Psalms 102:24

24 I say, "O my God, 1do not take me away in the midst of my days, Your 2years are throughout all generations.

Psalms 102:24 Meaning and Commentary

Psalms 102:24

I said, O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days;
&c.] Which was always reckoned as a judgment, as a token of God's sore displeasure, and as what only befell wicked men, ( Psalms 55:23 ) , in the Hebrew it is, "cause me not to ascend" F6; either as smoke, which ascends, and vanishes away; or rather it designs the separation of the soul from the body at death, when it ascends upwards to God that gave it; so Aben Ezra compares it with ( Ecclesiastes 12:7 ) , the Targum is,

``do not take me out of the world in the midst of my days, bring me to the world to come:''

some, who think that Daniel was the penman of this psalm, or some other, about the time of the Babylonish captivity, curiously observe, that that period was much about the middle between the building of Solomon's temple and the coming of Christ, the antitype of it; which was about a thousand years, of which four hundred and ninety were to come, according to Daniel's weeks; so, representing the church, prays they might not be destroyed, as such; but be continued till the Messiah came:

thy years are throughout all generations;
which are not as men's years, of the same measure or number; but are boundless and infinite: the phrase is expressive of the eternity of God, or Christ; which the psalmist opposes to his own frailty, and which he illustrates in the following verses, by setting it in contrast with the discontinuance and changeableness of the heavens and the earth; see ( Job 10:5 ) ( 36:26 ) .


FOOTNOTES:

F6 (ynlet la) "ne ascendere facias me", Montanus, Gejerus.

Psalms 102:24 In-Context

22 When the peoples are gathered together, And the kingdoms, to serve the LORD .
23 He has weakened my strength in the way; He has shortened my days.
24 I say, "O my God, do not take me away in the midst of my days, Your years are throughout all generations.
25 "Of old You founded the earth, And the heavens are the work of Your hands.
26 "Even they will perish, but You endure; And all of them will wear out like a garment; Like clothing You will change them and they will be changed.

Cross References 2

  • 1. Psalms 39:13; Isaiah 38:10
  • 2. Job 36:26; Psalms 90:2; Psalms 102:12; Habakkuk 1:12

Footnotes 1

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