“The children of your servants will live in your presence; their descendants will be established before you.”
~ Psalm 102:28
Hi James and Ellen,
What does it mean to you to be afflicted? Would you feel afflicted if your dad and/or ma did not get for you what you really thought that you needed? Would you feel afflicted if you could not do what you really wanted to do? Would you feel afflicted if you were given a poor grade on a test? Would you feel afflicted if a good friend moved so far away that you would probably never see him or her again? Would you feel afflicted if a natural disaster – such as a devastating hurricane, destroyed everything that was yours? Would you feel afflicted if an enemy nation’s army overran your country and you are told by the leader of the nation that invaded and conquered your country that you cannot be a Christ-follower or else? How would you feel if the world that you know suddenly, completely caved in on you? Psalm 102 is the prayer of an afflicted guy. The guy who scribed this prayer psalm song was distressed. The guy who scribed this prayer psalm song felt faint from his afflictions. The guy who scribed this prayer psalm song was suffering through a national calamity that was happening to the Israelite people group guys and gals. The guy who scribed this prayer psalm song may have been one of the guys among the guys and gals who had been taken as exiles by Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army to Babylonia after Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army finished ransacking and razing the city of Jerusalem. The guy who scribed this prayer psalm song used his prayer psalm song to complain or lament to God about his personal afflictions which were causing him all kinds of torment. The guy who scribed this psalm song was experiencing in his bones horrific burning pains, was feeling in his heart a dreadful withering devastation, was sensing in his stomach an excruciating emptiness that could not be filled with food and was watching his body being reduced to an emaciated shell of just skin and bones. The guy who scribed this prayer psalm song was seeing his days flashing fruitlessly by him.
Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night with your thoughts racing about a sin compromise that you had made that you knew that you had to confess? Have you ever been unable to sleep because of something hurtful that had been said to you? Have you ever stumbled through a day completely unable to focus because of being told that a family member or a friend had suddenly found himself or herself in an untenable life crisis? The four stanzas of this psalm song’s prayer have the guys who sang this psalm song making a heartfelt, agonizing penitential appeal to God as being their Lord. In this prayer song psalm that the guys sang, they first expressed their hopeless anguish to the Lord, they then described their physical and emotional throbbing in detail to the Lord, they then articulated their unquestioning assurance to the Lord that He would hear their determined prayer and they then acknowledged their unswerving belief in the Lord that as He answered their pleading prayer that they would forever praise Him for having never completely forsaken them. This psalm song prayer starts out with a plaintive, nostalgic plea to the Lord to listen up to a cry for His help and it ends with a positive, heartening thank you to the Lord for listening to this sad, longing cry for His help. Verse 28 states, “The children of your servants will live in your presence; their descendants will be established before you.”” This verse follows a verse which says that God – as being the Lord, will remain the same always and that His years will never ever end. Knowing that God has always reigned and that He will continue to always reign in the heavens, the guys, gals and kids who became Christ-followers when God – as God the Spirit, prompted them to pass through the faith/grace door to make a decision of faith – believing that the agonizing death of Jesus Christ – Who is God – as God the Son, on a cross atoned for their sins and that His resurrection from being dead defeated death for them can be absolutely, unconditionally assured that His mercies will never fail them.
This prayer psalm song is about you telling God that you have something very personal and very serious to talk to Him about and that you really expect Him to listen to you because you know that you are special to Him, it is about you describing in detail to God your inner, unbearable stomach and heart wrenching pains, it is about you reminding God that you have no doubt in your mind that He will hear you and that He will listen to you because of how really destitute you are feeling and it is about what you will do for God after He does what you ask Him to do for you – which is to continually praise Him for what He has done. When the prescription of this prayer psalm song is not followed, your grandpaa has seen guys and gals sink deeper and deeper into a morass stirred by self-pity, into a quagmire fomented by bitterness and into a lifestyle dictated by depression. Your grandpaa went there for a short time when he was sure that the direction that the Bolivia South America Mission field missionary team should go was not the way or direction that he thought another South America Mission field team missionary – Rob Chilton, wanted the Bolivia South America Mission field missionary team to go. When your grandpaa asked the guy who was Rob’s supervisor for any insight that he might have in convincing Rob that . . . Rob’s supervisor – Will Drake, immediately responded to what your grandpaa had asked him by asking your grandpaa if he was praying every day for Rob. Your grandpaa had to confess that he was not praying for Rob. Praying faithfully for whatever and for whoever will always bring God into the middle of whatever life crisis that you or someone else is going through. When those times come when you are afflicted, talking with God will always give you the inner peace gift of hope.
Psalm 102 (934)