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Psalms 102:14

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For Your servants delight in her stones and take pity on her dust.

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Commentaries

Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.

Matthew Henry Bible Commentaryv. 14

Some think that David penned this psalm at the time of Absalom's rebellion; others that Daniel, Nehemiah, or some other prophet, penned it for the use of the church, when it was in captivity in Babylon, because it seems to speak of the ruin of Zion and of a time set for the rebuilding of it, which Daniel understood by books, Dan 9:2. Or perhaps the psalmist was himself in great affliction, which he complains of in the beginning of the psalm, but (as in Ps. 77 and elsewhere) he comforts himself under it with the consideration of God's eternity, and the church's prosperity and perpetuity, how much soever it was now distressed and threatened. But it is clear, from the application of Psa 102:25, Psa 102:26, to Christ (Heb 1:10-12), that the psalm has reference to the days of the Messiah, and speaks either of his affliction or of the afflictions of his church for his sake. In the psalm we have, I. A sorrowful complaint which the psalmist makes, either for himself or in the name of the church, of great afflictions, which were very pressing (Psa 102:1-11). II. Seasonable comfort fetched in against these grievances, 1. From the eternity of God (Psa 102:12, Psa 102:24, Psa 102:27). 2. From a believing prospect of the deliverance which God would, in due time, work for his afflicted church (Psa 102:13-22) and the continuance of it in the world (Psa 102:28). In singing this psalm, if we have not occasion to make the same complaints, yet we may take occasion to sympathize with those that have, and then the comfortable part of this psalm will be the more comfortable to us in the singing of it. A prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed, and poureth out his complaint before the Lord.

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Original language

The Hebrew and Greek words behind this passage, with Strong's numbers — from openscriptures (CC BY-SA).

Strong's Concordancev. 14

עֶבֶד (ʻebed, H5650) — a servant רָצָה (râtsâh, H7521) — to be pleased with; specifically, to satisfy adebt אֶבֶן (ʼeben, H68) — a stone חָנַן (chânan, H2603) — properly, to bend or stoop in kindness to an inferior; to favor, bestow; causatively to… עָפָר (ʻâphâr, H6083) — dust (as powdered or gray); hence, clay, earth, mud

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Cross-references

Other passages the community most often connects to this one. Tap to read.

Nehemiah 4:2rank 5

before his associates and the army of Samaria, saying, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Can they restore the wall by themselves? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they complete it in a day? Can they bring these burnt stones back to life from the mounds of rubble?”

Ezra 7:27rank 2

Blessed be the LORD, the God of our fathers, who has put into the heart of the king to so honor the house of the LORD in Jerusalem,

Nehemiah 4:10rank 2

Meanwhile, the people of Judah said: “The strength of the laborer fails, and there is so much rubble that we will never be able to rebuild the wall.”

Ezra 1:5rank 2

So the family heads of Judah and Benjamin, along with the priests and Levites—everyone whose spirit God had stirred—prepared to go up and rebuild the house of the LORD in Jerusalem.

Nehemiah 1:3rank 2

And they told me, “The remnant who survived the exile are there in the province, in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are burned with fire.”

Nehemiah 2:17rank 2

Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in. Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned down. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, so that we will no longer be a disgrace.”

Nehemiah 4:6rank 2

So we rebuilt the wall until all of it was joined together up to half its height, for the people had a mind to work.

Nehemiah 2:3rank 2

and replied to the king, “May the king live forever! Why should I not be sad when the city where my fathers are buried lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?”

Psalms 79:1rank 2

The nations, O God, have invaded Your inheritance; they have defiled Your holy temple and reduced Jerusalem to rubble.

Daniel 9:16rank 1

O Lord, in keeping with all Your righteous acts, I pray that Your anger and wrath may turn away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain; for because of our sins and the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people are a reproach to all around us.

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