Psalm 102 is the big perspective Psalm!
During trials, we focus on the moment, we are overwhelmed, and often we grieve.
Psalm 102 gives a different viewpoint…
Long ago you laid the foundation of the earth and made the heavens with your hands. They will perish, but you remain forever; they will wear out like old clothing. You will change them like a garment and discard them.
But you are always the same; you will live forever. The children of your people will live in security. Their children’s children will thrive in your presence (vv. 25-26, NLT).
Consider the entire universe – 200 billion trillion stars (not including planets, quasars, meteorites, and black holes). All of this is a worn-out garment that God discards and then puts on a new universe.
Pause for a moment. This is perspective, big perspective.
Why was Psalm 102 written? The background: even during their rebellion, the Jewish leaders taught that God would never allow Judah to be captured, Jerusalem destroyed, or the temple desecrated.
The Babylonians did all three.
The Psalmist responds with how he felt in verses 3 to 7…
My days are temporary like smoke. My body burns with fever. My heart, my desires, and my ambitions have been smitten and like grass blown away. My family and my friends are gone. I have so much grief that I can’t eat and when I do it tastes like dust. I have withered away and look like a skeleton. I can’t sleep and am all alone (OGV [Old Guy Version]).
A big perspective is needed. And the Psalmist shifts his attention from himself to focus on two prophetic insights that give hope…
Hope #1 – Soon!
God will soon restore the Jews from captivity to Jerusalem.
But You, O Lord, abide forever, and Your name to all generations. You will arise and have compassion on Zion; For it is time to be gracious to her, For the appointed time has come (vv. 12-13).
Hope #2 – The End-Times Restoration!
All of history will conclude with Israel renewed, the Jews brought back from the nations, and Jerusalem the center of world power. All of this in the Millennium.
The nations will fear the name of the Lord and all the kings of the earth Your glory (v. 15).
This is written for the generation to come, that a people yet to be created may praise the Lord (v. 18).
That men may tell of the name of the Lord in Zion and His praise in Jerusalem. When the peoples are gathered together, and the kingdoms, to serve the Lord (vv. 21-22).
God keeps His promises.
His covenants for Israel, revealed in Psalm 102, were both soon and distant. Yes, there would be a soon restoration of Jerusalem, but this return from captivity would be nothing compared to what God intends during the Millennium.
When all the peoples of the world gather to praise the name of God in Jerusalem and to serve Him.
Psalm 102 begins with a prayer of faith, that all of us should pray now during difficulties…
Hear my prayer, O Lord! And let my cry for help come to You. Do not hide Your face from me in the day of my distress; Incline Your ear to me; In the day when I call answer me quickly (vv. 1-2).
God helps by reminding us in Psalm 102 of the same two things that comforted Israel. First, He will help immediately, and second, God will reconcile all the wrong and injustice of this world at the end of time!!!
We have the big perspective of hope.