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AYBE there are only a few of us who have ever been truly destitute, but most of us have certainly felt like we were. An author who was afflicted, overwhelmed and alone wrote this Psalm. It was written during a time of defeat and disaster. It was penned as a prayer of complaint and as an imploration for mercy and help. Without comparing our hard times to the hard times of others, it is easy to think of occasions when we were "in trouble" and needed desperately for God to step in with supernatural aid and intervention.
Brokenhearted; withered; a wisp of smoke; aching bones; wasting away - this is how the author viewed and described himself in his circumstance. Like a lonely bird, hungry and tormented by dangerous predators, he cried in misery because of his plight. He thought of himself as if he were a prisoner on death row. Have you ever been there?
Now, beginning with verse 12 it appears that the psalmist began to approach his dilemma as if it were simply a great opportunity for God to step in and shine brightly. In other words, his destitution had a transcendent purpose as a good excuse for God to get involved and thereby to reveal Himself. The concept is not strange (John 9:2-3). In fact, Psalm 102:19-20 reads as if God commonly looks upon the earth for the very specific purpose of finding "groaning prisoners" whom He can then deliver from the jaws of death.
What an amazing thing that He is willing to raise us up to His level... by having stooped down to ours (Psalm 102:28 & II Corinthians 5:21). We may have to endure the feeling of being frail fowls limping languishingly along in this life, but we will soar with Him in His good time (Isaiah 40:31).
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