Psalm 102:16

Psalm 102:16

The Lord will rebuild Zion

If this psalm was indeed written during the time of the Babylonian captivity, the prospect of a renewed Mount Zion and a new Temple must have seemed very remote. It is a tribute to the writer that, despite all the calamities and complaints that are listed in the earlier verses, he has now reached a point when he can believe that the Lord will restore and rebuild Zion. Furthermore, he anticipates that the Lord Himself will appear there in all His glory!

I wonder how he would have felt when he heard that the Persian King Cyrus had allowed men like Nehemiah and Ezra to return to the land of Israel and reconstruction had begun! I wonder what he would have made of the immense edifice created by Herod the Great, 400 years later, that gave more glory to Herod than it did to God! 

The true glory of the Lord has yet to be seen, He will come, and He will reign from Zion and His rightful identity will be known to all the nations of the world. Let’s give credit to the ailing soul who perceived this and believed it, even on his sickbed. Let us also anticipate the day when the Lord will rebuild Zion. Isaiah puts it like this: - 

“Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem (Zion) and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins. A voice of one calling: “In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” Isaiah 40:1-5.

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