Chapter One Hundred One

The first verse presents a general indication of the content of the psalm, as a prayer of the righteous, addressed to God during his afflictions. The righteous here is understood not as a separate person, and the afflictions not as deprivations and life failures of a private individual, but the first is taken to designate an entire people, appears as a collective personality, and therefore his afflictions are the afflictions and sufferings of the entire people. The latter, according to the psalm, is depicted as lonely and covered with reproaches from enemies (v. Ps 101:7-9). Zion appears destroyed and the Hebrew people can only lament its stones, but cannot proceed to its restoration, about which they pray to the Lord (Ps 101:14-15). Such a picture of the condition of the Hebrew people and Jerusalem points to the time of Babylonian captivity, when the Hebrews lived among other peoples and when the time appointed by the prophet Jeremiah for the end of it was already drawing near. The author of the psalm is unknown.

O Lord, hear me in the day of my distress and heavy afflictions (2–3), which have dried me up. I am alone like a pelican, and my enemies curse me. My food is dissolved with tears (4–10). Because of Your wrath and Your indignation, I am dried up like grass (11–12). Arise, O Lord, have compassion on Zion, whose stones are lamented by us; send Your help, whose time has come, that the nations may fear Your name (13–16). The Lord will hear the prayer of the prisoners and will return them to Zion, that they may declare the name of the Lord before all peoples (17–23). Although this deliverance from captivity will undoubtedly occur, the writer fears that his generation, exhausted by afflictions, will not live to see this happy time. For the eternal God, the flow of time is insignificant, but not so with man, whose life is short, and under heavy conditions of captivity may be even shorter. The writer thus prays to the eternal and merciful God to let him see the time of salvation, when the sons of His servants will begin a new life (24–29).

Psalm 101:4. My days vanish like smoke, and my bones burn like a hearth; From this verse and continuing to verse 6 is a general description of the heaviness of the position experienced by the author. “My days vanish like smoke” – life passed in fruitless sighs and waiting for God’s mercy, as smoke without a trace disappears in the air. “My bones burn like a hearth.” The afflictions of the writer and all the people are so severe and exhausting that his muscles and skin have clung to his bones, and he looks like a hearth, dried and burned by fire.

Psalm 101:5. My heart is stricken and withered like grass, so that I forget to eat my bread; “My heart is stricken” – the righteous lost courage. “My bones clung” – see verse 4.

Psalm 101:7. I am like a pelican in the wilderness; I have become like an owl in the ruins; From verse 7 begins a concrete description of the position that the righteous experienced. He is like a “pelican in the wilderness” or “an owl on the ruins.” The first bird loves desolate places and avoids inhabited localities. The owl is a night bird and a solitary one. The comparison indicates the solitary position occupied by the Hebrew people in Babylonian captivity. They could not become close to other peoples subject to the same Babylonian monarchy, since this closeness was hindered by the peculiarities of their religious beliefs, their way of life, their culture. Moreover, for a true Hebrew, the Babylonian captivity was not the concluding stage of his political life, but a temporary phenomenon, after which a period of new and renewed life in beloved Palestine should come. To take care of establishing and improving their external position in this case was useless and senseless, which further contributed to the separation of the Hebrew tribe from other peoples. He was “a pelican and an owl.”

Psalm 101:8. I lie awake and am like a solitary bird on a roof. “A solitary bird on a roof” – probably what is called a blue thrush, which makes its nests on top of dwellings and cliffs.

Psalm 101:9. All day long my enemies taunt me; those who speak against me curse by me. “They curse by me.” The tragic fate of the Hebrew people made them the object of a curse for others. When wishing to express ill will to someone, nothing more expressive is found than to say “may it happen to you as it happened to the Hebrews.”

Psalm 101:10. I eat ashes as my bread, and I mingle my drink with weeping, Psalm 101:11. because of Your anger and Your wrath, for You have lifted me up and cast me down. To eat bread dissolved with tears means always to be in an oppressed mood. “You have lifted me up and cast me down.” At one time, the Hebrew people, enjoying the protection of the Lord, reached an unusual magnitude among the peoples of the East, now their position is full of humiliation. One can see in this expression also a comparison: the afflictions sent by the Lord upon the Hebrews were a whirlwind, which twirled and turned them, and then scattered them throughout the East, as dust is scattered.

Psalm 101:12. My days decline like a shadow, and I wither like grass. “My days decline like a shadow.” A shadow does not have a definite magnitude, just as the life of a captive Hebrew does not have stability: in the surrounding afflictions, it can as easily disappear and end, as the shadow of an object disappears when a passing cloud covers the sun.

Psalm 101:13. But You, O Lord, endure forever, and the memory of You extends to all generations. The compassion of God for the righteous is a condescension to the latter. God is eternal, His promises of deliverance from captivity will undoubtedly be fulfilled, but the righteous Hebrew, in particular the generation of people now in captivity, is not eternal; their life is limited. The writer thus prays to the Lord to fulfill His promises to this generation of people, who have suffered so much in captivity.

Psalm 101:14. You will arise and have compassion on Zion, for it is time to favor her, the appointed time has come; “The appointed time has come” to have compassion on the Hebrews. This passage indicates that the psalm was written not long before the end of the captivity, foretold by the prophet Jeremiah, probably during the Medo-Persian rule, when the best of the Hebrews, for example, the prophet Daniel, pondered over the fate awaiting their people (Dan 9:2).

Psalm 101:16. And the nations will fear the name of the Lord, and all the kings of the earth Your glory. The people, formerly serving as an object of a curse, as rejected by God, with their return from captivity and the compassion granted to them by the Lord, will be exalted again in the eyes of all the tribes of the East. The fulfillment of the prediction concerning them and the pardon granted to them will show the greatness of His name and will arouse fear of Him in the nations, as an all-powerful Being.

Psalm 101:17. For the Lord will build up Zion; He will appear in His glory; Psalm 101:18. He will regard the prayer of the helpless; He will not despise their prayer. Psalm 101:19. This will be written for the generation to come, and the people yet to be born will praise the Lord, Psalm 101:20. For He looked down from His holy height; from heaven the Lord looked at the earth, Psalm 101:21. to hear the groaning of the prisoner, to set free those appointed for death, Psalm 101:22. that they may declare the name of the Lord in Zion and His praise in Jerusalem, Psalm 101:23. when peoples gather together, and the kingdoms, to serve the Lord. The writer believes in the fulfillment of God’s promises and already sings the expected great moment of Israel’s renewal. Upon the restoration of Jerusalem, “peoples will gather together and the kingdoms, to serve the Lord.” The writer’s expectation of universal dominion of Jehovah and the universal greatness of Jerusalem shows how deeply he has studied the books of the prophets, which usually depict the post-captivity period of the life of the Hebrews as the beginning of a new era of life in the world, when all peoples will be united under the power of the Messiah and peace will spread throughout the world. Such expectations are, for example, full of the prophecies of Isaiah (chapters 2, 9, 11, 40–66), the prophet Jeremiah (chapter XXXI) and other prophets.

Psalm 101:26. In the beginning You laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands; Psalm 101:27. they will perish, but You will endure; they all will wear out like a garment; as a robe You will change them, and they will be changed; Psalm 101:28. but You are the same, and Your years will not end. A lofty teaching about the eternity and immutability of God. The Lord is the Creator of all the world. He is primordial, without time and without a beginning of origin. All that exists in the world, as well as the world itself, owes its origin to God, received the beginning of its being from Him. As being limited by its origin, it is also limited in duration: everything that received a beginning in time has a temporal existence, and therefore the world can and certainly will perish. Limited in time, the world is limited in power, and therefore is subject to constant changes: it, like a garment, wears out and changes. The Lord, existing eternally, has no end to His existence, and as existing outside the limits of time, He is not subject to the changes imposed on all objects of the world by time itself: He is self-existent, eternal, and immutable. This magnificent confession of God’s self-existence, eternity, and immutability, in connection with the indication of the insignificance, brevity, and inconsistency of human existence (see verses 24–25), is a gentle prayer to God to grant mercy to the writer and his generation through deliverance from captivity.

Psalm 101:29. The children of Your servants will dwell, and their descendants will be established before You. The future post-captivity life is depicted to the writer in the features of the realization of that ideal purpose to which the Hebrew people were called by the prophets. “The seed of Your servants will be established before You” – will firmly believe in You, will steadily fulfill Your commandments, and therefore will constantly enjoy Your favor. The history of the life of the Hebrew people shows that they deviated from their ideal purpose, and the glory expected for them by the writer of the psalm passed to the new Israel – the Christians.