View Download and Print Options
Psalm 102:15-21
Nations will fear the name of YHWH
and all the kings of the earth will fear your glory
For YHWH builds up Zion;
He appears in His glory;
He regards the prayer of the destitute
and does not despise their prayer
Let this be recorded for a generation to come,
so that a people yet to be created may praise YHWH;
that He looked down from His holy height;
from heaven YHWH looked at the earth,
to hear the groans of the prisoners
to set free those who were doomed to die,
that they may declare in Zion the name of YHWH
and in Jerusalem His praise,
when peoples are gathered together,
Short Thoughts:
We are set free because YHWH looked down.
Long Thoughts:
Alright, there is a lot to see here, but I just want to make a few brief observations.
Verse 15 introduces this section by anticipating YHWH’s universal glory. Notice the parallel placement of “glory” and “name.” The nations will fear the name of YHWH (that is, His revealed character, His revealed identity, Who He Is), and all the kings of the earth (more or less synonymous with “nations”) will fear His glory (and what is His glory except the communication, the revelation, the manifestation of the beauty of His identity? Exodus 33:13, 18; 34:6-7). So, this entire section begins by anticipating the day when the beauty, the excellence, the character, the unique identity (His Name / Glory) of YHWH God will be known and feared by all the nations of the earth. This is, in fact, the purpose of all things (Romans 11:36) and the great hope of the saints (Isaiah 11:9, Hab. 2:14, Rev. 21:23, etc).
Verse 16, then, grounds the anticipation of verse 15. How will it come about that the nations will know and fear the Name / Glory of YHWH God? (Ie, how is it that the purposes of God in creation will be achieved?). It will happen through YHWH’s covenant faithfulness to His people.
For YHWH builds up Zion;
He appears in His glory;
Awesome…..the nations will fear the Name / Glory of YHWH for He will build up Zion (that is, He will care for His covenant people). And just to give further proof that we are on the right track here, v.16b parallels YHWH’s appearing in His glory with YHWH building up His people. This is another instance of that principle that pervades all of scripture, namely that “Redemption serves Revelation.” The Lord’s acts of redemption, of salvation, of covenant faithfulness serve the more primary goal of making YHWH known. He is known in and by His acts in history…..what YHWH does reveals who YHWH is. And so, the nations will see and fear His glory and know and fear His name (which is to say the same thing) because He will act on behalf of His people (which is to say, He will appear in His glory)…
Do we want to see YHWH manifest in His glory? Do we want to know His name? See Him work on behalf of the people whom He has sovereignly bound to Himself in covenant…..THAT is where His glory is displayed, THAT is where His identity is revealed…….and, of course, you know where that line of thought takes us: to the foot of the cross. However, before we go there, notice—
In verse 17, then, we have something of an explication of the Lord’s building up Zion / appearing in His glory and it is this:
He regards the prayer of the destitute
and does not despise their prayer
Central to YHWH’s appearing in glory is His care for the destitute, His knowledge of and love for the hopeless and powerless and abandoned—the “poor in spirit.” That is awesome to consider. The work of covenant faithfulness that displays the Nation-humbling, King-silencing beauty of the one True God is a work that cares for the destitute…..a work that cares for the abandoned…
But now, having established this basic structure (ie, The unique identity of YHWH is manifest before the nations—aka, He appears in glory—as He works in covenant faithfulness toward the destitute and helpless), the psalmist digs in deeper, as it were, elaborating on the themes established in verses 15-17.
The “this” of verse 18 that the psalmist desires to be recorded so that generations to come might praise YHWH refers both to what has just been alluded to in v.15-17 and—more primarily—to its explication in verses 19-22. You might say that 19-22 is the unfolding of 16-17. So, what is to be recorded for future generations, recorded so that they might know and praise YHWH? It is this:
that He looked down from His holy height;from heaven YHWH looked at the earth,to hear the groans of the prisonersto set free those who were doomed to die,that they may declare in Zion the name of YHWHand in Jerusalem His praise,when peoples are gathered together,
and kingdoms, to worship YHWH
This is the work by which YHWH builds up Zion, this is His “appearing in His glory” so that He might be known and feared among all nations….this is what it looks like. And what do we see? We see a God who looks down from heaven to earth, who is concerned with the groaning of those who are doomed, with the agonies of the desperate, with the prayers of the destitute. Central—central—to the revelation of YHWH’s name and therefore of His glory is His concern for the broken and helpless and hopeless. That is significant.
And not only His concern, not only His attention, but His action. He is not just aware of the groaning of the prisoners, but His “looking down” is effective, it sets the prisoners free….it sets free those who were “doomed to die.” And it sets them free why? So that they might then turn around and praise the name of YHWH……the name of YHWH which, as we’ve already seen, is made known in the very act of covenant faithfulness that freed them from prison! YHWH’s people are redeemed in order to rejoice in Him, and He is revealed to them as the one in whom they rejoice by the act of their redemption!
They are saved in order to praise His name (v.21), and it is in saving them that He reveals His name (v.15-16). Thus, it is by considering their salvation that they will know the Name of the one whom they were saved to know….as the words of a song by Nathan Partain say, “He sets free to be known.” Indeed, He sets free to be known, and the act by which He sets us free is the act in which He is known.
And of course—though now my time is far spent—of course, this entire dynamic climaxes gloriously at the cross of Christ! There were see the ultimate expression of YHWH’s concern for those “doomed to die”—indeed, of those doomed to the second death. There we see that His “looking down” from heaven entails also a descent, a coming down into the ash heap, an entering into the prison—it entails incarnation. Yes, He would show Himself nearer, more concerned, more intimately involved, more radically committed to His people than anyone could possibly have imagined…..and in that great act of steadfast love and faithfulness, in that definitive act of redeeming love—YHWH appears in His glory, YHWH declares His name to the nations, YHWH is made known to His people…..and it is in that act, that act by which we were saved, that we know our God so have eternal life…..It is revelatory redemption….it is redemptive revelation…..
