Prayer of the Destitute
April 02, 2017
Eugene Peterson calls Psalm 102 "A Prayer of One Whose Life Is Falling to Pieces, and Who Lets God Know Just How Bad It Is."
The brother is broken, downtrodden, depressed, angry, and abandoned ...
Go to the Garden of Gethsemane and to Golgotha.
It is all there ... poured out in prayer and answered in reconciling redemption.
It is there, where, according to v. 16 in the ESV, "he regards the prayer of the destitute
and does not despise their prayer."
Until we know we are among the destitute, our impoverishment is perpetual.
These prayers are carried to the garden and born to the cross with hints of hope:
" 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."
(Psalm 102:17-22 ESV)
Hints become clearer, the vision more compelling, and the Message resounds,
"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.”