Psaume 102

A prayer from the ashes for Zion

¹A prayer of someone in deep trouble, who is worn out and pours out a complaint before the LORD. ²LORD, listen to my prayer; let my call for help reach you. ³Do not turn your face away from me on the day trouble presses me hard. Bend down and listen to me; on the day I call, be quick to answer. ⁴For my days are going up in smoke, and my bones are scorched like a hearth. ⁵My heart is beaten down and dried up like grass; I do not even remember to eat. ⁶All my groaning has worn me down until my bones stick to my skin. ⁷I am like an owl out in the wilderness, a little owl in a place of ruins. ⁸Sleep will not come; I am like a single bird sitting on the housetop. ⁹My enemies scorn me the whole day; those who jeer at me make my name a curse. ¹⁰For ashes are the bread I eat, and tears fall into what I drink, ¹¹because of your fury and your anger; you picked me up and flung me away. ¹²My days are a shadow that stretches out as the sun goes down; I dry up like grass. ¹³But you, LORD, are King on your throne forever, and your name lives on from one generation to the next. ¹⁴You will stand up and take pity on Zion; the hour to be kind to her is here, the time you set has come. ¹⁵For your servants treasure her very stones and grieve over her dust. ¹⁶Then nations will stand in awe of the name of the LORD, and every king on earth will tremble at your glory. ¹⁷For the LORD will build Zion again; he will be seen in all his glory. ¹⁸He will listen when the destitute pray and will not wave their prayers aside. ¹⁹Put this in writing for the generation still to come, and a people that is still to be created will praise the LORD, ²⁰that the LORD bent down from his holy heights and looked out from heaven over the earth, ²¹to listen to the moaning of captives and free those marked for death, ²²so that people may make the LORD’s name known in Zion and sing his praise in Jerusalem, ²³when nations and kingdoms all gather to serve the LORD. ²⁴On the road of life he has worn down my strength and made my days few.^{a 25}So I say: My God, do not take me away when only half my days are done, you whose years run on from age to age. ²⁶Long ago you set the earth on its foundations; the heavens are what your hands have made. ²⁷They will come to an end, but you stand firm; all of them will grow old and thin like a cloak. Like worn clothing you will exchange them, and they will be gone. ²⁸But you are the one who does not change, and your years will never be finished. ²⁹The children of your servants will make their home in the land, and their descendants will be kept safe in your presence.