Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 102:7

I watch, and am as a sparrow alone upon the house top.

7. I keep vigil, and am become

Like a solitary bird upon the housetop.

His nights are sleepless: he spends them like “the moping owl” in mournful complaints. Some solitary, nocturnal bird is clearly meant, perhaps some kind of owl, or according to Tristram ( Nat. Hist. of Bible, p. 202), the Blue Thrush. Cp. Verg. Aen. iv. 462,

“Solaque culminibus ferali carmine bubo

Visa queri, et longas in fletum ducere voces.”

For am become we should perhaps read and moan ( for ).

Cp. Isa 59:11.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

I watch, and am as a sparrow alone upon the house-top – That is, I am sleepless; trouble drives sleep from my eyes, and I am kept awake at night – a common effect of grief. The following remarks, copied from the Land and the Book (i. 54, 55), will furnish all the illustration needful of this verse. They are a tame, troublesome, and impertinent generation, and nestle just where you dont want them. They stop up your stove and waterpipes with their rubbish, build in the windows and under the beams of the roof, and would stuff your hat full of stubble in half a day if they found it hanging in a place to suit them … . When one of them has lost its mate – a matter of everyday occurrence – he will sit on the house-top alone, and lament by the hour his sad bereavement.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 7. As a sparrow alone] tsippor, seems to be often used for any small bird, such as the swallow, sparrow, or the like. Bochart supposes the screech owl is intended.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

A sparrow which hath lost its mate, and then is very sad and solitary, as some report; although that be uncertain and improbable. But this Hebrew word doth not only signify a sparrow, but in general any bird, as Lev 14:4; Deu 14:11; Dan 4:12,14,21. And so it may here design any one or more sort of birds which used to sit alone, watching and mourning upon house-tops.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

I watch,…. Night after night, and take no sleep; cannot get any by reason of thoughtfulness, care, and trouble:

and am as a sparrow alone upon the housetop; or, “as a bird” o; for there is no necessity of limiting it to a sparrow, to which the account does not seem so well to agree; for sparrows will not only perch on housetops and solitary places, but will make their nests in dwelling houses, and in places of public resort, as temples; hence David speaks of the sparrow finding an house near the altars of God,

Ps 84:3 and Herodotus p makes mention of sparrows and other birds making their nests in the temple at Branchides; which may serve to illustrate the text last mentioned: wherefore this may be understood of any solitary bird, and especially of the owl q; the Jews had flat roofs upon their houses, and here birds of solitude would come and sit alone in the night season, to which the psalmist likens himself; being either forsaken by his friends and acquaintance; or, being in melancholy circumstances, he chose to be alone, mourning over his sorrowful state and condition.

o “sicut avis”, Gejerus, Schmidt. p Clio, sive, l. 1. c. 159. q “——–tectoque prophanus Incubuit bubo” Ovid. Metamorph. l. 6. Fab. 8. “E tectis strix”, &c. Tibullus, l. 1. Eleg. 5. v. 52.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

(7) I watchi.e., am sleepless,

Sparrow.See Note, Psa. 84:3. Here render, like a lonely bird. Some MSS. read, a wandering bird.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

7. As a sparrow On the original word for “sparrow,” see note on Psa 84:3. Solitariness is, here, the idea, as in Psa 102:6, and is the characteristic of the bird alluded to. But the common “sparrow” is excessively lively, gregarious, and bold. The text better suits the habits of the blue thrush, (Petrocossyphus cyoneus.) “This bird is fond of sitting on the tops of houses, uttering its note, which, however agreeable to itself, is monotonous and melancholy to the human ear.” Wood.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments