Psalm 102

Psalm 102 is the 102nd psalm from the Book of Psalms (Septuagint and Vulgate have it 101). It is from the fourth book of the Psalter and is counted as one of the penitential psalms.

The psalm begins the final section of the three traditional divisions of the Latin psalms, and for this reason the first words ("Domine exaudi orationem meam et clamor meus ad te veniat...") and above all the initial "D" are often greatly enlarged in illuminated manuscript psalters, following the pattern of the Beatus initials at the start of Psalm 1.

The first verse describes the Psalm as a kind of prayer form with a "wretch" can bring his troubles to God in distress. "A prayer for the poor, if it is melted, and let my cry before the Lord."

Although the issue of debt is not addressed in Psalm 102, it is counted as the fifth penitential psalm to the ecclesiastical penitential psalms.

The petitioner asks the Lord to first that this might hear his prayer (verses 2-3). Then he first describes his illness and the accompanying loneliness (verses 4-8) and the scorn of his enemies (verse 9). The corruptible man (verse 10-12) is finally faced with the eternal God (verse 13). It is the certainty expressed that God of Jerusalem (Zion) will accept, that which was destroyed by the Babylonians. And that the Gentile nations will come together to serve the Lord (verse 14-23).

At the conclusion of the prayer returns from the vision of the restoration of Jerusalem to his own situation back. God makes his life prematurely ended. Yet he again raises his gaze to God and bring his confidence to express that the descendants of the current pious will experience God's intervention and the restoration of Jerusalem (verse 24-29).

Verse 1, with some other psalm verses (such as 124:8), has a prominent place in Roman Catholic liturgy, where it is splitted into a "call" ("Lord, do listen to my prayer") and the response ("and let my cry come unto Thee").

Verses 25b-28 (along with Psalm 90) served Jochen Klepper his Neujahrslied "The you have the time in their hands" (1938),

Verses 25b-28 (along with Psalm 90) served Jochen Klepper his 1938 work Neujahrslied "The you have the time in their hands".

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