Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 102:14
For thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and favor the dust thereof.
14. For thy servants have affection for her stones,
And for her dust are they moved with pity.
Another argument to move Jehovah’s compassion. His servants look with yearning love towards Zion in its ruin. Even the broken stones and scattered heaps of rubbish which are all that remain of it are very dear to them. The language resembles that of Sanballat’s contemptuous taunt: “Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish?” Heb. dust, Neh 4:2; cp. Psa 102:10, “there is much rubbish,” Heb. dust.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
For thy servants take pleasure in her stones – Those who profess to be thy servants; thy friends. This was the evidence to the mind of the psalmist that God was about to visit his people, and to rebuild Jerusalem. It was an awakened interest among the professed people of God, leading them to manifest their love for Zion, and for all that pertained to her – a love for the very stones that lay in undistinguished heaps where the city once stood – the piles of rubbish where the walls and dwellings had once been. The people of God in their captivity began to look with strong interest on these very ruins, and with an earnest wish that from these ruins the city may again arise, and the walls be rebuilt.
And favor the dust thereof – literally, pity – or, show compassion for. They no longer look with indifference on these ruins of Zion. They look with a tender heart on the very dust of those ruins. They feel that a wrong has been done to Zion; they ardently desire its restoration to its former splendor and glory. They long for a return to it as to their home. They are weary with their captivity, and they are anxiously waiting for the time when they may revisit their native land. This would seem to refer to an awakened interest on the subject, caused perhaps in part by the fact that it could be ascertained (see Dan 9:2) that the period of the captivity was about to end, and partly by an influence on their hearts from on high, awakening in them a deeper love for Zion – a revival of pure religion. The practical truth taught here is, that an indication of a coming revival of religion is often manifested by the increased attention to the subject among its professed friends; by the desire in their hearts that it may be so; by tenderness, pity, compassion among them in view of abounding desolations, the coldness of the church, and the prevalence of iniquity; by their looking with interest on that which had before been neglected, like shapeless ruins – the prayer-meeting, the communion, the sanctuary; by a conscious returning love in their hearts for all that pertains to religion, however unimportant it may be in the eyes of the world, or however it may be despised. A surrounding world would look with unconcern on the ruins of Jerusalem; a friend of God, in whose heart religion was revived, would look with the most tender concern even on that rubbish, and those ruins. So it is in a revival of religion, when God is about to visit his church in mercy. Everything in regard to the church becomes an object of deep interest.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 102:14
For Thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and favour the dust thereof.
The secret of the stones
Stones and dust! Stones that have fallen out of place and lie scattered on the ground; dust that flies on every wind and drops back again into crevice and heap. Stones that are chipped and stained with smoke and fire and blood; dust, the final form of great things, the last remainder of vanished glories. There is nothing specially interesting or attractive about these things; you would not go out of the way to view them. Yet to a certain few they are beautiful with a beauty neither nature nor art can give. They are the stones of a temple that once smoked with sacrifice and rang with resounding psalms. It is the dust of a shrine that once reared its head into the sky, and centred in itself the national pride and worship.
I. Bricks and stones and mortar are neither interesting nor impressive materials. Scattered about over yards and fields, they have no attraction for any one except the boys of the neighbourhood. But bring them together, combine them, and their condition is at once altered, and the commonplace things become a force whose power all men must acknowledge. Weld them into the monument of some illustrious statesman, and crowds will gather round it and garland it with flowers. Build them into some cathedral of vast proportions, and the effect is overwhelming; you sink into insignificance, and feel like an ant crawling over its floor. Fashion them into some mighty sepulchre to hold the dust of some uncrowned king, and pilgrims from the far places of the earth will come to gaze upon it.
II. The temple stones have a power over us, but the secret of their power is not so much in them as in that with which they are identified. It may be found partly in the memories which cluster about them. Round those stones of the Temple there hung for the Jew memories of his two great kings, David and Solomon–memories of the full tide of national prosperity and the zenith of their power as an empire; of the great priests and prophets who had ruled them; of the oracles and revelations in national need; of great days of festival; and of sacrifice, confession, and pardon. And our less ancient and less historic fanes are full of memories, less splendid, but equally dear. There is the memory of one long since dead, who first guided our little feet up the aisle. There is the memory of the saintly men who first taught us how sweet and strong and beautiful human character could be. There is the memory of friendships formed there and loves born there which have been woven into our lives, and are part of our lives for ever. There is the memory of that great hour when we first discovered Christ was real and living, and knew what it was to believe and be saved.
III. It is customary for some to look upon this affection with scarcely veiled contempt. They call it love for bricks and mortar, and dub it superstition and sentiment. Instead of being a superstition or sentiment, this attachment to Gods house is one of the great forces which make for the building of character. Love of the temple is love of the best and highest, and its harvest is nobility of character and righteousness of life. Let us use our wisdom, our intellects, our energy, and our wealth to make the temple increasingly dear. Let us make it so beautiful, its service so attractive, its ministry so strong, its power so Christlike that the love for the stones of His house–which is one of the strongest formative and conserving forces in the lives of men and nations–may be the common and binding sentiment of all classes of men. (C. E. Stone.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 14. Thy servants take pleasure in her stones] Though Jerusalem was at this time in a heap of ruins, yet even her rubbish was sacred in the eyes of the pious; for this had been the city of the great King.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Thy people value the dust and rubbish of the holy city more than all the palaces of the earth, and passionately desire that it may be rebuilt.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
For thy servants take pleasure in her stones,…. Meaning not Cyrus and Darius, who gave leave and orders for the rebuilding of the city and temple of Jerusalem, as some; nor Nehemiah, and Ezra, and others, who took more pleasure in the stones and rubbish of the temple, as it lay in ruins, than in all the stately palaces in Babylon; and who were very desirous of, and took delight in gathering these stones, and putting them together again, as others; but, the ministers of the Gospel, and other Christians, in the latter day, who will take pleasure in the great number of converts that there will then be, who, as lively stones, will be built up a spiritual house; and especially when those stones shall be laid with fair colours, and the headstone shall be brought in with acclamations, crying, Grace, grace unto it; see 1Pe 2:5.
and favour the dust thereof; which sometimes designs multitudes,
Nu 23:10, perhaps here it may denote the meanest of the Lord’s people, who will be regarded, and not despised by his servants; but they will show favour to them, do them all the good they can, and wish well to them, and pray for their prosperity, and for the peace of Zion; that God would make it the joy of the whole earth; and when there shall be such a delight in the stones and dust of Zion, and a spirit of grace and supplication poured forth upon the servants of the Lord, to pray for the promised glory and happiness of it, it will be a token for good, and an intimation that the set time to favour her is at hand; which seems to be the sense of the psalmist: such great reverence and respect have the greatest of the wise men among the Jews for the land of Israel, literally understood, that they kiss the borders, the stones of it, and roll themselves in its dust a, having perhaps in mind this passage of Scripture.
a Maimon. Hilchot Melachim, c. 5. s. 10.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
14. For thy servants take pleasure in her stones To restrict this to Cyrus and Darius is altogether unsuitable. It is not at all wonderful to find the Jewish doctors hunting, with excessive eagerness, after foolish subtilties; but I am surprised that some of our modern commentators subscribe to such a poor and cold interpretation. I am aware that, in some places, the unbelieving and the wicked are called the servants of God, as in Jer 25:9, because God makes use of them as instruments for executing his judgments. Nay, I admit that Cyrus is called by name God’s chosen servant, (Isa 44:28) but the Holy Spirit would not have bestowed so honorable a title, either on him or Darius, without some qualification. Besides, it is probable that this psalm was composed before the edict was published, which granted the people liberty to return to their native country. It therefore follows, that God’s people alone are included in the catalogue of his servants, because it is their purpose, during the whole of their life, to obey his will in all things. The prophet, I have no doubt, speaks in general of the whole Church, intimating that this was not the wish entertained merely by one man, but was shared by the whole body of the Church. The more effectually to induce God to listen to his prayer, he calls upon all the godly, who were then in the world, to join with him in the same request. It, unquestionably, very much contributes to increase the confidence of success, when supplications are made by all the people of God together, as if in the person of one man, according to what the Apostle Paul declares,
“
Ye also, helping together by prayer for us, that, for the gift bestowed upon us, by the means of many persons, thanks may be given by many on our behalf.” (2Co 1:11)
Farther, when the deformed materials which remained of the ruins of the temple and city are emphatically termed the stones of Zion, this is designed to intimate, not only that the faithful in time past were affected with the outward splendor of the temple, when, besides attracting the eyes of men, it had power to ravish with admiration all their senses, but also, that although the temple was destroyed, and nothing was to be seen where it stood but hideous desolation, yet their attachment to it continued unalterable, and they acknowledged the glory of God, in its crumbling stones and decayed rubbish. As the temple was built by the appointment of God, and as he had promised its restoration, it was, doubtless, proper and becoming that the godly should not withdraw their affections from its ruins. Meanwhile, as an antidote against the discouraging influence of the taunting mockery of the heathen, they required to look into the Divine word for something else than what presented itself to their bodily eyes. Knowing that the very site of the temple was consecrated to God, and that that sacred edifice was to be rebuilt on the same spot, they did not cease to regard it with reverence, although its stones lay in disorder, mutilated and broken, and heaps of useless rubbish were to be seen scattered here and there. The sadder the desolation is to which the Church has been brought, the less ought our affections to be alienated from her. Yea, rather, this compassion which the faithful then exercised, (147) ought to draw from us sighs and groans; and would to God that the melancholy description in this passage were not so applicable to our own time as it is! He, no doubt, has his churches erected in some places, where he is purely worshipped; but, if we cast our eyes upon the whole world, we behold his word every where trampled under foot, and his worship defiled by countless abominations. Such being the case, his holy temple is assuredly every where demolished, and in a state of wretched desolation; yea, even those small churches in which he dwells are torn and scattered. What are these humble erections, when compared with that splendid edifice described by Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Zechariah? But no desolation ought to prevent us from loving the very stones and dust of the Church. Let us leave the Papists to be proud of their altars, their huge buildings, and their other exhibitions of pomp and splendor; for all that heathenish magnificence is nothing else but an abomination in the sight of God and his angels, whereas the ruins of the true temple are sacred.
(147) “ Mais qui plus est ceste compassion que les fideles ont tenu lors.” — Fr.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(14) Stones . . . dust.This touching description of the devotion of the Jews to their ruined city is best illustrated by the actual history in Nehemiah 3, 4, and by the scenes so often described by travellers at the wailing place in modern Jerusalem.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
14. Take pleasure in her stones favour the dust Not the “stones” to be prepared for the new city and temple, but the ruins of the old, as left by Nebuchadnezzar’s army. See Psa 79:1; Psa 74:2-3. The “stones” and “dust” rubbish and debris of the old city are still dear to them. Their hearts lingered here. Psa 137:5-6. So the spiritual Zion, the true Church, in glory or in reproach is dear to the hearts of all her true children.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 102:14. For thy servants take pleasure, &c. Thy servants also bear an affection to her ruins, and commiserate her dust: Green; in conformity to the version of the Liturgy of the church of England, as well as to many of the ancient versions.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Psa 102:14 For thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and favour the dust thereof.
Ver. 14. For thy servants take pleasure in her stones ] They pity her, and wish her welfare; much more then dost thou. He argueth from that sweet, tender, melting frame of spirit that was found in the faithful, which is but a reflex of that far sweeter that is in God.
And favour the dust thereof
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
stones. Put by Figure of speech Synecdoche (of Part), for the restored buildings.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Psa 79:1, Psa 79:7-10, Psa 137:5, Psa 137:6, Ezr 1:5, Ezr 3:1-3, Ezr 7:27, Neh 1:3, Neh 2:3, Neh 2:17, Neh 4:2, Neh 4:6, Neh 4:10, Dan 9:16
Reciprocal: Ezr 3:11 – because Neh 1:4 – I sat down Neh 2:20 – The God Psa 74:3 – the perpetual Psa 122:9 – I will seek Isa 51:3 – all Jer 31:17 – General Jer 41:5 – to the Jer 51:50 – remember Dan 9:19 – defer Hag 1:4 – and
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
102:14 For thy servants take pleasure in her {l} stones, and favour the dust thereof.
(l) The more the Church is in misery and desolation, the more the faithful should love and pity it.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The godly in Israel loved Zion and sorrowed over its destitute condition. The description of the city in Psa 102:14 sounds as if it had suffered destruction. The writer was confident that God would restore the city as He had promised. This assurance gave him a more positive attitude.