Commonplace –
“But thou, O Lord, shall endure forever, and thy remembrance unto all generations. But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end” (Psalm 102:12).
It has happened often, as I read and write through the psalms, that I may go a few days and not have time to be in the Word. Every time, when I come back, the psalm I am on is the right one for that moment. This is Holy Week. I have been distracted by events and have not been keeping up with my daily reading. Today, Good Friday, I picked up the Word and read Psalm 102. It is the perfect Psalm for Good Friday. In the title of the psalm is the following description:
“A Prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed, and poureth out his complaint before the Lord” (Psalm 102).
That is the description of Christ on the cross. As Matthew Henry notes,
“…it is clear from the application of v. 25, 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” (Henry 504).
The psalmist does list his afflictions, but he does not stay and wallow there. In verse 12, he turns his eyes to God, and the entire tone of the psalm changes. In this way, we learn again from the psalms how to gain victory over our persecution. We must turn to God and remember that He is eternal, while our afflictions are only for a moment.
Works Cited
Henry, Matthew. “Psalm 102.” Matthew Henry’s Commentary On the Whole Bible: New Modern Edition. Volume 3, Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., March 1996.
Holy Bible: Giant Print with Study Aids. Dugan Publishers, Inc., 1984.
© 2025 Angela Hormberg
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