Latest / A Chapter a Day Bible Reading / February 2 - Psalm 102

Transcript

February 2 - Psalm 102 · A Chapter a Day Bible Reading

• 0:11
  Hello friends, it's Sean. Here it is a Friday the 2nd of
• 0:17
  the 2nd, and you have done it. You've made it through another
• 0:21
  week. It is so good, so good that you
• 0:23
  have invited me into your day here at the end of all things.
• 0:28
  No, not quite the end of all things.
• 0:29
  The end of the week. You can tell I have been
• 0:32
  enjoying a little bit of token with Sam and Frodo coming toward
• 0:36
  Mount Doom and Oh dear, the end of all things.
• 0:38
  But no, not quite, no. This is the beginning of the
• 0:41
  weekend. Almost.
• 0:42
  And it is lovely that you have invited me in so that we can
• 0:46
  read this Psalm together because that is what we do on a Friday.
• 0:50
  Friends. Yes, it is.
• 0:52
  This is a sum with a very descriptive title.
• 0:55
  Sam 102 is a prayer of 1 overwhelmed with trouble pouring
• 1:00
  out problems before the Lord. What a cracking model of how we
• 1:06
  can approach life so that when we feel overwhelmed with
• 1:09
  trouble, we don't just retreat, we don't hit the bottle.
• 1:12
  We don't get angry with that dog.
• 1:15
  We pour out our problems before the Lord.
• 1:18
  Isn't that beautiful? And this Sam?
• 1:20
  This is a lovely Sam where the Psalmist pours out his personal
• 1:24
  woes and uses that as a window into the woes of his nation that
• 1:29
  he also brings before his God. So this is, yes, personal
• 1:33
  problems and troubles, but also, thinking more broadly, inviting
• 1:38
  God in to save his people, which is really wonderful.
• 1:42
  So let us without further ado, read Psalm 102.
• 1:57
  Lord, hear my prayer. Listen to my plea.
• 2:02
  Don't turn away from me in my time of distress.
• 2:05
  Bend down to listen and answer me quickly when I call to you
• 2:10
  for my days. Disappear like smoke and my
• 2:14
  bones burn like red hot coals. My heart is sick, withered like
• 2:21
  grass and I've lost my appetite because of my groaning.
• 2:26
  I'm reduced to skin and bones. I am like an owl in the desert,
• 2:32
  like a little owl in a far off wilderness.
• 2:36
  I lie awake, lonely as a solitary bird on the roof.
• 2:42
  My enemies taunt me. Day after day, they mock and
• 2:46
  curse me. I eat ashes for food.
• 2:50
  My tears run down into my drink because of your anger and wrath,
• 2:57
  for you have picked me up and thrown me out.
• 3:00
  My life passes as swiftly as the evening shadows I'm withering
• 3:06
  away like grass. But you, oh Lord, we'll sit on
• 3:12
  your throne forever. Your fame will endure to every
• 3:17
  generation. You will arise and have mercy on
• 3:21
  Jerusalem, and now is the time to pity her.
• 3:25
  Now is the time you promised to help, for your people love every
• 3:29
  stone in her walls, and cherish even the dust in her streets.
• 3:35
  Then the nations will tremble before the Lord.
• 3:39
  The kings of the earth will tremble before His glory, for
• 3:43
  the Lord will rebuild Jerusalem. He will appear in his glory.
• 3:49
  He will listen to the prayers of the destitute.
• 3:52
  He will not reject their pleas. Let this be recorded for future
• 3:57
  generations said that if people not yet born will praise the
• 4:02
  Lord, tell them the Lord looked down from His heavenly
• 4:07
  sanctuary. He looked down to earth from
• 4:10
  heaven to hear the groans of the prisoners, to release those
• 4:15
  condemned to die. And so the Lord's fame will be
• 4:19
  celebrated in Zion His praises in Jerusalem, when multitudes
• 4:25
  gather together and kingdoms come to worship the Lord.
• 4:31
  He broke my strength in midlife, cutting short my days, but I
• 4:36
  cried to him, oh God, who lives forever.
• 4:40
  Don't take my life while I'm so young.
• 4:44
  Long ago you lay the foundations of the earth, and made the
• 4:49
  heavens with your hands. They will perish, but you remain
• 4:55
  forever. They will wear out like old
• 4:58
  clothing. You would change them like a
• 5:01
  garment and discard them, but you are always the same.
• 5:07
  You will live forever. The children of your people will
• 5:11
  live in security. Their children's children will
• 5:15
  thrive in your presence. You truly are a magnificent God.
• 5:35
  Your present stretches not just beyond our generation, but
• 5:40
  beyond the mountains and the seas, beyond everything that
• 5:44
  seems so permanent around us. It is like chaff in the breeze
• 5:49
  compared with your permanency and in your permanency in your
• 5:56
  grandiosity. You don't seek the grand things
• 6:01
  and elevate the powerful things. That this sound tells us that
• 6:06
  you keep your ear tuned to hear the cries of the destitute, the
• 6:11
  groans of the prisoners, those people who are the lowest of the
• 6:15
  low. That is where you bend your
• 6:18
  attention to. Thank you that we, us lowly
• 6:24
  humans, have the honour and the privilege and the gift that
• 6:28
  makes no sense at all. But yet, there it is, the gift
• 6:32
  of your presence. You're doting parenthood.
• 6:37
  Thank you. Thank you, our father.
• 6:40
  We love you. We are amazed by your awesome
• 6:44
  magnitude and wowed by the depths of your love for us, So
• 6:53
  we stand before you. We throw our arms open wide and
• 6:57
  we just surrender to You our incredible God, now and forever,
• 7:03
  all in Jesus name. Oh man.