📊 Psalm 102:18 | Bird's Eye View & The Pattern in the Psalms

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📧 In today’s email…

• 🕊️ Psalm 102 from a bird’s eye view

• ❤️ A pattern in the Psalms

• 🤔 Reflection: Pour it out

• 📊 Tuesday trivia

 🧠 Memorize

_{see if you know what words go in the blanks}

Let this be _________ for a generation __ ____,

so that a people yet to __ created may praise ___ Lord

Psalm 102:18

A Bird’s Eye View of Psalm 102 🕊️ 

Here’s the outline of Psalm 102:

• Lament 😩 

• Transition 👀 

• Praise 🙌 

The psalmist opens up with lament and prayer that is deeply personal.

In verses 1-11, you’ll read an urgent plea for the Lord to hear his prayer, a vivid description of his suffering and a sense of isolation:

Ever felt this way? Like you are alone, distressed and like your soul is withering away?

The Transition 📖

After reading eleven verses of “pouring out his complaint before the Lord”…

The next word?

But

Here, the psalmist shifts his focus from his problems to his God.

(something we would all benefit from doing more often)

The psalmist starts to call on the the Lord to fulfill his promises to Zion (another name for the city of Jerusalem)

Then comes our memory verse:

Tomorrow, we’ll dig deeper into our memory verse.

But for now, remember that the broader context of Psalm 102 is that this is a personal prayer with both individual (the author) and communal pleas (Jerusalem).

Apply & Respond: Follow the Psalmist’s Example 🤔 

Time and time again throughout the Psalms, we have a window into the hearts of people in the midst of great hardships.

Remember the description at the beginning of Psalm 102:

A prayer of one afflicted, when he is faint and pours out his complaint before the Lord

I don’t know about you, but I often find myself suppressing complaints that I have, as if I could actually hide from God how I really feel.

But that is not the pattern we see in Scripture.

There’s a difference between complaining and bringing your complaints to the Lord of all creation.

Let the first half of Psalm 102 be a reminder that we are invited and encouraged to pour out our complaints in the presence of the Lord.

Reflect & Pour Out Your Complaint 🙏 

• What hardship do you find yourself in the midst of?

• Have you been hiding it from God? Trying to shoulder it on your own?

Pour it out: Take a few minutes today to spend time in quiet with the Lord and pour out your heart to Him. Don’t hold anything back - tell him exactly how you feel and why.

✍️ If you’re a journaler, consider writing this down as a prayer.

💡 Tomorrow: We’ll focus on shifting our primary focus from our problems to our God.

Answer key ✅ 

Let this be recorded for a generation to come,

so that a people yet to be created may praise the Lord

Psalm 102:18