Psalm 102

¹Hear my prayer, O LORD, and let my cry come unto thee.

²Hide not thy face from me in the day of my distress: incline thine ear unto me; in the day when I call answer me speedily.

³For my days consume away like smoke, and my bones are burned as a firebrand.

⁴My heart is smitten like grass, and withered; for I forget to eat my bread.

⁵By reason of the voice of my groaning my bones cleave to my flesh.

⁶I am like a pelican of the wilderness; I am become as an owl of the waste places.

⁷I watch, and am become like a sparrow that is alone upon the housetop.

⁸Mine enemies reproach me all the day; they that are mad against me do curse by me.

⁹For I have eaten ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping.

¹⁰Because of thine indignation and thy wrath: for thou hast taken me up, and cast me away.

¹¹My days are like a shadow that declineth; and I am withered like grass.

¹²But thou, O LORD, shalt abide for ever; and thy memorial unto all generations.

¹³Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion: for it is time to have pity upon her, yea, the set time is come.

¹⁴For thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and have pity upon her dust.

¹⁵So the nations shall fear the name of the LORD, and all the kings of the earth thy glory:

¹⁶For the LORD hath built up Zion, he hath appeared in his glory;

¹⁷He hath regarded the prayer of the destitute, and hath not despised their prayer.

¹⁸This shall be written for the generation to come: and a people which shall be created shall praise the LORD.

¹⁹For he hath looked down from the height of his sanctuary; from heaven did the LORD behold the earth;

²⁰To hear the sighing of the prisoner; to loose those that are appointed to death;

²¹That men may declare the name of the LORD in Zion, and his praise in Jerusalem;

²²When the peoples are gathered together, and the kingdoms, to serve the LORD.

²³He weakened my strength in the way; he shortened my days.

²⁴I said, O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days: thy years are throughout all generations.

²⁵Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the work of thy hands.

²⁶They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed:

²⁷But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end.

²⁸The children of thy servants shall continue, and their seed shall be established before thee.