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Gustave Doré’s engraving of David standing crowned and bowed as he mourns Absalom

Psalm 102

What St Athanasius said to pray when life has worn you down and you feel empty, in a letter from the 300s.

  • 28Verses
  • 1Situation

St Athanasius, Letter to Marcellinus

When to pray it

In the 300s, St Athanasius of Alexandria wrote a letter to his friend Marcellinus about praying the Psalms. In it he matched psalms to what people go through. This is what he gave this one for.

Life has worn you down until you feel empty and listless, and you need comfort.

Our nature is weak, so if the pressures of life ever leave you feeling poor and worn down to listlessness, and you want comfort, you have Psalm 102.

Letter to Marcellinus

Psalm 102:17

Where it turns

He will turn toward the prayer of the destitute; He will not despise their prayer.

28 verses, Berean Standard Bible

The whole psalm

Psalm 102

Its own heading A prayer of one who is afflicted, when he grows faint and pours out his lament before the LORD.

  1. 1Hear my prayer, O LORD; let my cry for help come before You.
  2. 2Do not hide Your face from me in my day of distress. Incline Your ear to me; answer me quickly when I call.
  3. 3For my days vanish like smoke, and my bones burn like glowing embers.
  4. 4My heart is afflicted, and withered like grass; I even forget to eat my bread.
  5. 5Through my loud groaning my skin hangs on my bones.
  6. 6I am like a desert owl, like an owl among the ruins.
  7. 7I lie awake; I am like a lone bird on a housetop.
  8. 8All day long my enemies taunt me; they ridicule me and curse me.
  9. 9For I have eaten ashes like bread and mixed my drink with tears
  10. 10because of Your indignation and wrath, for You have picked me up and cast me aside.
  11. 11My days are like lengthening shadows, and I wither away like grass.
  12. 12But You, O LORD, sit enthroned forever; Your renown endures to all generations.
  13. 13You will rise up and have compassion on Zion, for it is time to show her favor— the appointed time has come.
  14. 14For Your servants delight in her stones and take pity on her dust.
  15. 15So the nations will fear the name of the LORD, and all the kings of the earth will fear Your glory.
  16. 16For the LORD will rebuild Zion; He has appeared in His glory.
  17. 17He will turn toward the prayer of the destitute; He will not despise their prayer.
  18. 18Let this be written for the generation to come, so that a people not yet created may praise the LORD.
  19. 19For He looked down from the heights of His sanctuary; the LORD gazed out from heaven to earth
  20. 20to hear a prisoner’s groaning, to release those condemned to death,
  21. 21that they may proclaim the name of the LORD in Zion and praise Him in Jerusalem,
  22. 22when peoples and kingdoms assemble to serve the LORD.
  23. 23He has broken my strength on the way; He has cut short my days.
  24. 24I say: “O my God, do not take me in the midst of my days! Your years go on through all generations.
  25. 25In the beginning You laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands.
  26. 26They will perish, but You remain; they will all wear out like a garment. Like clothing You will change them, and they will be passed on.
  27. 27But You remain the same, and Your years will never end.
  28. 28The children of Your servants will dwell securely, and their descendants will be established before You.”

Psalm 102 is 101 in the Greek numbering Athanasius used, which Orthodox Bibles and some older Catholic ones still follow.

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Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Athanasius’s advice is paraphrased from his Greek.