I said, O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days: thy years are throughout all generations.
Parallel translations
- WEB I said, “My God, don’t take me away in the middle of my days. Your years are throughout all generations.
- BSB I say: “O my God, do not take me in the midst of my days! Your years go on through all generations.
- NKJV I said, “O my God, Do not take me away in the midst of my days; Your years are throughout all generations.
- NASB I say, “My God, do not take me away in the middle of my days, Your years are throughout all generations.
- NLT But I cried to him, “O my God, who lives forever, don’t take my life while I am so young!
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
He prays not to be taken away in midlife, appealing to God whose years span all generations. He pleads on the basis of God's eternity.
Overview
The psalmist asks for more time, contrasting his short life with God's everlasting years. His hope rests not in himself but in the eternal God. This turn toward God's permanence leads into one of Scripture's great affirmations of God's unchanging nature.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Hab 1:12Art thou not from everlasting, O LORD my God, mine Holy One? we shall not die. O LORD, thou hast ordained them for judgment; and, O mighty God, thou hast established them for correction.
- Ps 39:13O spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence, and be no more.
- Rev 1:8I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.
- Ps 102:12But thou, O LORD, shalt endure for ever; and thy remembrance unto all generations.
- Isa 38:10–22I said in the cutting off of my days, I shall go to the gates of the grave: I am deprived of the residue of my years.
- Ps 9:7But the LORD shall endure for ever: he hath prepared his throne for judgment.
- Ps 90:1–2Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.
- Job 36:26Behold, God is great, and we know him not, neither can the number of his years be searched out.
- Rev 1:4John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne;
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Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 102:24 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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