author. This psalm has a title that tells us something about the author, but it is anonymous. It tells us what he was going through but not who he was. This psalmist was experiencing trials, though we do not know what kind. And when we read the psalm, it starts off like we would expect a prayer about trials to start. He asks God to help him, and describes in emotional language how badly he is suffering. But then in the middle, it shifts from a personal lament to national hope in verse 12. It sounds almost like a different psalm entirely, but he switches again to his personal problems in verse 23. Can we find a theme that explains this huge shift in subject and emotions? We get a clue verse 17. God’s promise to bring in the Kingdom of God and restore Jerusalem is ultimately what he does to respond to the anguished cries of his servants in trouble. While God often ends our trials on earth, his ultimate response is to welcome us into the joys of heaven.
There are quite a few psalms that
I. When Affliction is our Reality
I. When Affliction is our Reality
Hear my prayer, O Lord; let my cry come to you! Do not hide your face from me in the day of my distress! Incline your ear to me; answer me speedily in the day when I call! For my days pass away like smoke, and my bones burn like a furnace. My heart is struck down like grass and has withered; I forget to eat my bread. Because of my loud groaning my bones cling to my flesh. I am like a desert owl of the wilderness, like an owl of the waste places; I lie awake; I am like a lonely sparrow on the housetop. All the day my enemies taunt me; those who deride me use my name for a curse. For I eat ashes like bread and mingle tears with my drink, because of your indignation and anger; for you have taken me up and thrown me down. My days are like an evening shadow; I wither away like grass.
In the opening verses of the psalm, we enter into his deep affliction. In modern writing, the best way to connect with an audience is to be as specific as possible about whatever difficulty they are suffering from. If the song speaks specifically to whatever we are enduring, it seems relevant and moving. But the ancient Israelites did not write songs that way. Like modern songwriters, they would write about their personal difficulties. But unlike today, they would remove all the particular details of their situation so that the audience could insert the particular details of their experiences into it. So to truly identify with the psalm as originally intended, you must use your imagination. He describes how his situation made him feel, but he does not tell us much of anything about what that situation was. He wants you to feel his pain with him, and to imagine whatever problem you are facing in place of the one that bothered him. He might have been sick. He might have faced personal conflict in the home or with a friend. Perhaps he was enduring the loss of a friend or family member, or debilitating criticism. Maybe he was overwhelmed by work, or by life itself. In whatever case, he began with a desperate appeal to God about his problem.
A. Desperate Appeal
A. Desperate Appeal
What do you do when life is tough? Do you eat comfort food or skip meals? Do you binge-watch old movies? Unload your problems on a friend? Whatever else you do, remember to go to God with your troubles. He is the one friend who can always do something about your problem. He is the one friend who will not think you are weird or weak, because he already knows everything about you, and loves you anyway. To pray the way the psalmist did is to assume this about God.
Hear my prayer, O Lord; let my cry come to you! Do not hide your face from me in the day of my distress! Incline your ear to me; answer me speedily in the day when I call!
02:1-2
There are no less than five phrases here that all say pretty much the same thing. His prayer is also a cry for help. He calls upon God in his time of distress. He imaginatively asks God to cup his ear and lean in to catch every word instead of hiding his face in anger.
The only times God said he would hide his face are because of sin
When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood.
But God does not always answer as speedily as we think he should, so sometimes we feel like God is hiding his face even though we are not in sin, just like David
How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?
But even when we feel like this, yet God does hear his saints
And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
Luke 18:
Even if we must pray long, yet we can be assured that God has already heard our cry and is answering it speedily. Still, we are not machines. When trials come, they do have a physical effect.
B. Physical Suffering
B. Physical Suffering
For my days pass away like smoke, and my bones burn like a furnace. My heart is struck down like grass and has withered; I forget to eat my bread. Because of my loud groaning my bones cling to my flesh.
The psalmist is wasting away, but he may not be physically sick. He is so disturbed by his problems that he has lost his appetite. That is why he is so thin he looks like a skeleton with skin. He uses several similes to help us understand what he feels like. He used a couple of body parts to refer to emotional states. We do the same in phrases like “I just had a gut feeling,” or “what does your heart tell you?” To the Hebrews, the heart was your immaterial nature, your soul. The psalmist’s heart is like summer grass, withered and brown. Here most things stay green all summer, but in dry climates, grass withers and turns brown in the summer. That is what happens in Israel, and that is what happens where I grew up in Australia. In a normal summer any grass that wasn’t watered would turn completely brown like hay. Green grass could only be seen in the colder months. The psalmist’s bones burn like a furnace. Burning bones are a way to talk about the emotional effect of suffering. When Israelites wanted to describe something discouraging, they said
The light of the eyes rejoices the heart, and good news refreshes the bones.
But if it discouraged, they said
A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.
Prov
The psalmist’s days are disappearing so fast they are vanishing like smoke. In everyone’s life is like a mist, but the psalmist means that his life is ebbing away because of his problems. Physical suffering can be difficult to handle, but it is easier if you have someone to support you through it. The psalmist did not feel like he had this.
C. Social Isolation
C. Social Isolation
I am like a desert owl of the wilderness, like an owl of the waste places; I lie awake; I am like a lonely sparrow on the housetop. All the day my enemies taunt me; those who deride me use my name for a curse.
I am sure the psalmist knew exactly what birds he was talking about. But it turns out what birds those are have been lost to history. The word translated “sparrow” in my Bible is probably just a generic word for “bird.” Scholars guess some kind of owl for the other two words because they seem to be a lonely bird in the desert, but no one really knows. But that is ok because identifying the species really isn’t the point. This is poetry, not zoology. In a movie if the director wants to communicate isolation during a night scene, he may put the hoot of an owl into the soundtrack. Why? Because a lone bird call at night makes us feel alone. That is what the psalmist feels like. The only people around him are his enemies. But they don’t want to hurt him. rather, they mock and deride him. They are his critics, and so the people in his life only make him feel more alone. He lies awake at night thinking, and feels like God has been punishing him, though for no apparent reason.
D. Divine Retribution
D. Divine Retribution
For I eat ashes like bread and mingle tears with my drink, because of your indignation and anger; for you have taken me up and thrown me down. My days are like an evening shadow; I wither away like grass.
The psalmist feels like God has smacked him down like some WWE star. God seems angry for no reason. In the ancient world, when someone expressed great grief, he wore sackcloth and sat in ashes. Job, Mordacai Esther’s Uncle, and all Nineveh after Jonah preached all wore sackcloth and sat in ashes. The Psalmist is so upset he doesn’t just sit in ashes, it is almost as if it is his diet. During the times of trial in our life, we often cannot see why it is happening. We may feel alone, like no one understands. We might lose our appetite and suffer physically because of the stress. We may even feel like God is punishing us. But God has a purpose, one that has our good in mind. Even if they feel like they will last forever, our trials usually end sooner than we expect. But even if good times do not return, God has an ultimate joy in store for us that will erase all our sorrows.
For he crushes me with a tempest and multiplies my wounds without cause;
Job 9:
But what happened? Through this harrowing experience Job learned about God in a way he never would have known otherwise. He said
I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you;
Then God restored everything back to Job double what he had before. During the times of trial in our life, we often cannot see why it is happening. We may feel alone, like no one understands. We might lose our appetite and suffer physically because of the stress. We may even feel like God is punishing us. But God has a purpose, one that has our good in mind. Even if they feel like they will last forever, our trials usually end sooner than we expect. But even if good times do not return, God has an ultimate joy in store for us that will erase all our sorrows.
II. Zion is our Hope
II. Zion is our Hope
Suddenly out from our gloom we see Zion, the city of Jerusalem, now favored and resplendent with God’s glory. This is an abrupt switch from personal suffering to national restoration. But as the psalmist describes Zion, he looks forward not to the Jerusalem of his day, or even our day, but to the future when God will reign from the Holy City (v. 16). And another way to describe God reigning from The New Jerusalem, is heaven. Therefore the psalmist invites us to look forward to heaven for the complete end of our troubles.
But you, O Lord, are enthroned forever; you are remembered throughout all generations. You will arise and have pity on Zion; it is the time to favor her; the appointed time has come. For your servants hold her stones dear and have pity on her dust. Nations will fear the name of the Lord, and all the kings of the earth will fear your glory. For the Lord builds up Zion; he appears in his glory; he regards the prayer of the destitute and does not despise their prayer. Let this be recorded for a generation to come, so that a people yet to be created may praise the Lord: that he looked down from his holy height; from heaven the Lord looked at the earth, to hear the groans of the prisoners, to set free those who were doomed to die, that they may declare in Zion the name of the Lord, and in Jerusalem his praise, when peoples gather together, and kingdoms, to worship the Lord.
A. God Favors Zion
A. God Favors Zion
But you, O Lord, are enthroned forever; you are remembered throughout all generations. You will arise and have pity on Zion; it is the time to favor her; the appointed time has come.
God’s sovereignty is a source of comfort for the psalmist. This is because he trusts that God is good, so for those with eyes to see will always remember God’s goodness
They shall pour forth the fame of your abundant goodness and shall sing aloud of your righteousness.
But it is impossible to recount every good thing God does, which is why the psalmist has a particular good thing in mind. He is expecting God to have pity on Zion very soon. When the Bible talks about God having pity on Zion, it often means the end times.
She conceived again and bore a daughter. And the Lord said to him, “Call her name No Mercy, for I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel, to forgive them at all. But I will have mercy on the house of Judah, and I will save them by the Lord their God. I will not save them by bow or by sword or by war or by horses or by horsemen.”
This meant that God did nothing to stop the northern kingdom of Israel from being captured, so they were in 722 BC. Meanwhile, down in Judah, King Hezekiah was terrified when he learned that the Assyrian Army was coming down to defeat him. He could not possible fight an army of 185,000, so unless God did something, he was doomed. He prayed that God would deliver him, and God heard his prayer. The entire army was destroyed in one night by an angel as they sat in seige around Jerusalem. .
But it is more common, when the Bible talks about God having pity on Zion, to mean the end times.
Foreigners shall build up your walls, and their kings shall minister to you; for in my wrath I struck you, but in my favor I have had mercy on you. Your gates shall be open continually; day and night they shall not be shut, that people may bring to you the wealth of the nations, with their kings led in procession. For the nation and kingdom that will not serve you shall perish; those nations shall be utterly laid waste.
Foreigners shall build up your walls, and their kings shall minister to you; for in my wrath I struck you, but in my favor I have had mercy on you.
So if God is going to pity Zion in the end times, why does the psalmist think that time is now? Before the Exile, God promised through Jeremiah that seventy years later he would restore the fortunes of Judah
“For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
This is how Daniel knew it was time for God to restore Jerusalem
in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years that, according to the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years.
So in the plan of God, it is time for God to favor Zion. Why should we be interested in that? Because of the human impact of God’s plan.
B. Man Reacts to Zion
B. Man Reacts to Zion
B. Man Reacts to Zion
B. Man Reacts to Zion
For your servants hold her stones dear and have pity on her dust. Nations will fear the name of the Lord, and all the kings of the earth will fear your glory.
We understand what it is to become attached to a place. Anyone who lives in one place for a long time and enjoys living there is going to be become attached to it. But the psalmist does not just say that the citizens of Zion are attached to it. He says that all God’s servants are attached to it. In his day pretty much all believers were Jews, but still that does not explain it. Just because you live in America does not mean you are somehow attached to, say, Chicago. You do not live in Chicago, so why would it be dear to you? So why should the Jews that do not live in Jerusalem become attached to it? I think the answer is that what God has planned for Jerusalem impacts the whole world. To continue our illustration, you are probably at least a little interested in what is happening right now in Washington DC, because what happens there impacts what happens to you. Jerusalem was the capital of Israel, but the impact of God’s favor on this city goes far beyond the people of Israel. The psalmist looks far down into the future and sees a day when all nations will serve the Lord. When he wrote this the only nation that even sort of feared the Lord was the nation of Israel, but someday
but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
This is what will happen when God really favors Zion. But how does God plan to do this?
C. God Acts for Zion
C. God Acts for Zion
For the Lord builds up Zion; he appears in his glory; he regards the prayer of the destitute and does not despise their prayer.
When God builds Zion, he will not just help make a great city, he plans to come down himself. Jesus is coming back someday to reign, and he is God in the flesh. So when God appears in glory, what that will look like is Jesus coming back to reign on earth. You can find a detailed plan for building up Zion in . There will be a rebuilt temple. The City of Jerusalem will be completely rebuilt, and the land of Israel will be redistributed into twelve tribal sections. But the point of all this construction is not just a city and a building. The point is a new world that works the way it is supposed to
These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.
Heb 11:13
D. We Remember God’s Grace
D. We Remember God’s Grace
D. We Remember God’s Grace
D. We Remember God’s Grace
Let this be recorded for a generation to come, so that a people yet to be created may praise the Lord: that he looked down from his holy height; from heaven the Lord looked at the earth, to hear the groans of the prisoners, to set free those who were doomed to die, that they may declare in Zion the name of the Lord, and in Jerusalem his praise, when peoples gather together, and kingdoms, to worship the Lord.
Once God hears our prayers, and moves in history to aid His people, we ought to be intentional about remembering it. It is about telling others that God listened to us, so that they can praise the Lord too. But notice when the psalmist wants people to praise the Lord for this - when all kingdoms gather to worship the Lord. In other words, he wants people to even write down their experiences to pass on to a second generation so that in heaven they can praise God for something that happened before they were even born. I believe this is the reason some stories in the Bible got told. It is the reason why we ought to tell others about God’s goodness in our own lives.
III. God is our Future
III. God is our Future
Psalm
III. God is our Future
III. God is our Future
He has broken my strength in midcourse; he has shortened my days. “O my God,” I say, “take me not away in the midst of my days— you whose years endure throughout all generations!” Of old you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you will remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away, but you are the same, and your years have no end. The children of your servants shall dwell secure; their offspring shall be established before you.
Psalm 102:23-
The Psalmist finishes by repeating his complaint and solution again briefly, but this time emphasizing the brevity of his time and the eternality of God’s.
A. Man’s Short Day
A. Man’s Short Day
He has broken my strength in midcourse; he has shortened my days. “O my God,” I say, “take me not away in the midst of my days— you whose years endure throughout all generations!”
Our lifetime is already short, but when we are confronted by our mortality, we face the end of all we can accomplish. The psalmist recognizes that his times are in God’s hands, so he asks for the full length of human life. Yet his security is in God’s eternal years. If you have never had to face death, someday you will. What will you do then? If your life ends up being shorter than you thought it should be, how should you handle it? I submit that an eternal, loving, and sovereign God knows what he is doing. And if you can trust God in something as difficult as a shortened life, then how could we not trust him for the rest of our lives as well? Think about the difficulties of your own life. When confronted by death, difficulty, and suffering, we should trust in an unchanging, loving God.
and said, “Please, O Lord, remember how I have walked before you in faithfulness and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
I said, In the middle of my days I must depart; I am consigned to the gates of Sheol for the rest of my years.
Isa 38:3
God’s reply was
B. God’s Eternal Years
B. God’s Eternal Years
B. God’s Eternal Years
B. God’s Eternal Years
“O my God,” I say, “take me not away in the midst of my days— you whose years endure throughout all generations!” Of old you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you will remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away, but you are the same, and your years have no end.
Psalm 102:24-
The book of Hebrews quotes these same verses in reference to Jesus
And, “You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands; they will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment, like a robe you will roll them up, like a garment they will be changed. But you are the same, and your years will have no end.”
Now we have seen that these verses describe God himself, so how can the author of Hebrews use them as if they predicted the coming of the Messiah? The answer is found in the context of the book. Yes, these verse are a description of the character of God almighty, but God also described as appearing in glory in Jerusalem ( ), and the time is when God favors Jerusalem ( ). When God appears in glory to favor Jerusalem, it is Jesus that we will see. Jesus is God almighty, and he indeed does not change
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
More than this, the psalmist looks beyond the return of Christ to set up his Kingdom all the way until the heavens and earth dissolve into the eternal state. God, along with his children, will outlast the present universe
Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
2 pet 3:
C. the Believer’s Secure Future
C. the Believer’s Secure Future
The children of your servants shall dwell secure; their offspring shall be established before you.
Human life is short. Compared to the eternal years of God even the longest life is a mere vapor. But God has ordained that those who serve him should dwell secure. No one who has truly trusted in Jesus Christ needs to worry about their standing with God. It is even better than this. Our security in Christ is even greater than the confidence of Old Testament saints. We know so much more about eternal life than the psalmist did. He could hope that his children would continue to inherit the land God had promised him. That was quite a confidence by itself, but we have an even greater one. We ourselves will someday inherit life eternal and stand before God secure forever. What a blessing to know Jesus!
The psalmist wrote this psalm to be used for many cases of trials and afflictions. How should we respond to the inevitable difficulties that life brings? One way is to respond as he did - to remind ourselves of God’s ultimate good plan for all believers. Jesus, who is God, will someday return to bring ultimate blessing, blessing that will more than repay all sorrow. We do not know when, but in God’s timing it will surely come. Jesus Christ does not change, so the same God that the psalmist could rely on thousands of years ago is today just as trustworthy. Therefore all God’s servants can rest secure in the eternal blessings He has promised them.