Matthew Poole and continuators on Psalms 102:23

23 He weakned my strength in the way , he shortned my days

To wit, God, to whom he ascribes these Calamities, v. 10. to whom therefore he addresseth himself for relief.

Either 1. in the midst of our expectations. Whilest we are expecting the accomplishment of thy promise either of bringing us out of Babylon; or of sending the Messias, we faint and one of us perish after another, and our hope is like the giving up of the Ghost. Or rather 2. in the midst of the course of our lives. Which sence is confirmed, 1. from the following Clause. Which after the manner explains the former, he shortned my days; as also from the next Verse where he begs relief from God against this misery in these words, take me not away in the midst of my days. 2. From the use of this word way, which is used for the course of a mans life, Psal. 2. 12. and (which comes to the same thing) for the course of a journey as it is opposed to the end of the journey, Gen. 24. 27. Exod. 23. 20. and elsewhere; the life of man being oft compared to a journeying or travelling and death to his journeys end. And the Psalmist here speaks (as other sacred Writers do elsewhere, and as all sorts of Writers frequently do) of the whole Commonwealth as of one man, and of its continuance as of the life of one man. And so this seems to be the matter of his complaint and humble expostulation with God, O Lord, thou didst chuse us out of all the World to be thy peculiar people, and didst plant us in Ganaan, and cause a glorious Temple to be built to thy name to be the onely place of thy publick and solemn worship in the World, and didst make great and glorious promises, that thine eyes and heart should be upon it perpetually, 1 Kings 9. 3. and that thy people should be planted in thy land so as not to be moved any more or afflicted, as they had been in the days of the Judges, 2 Sam. 7. 10, 11. From whence we promised to our selves a long and setled prosperity. But, alas, how soon were our hopes blasted, not long after the beginning of our settlement, in Rehoboams time, and so successively in the course of our affairs under the following Kings, till at last thou didst give us up to ruine and desolation, as at this day. And this he doth not alledge to accuse God or excuse himself or his people, but onely that he might move the Divine Majesty to shew them some pity considering the shortness of their days, and his own Eternity, as he pursues the argument in the following Verses.

The days of my life, or of my prosperous state, as above v. 11. for adversity is a kind of death, and is frequently so called.

Marginal references: Heb. afflicted.