Psalm 102:6

Verse 6. Consider that thou needest not complain, like Elijah, that thou art left alone, seeing the best of God's saints in all ages have smarted in the same kind -- instance in David: indeed sometimes he boasts how he "lay in green pastures, and was led by still waters;" but after he bemoans that he "sinks in deep mire, where there was no standing." What is become of those green pastures? parched up with the drought. Where are those still waters troubled with the tempest of affliction. The same David compares himself to an "owl," and in the next Psalm resembles himself to an "eagle." Do two fowls fly of more different kind? The one the scorn, the other the sovereign; the one the slowest, the other the swiftest; the one the most sharp-sighted, the other the most dim-eyed of all birds. Wonder not, then, to find in thyself sudden and strange alterations. It fared thus with all God's servants in their agonies of temptation; and be confident thereof, though now run aground with grief, in due time thou shalt be all afloat with comfort. Thomas Fuller.

Verse 6. Owl. Some kind of owl, it is thought, is intended by the Hebrew word cos, translated "little owl" in Leviticus 11:17 ; Deuteronomy 14:16 , where it is mentioned amongst the unclean birds. It occurs also in Psalms 102:6 . I am like a pelican of the wilderness: I am like an owl of ruined places (A. V., "desert"). The Hebrew word cos means a "cup" in some passages of Scripture, from a root meaning to "receive," to "hide," or "bring together"; hence the pelican, "the cup," or "pouch-bird," has been suggested as the bird intended. In this case the verse in the Psalm would be rendered thus: "I am become like a pelican in the wilderness, even as the pouch-bird in the desert places." But the fact that both the pelican and the cos are enumerated in the list of birds to be avoided as food is against this theory, unless the word changed its meaning in the Psalmist's time, which is improbable. The expression cos "of ruined places" looks very much as if some owl were denoted. The Arabic definitely applies a kindred expression as one of the names of an owl, viz., um elcharab, i.e. "mother of ruins." The Septuagint gives nukkktikorax as the meaning of cos; and we know from Aristotle that the Greek word was a synonym of wtoj, evidently, from his description of the bird, one of the cared owls. Dr. Tristram is disposed to refer the cos to the little Athene Persica, the most common of all the owls in Psalestine, the representative of the A noetua of Southern Europe. The Arabs call this bird "boomah," from his note; he is described "as a grotesque and comical-looking little bird, familiar and yet cautious; never moving unnecessarily, but remaining glued to his perch, unless he has good reason for believing that he has been aetected, and twisting and turning his head instead of his eyes to watch what is going on." He is to be found amongst rocks in the wadys or trees by the water-side, in olive yards, in the tombs and on the ruins, on the sandy mounds of Beersheba, and on "the spray-beaten fragments of Tyre, where his low wailing noto is sure to be heard at sunset, and himself seen bowing and keeping time to his own music." W. Houghton, in "Cassell's Biblical Educator," 1874,

Verse 6. Owl of the desert.

Save that from yonder ivy-mantled tower, The moping owl does to the moon complain Of such as, wandering near her secret bower, Molest her ancient solitary reign. Thomas Gray (1716-1771).

HINTS FOR PASTORS AND LAYPERSONS

Verse 6. This as a text, together with Psalms 103:5 , makes an interesting contrast, and gives scope for much experimental teaching.