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Tag Archives: Psalm 102

A Prayer of Confession (Psalm 102 & Hebrews)

10 Wednesday Jun 2015

Posted by memoirandremains in Hebrews, Prayer

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Confession, Hebrews, Humiliation. Faith, humility, Prayer, Priest, Psalm 102

We confess that

We would claim humility
But will not have humiliation
We would claim dependence
But will not have discomfort.
We would claim prayerfulness
But will not be destitute.

Jesus blesses the poor
But we will be rich
Jesus blesses the hungry
But we will be full
Jesus blesses those who weep
But we will laugh
Jesus blesses the despised
But we will be praised.

We will pray
provided others can hear
We will do good works
provided others can see
We will take glory from men
But claim it is all for Christ
We will worship the Lord
But raise Baal in our hearts

Father,
If you love us,
You will break us.

For
There is no faith without need
No humility without humiliation
No love without long-suffering
No prayer without destitution

But for us there is hope
We have hope
For we have a Savior
We have forgiveness
For we have a priest
We have comfort
For we have a brother
We have protection
For we have a king
We have rest
For there is a promised land.
Oh Savior & friend, lead us there.

When Sorrows Had Begirt Me Round.2 (Anne Bradstreet)

08 Saturday Sep 2012

Posted by memoirandremains in Anne Bradstreet, Prayer, Psalms, Puritan

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Affliction, Anne Bradstreet, Arthur Weiser, Biblical Counseling, lament psalms, Poems, Poetry, Praise, praise, Prayer, Psalm 102, Psalms, Puritan, Puritans, Self-Examination, Spiritual Disciplines, When Sorrows Had Begirt Me Round

(The entire poem may be found here:

https://memoirandremains.wordpress.com/2012/09/07/when-sorrows-had-begirt-me-round-1-anne-bradstreet/

 

When sorrows had begirt me round,

            And pains within and out

When in my flesh no part was sound

            Then didst thou rid me out.

 

My burning flesh in sweat did boil

            My aching head did break;

From side to side for ease I toil

            So faint I could not speak.

 

The poem uses a standard English ballad structure 8-6-8-6, A-B-A-A, iambic. An example of this same structure can be found here: http://www.bartleby.com/40/22.html

This is the same structure used commonly by Wordsworth in the Lyrical Ballads.

For more, see here: http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/f/forms-of-verse-ballad/

 

The poem itself follows in the model of complaint Psalms of the individual laments. Weiser, in his commentary on the Psalms (Herbert Hartwell, translator) notes that an individual lament “is simultaneously prayer and testimony” (69).

 

For example, the superscription of Psalm 102 reads:

 

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

 

To hear Bradstreet rightly, one must understand that her poem follows in same general vein as such laments.  For example, consider the first verses of Psalm 102:

 

1 Hear my prayer, O Lord; let my cry come to you! 2 Do not hide your face from me in the day of my distress! Incline your ear to me; answer me speedily in the day when I call! 3 For my days pass away like smoke, and my bones burn like a furnace. 4 My heart is struck down like grass and has withered; I forget to eat my bread. 5 Because of my loud groaning my bones cling to my flesh. 6 I am like a desert owl of the wilderness, like an owl of the waste places; 7 I lie awake; I am like a lonely sparrow on the housetop. Psalm 102:1–7 (ESV)

 

 

As will become apparent later in the poem, the complaint is not merely a litany of physical ailments.  The physical circumstance (whether illness, enemies or both) matters to the theological relationship of the poet/psalmist and God.   The poet does not merely relief – although such relief may be requested. Rather, the poet/psalmist seek reconciliation with God. The physical circumstance becomes the occasion for seeking reconciliation.

But to the Son He Says

21 Tuesday Feb 2012

Posted by memoirandremains in Ecclesiastes, Hebrews, Psalms

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Death, Ecclesiastes, eternity, Hebrews, Hebrews 1, Jesus, Psalm 102, Psalm 90, Psalms, Sin, Vanity

To men God says:

Psalm 90:3-10:
3 You return man to dust and say, “Return, O children of man!”
4 For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.
5 You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning:
6 in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers.
7 For we are brought to an end by your anger; by your wrath we are dismayed.
8 You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence.
9 For all our days pass away under your wrath; we bring our years to an end like a sigh.
10 The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away.

Psalm 102:24-26:
24 “O my God,” I say, “take me not away in the midst of my days- you whose years endure throughout all generations!”
25 Of old you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands.
26 They will perish, but you will remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away,

And so it is written:

Ecclesiastes 1:2-4:
2 Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.
3 What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?
4 A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever.

But to the Son he says:
10 And, “You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands;
11 they will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment,
12 like a robe you will roll them up, like a garment they will be changed. But you are the same, and your years will have no end.”
Hebrews 1

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