I am like a pelican of the wilderness: I am like an owl of the desert.
This prayer belongs to the faithful in Babylon's captivity, when deliverance drew near. They lament their afflictions, plead for the temple's restoration, and recall God's promises to steady their hope. The prophet shaped it as a form of prayer when the seventy years were nearly finished and comfort was about to break forth.
AI summary
Commenting on Psalm 102:1-28
I am like a pelican of the wilderness, a mournful and even hideous object, the very image of desolation. I am like an owl of the desert; loving solitude, moping among ruins, hooting discordantly. The Psalmist likens himself to two birds which were commonly used as emblems of gloom and wretchedness; on other occasions he had been as the eagle, but the griefs of his...
The title of this psalm is very observable; it is a prayer of the afflicted. It was composed by one that was himself afflicted, afflicted with the church and for it; and on those that are of a public spirit afflictions of that kind lie heavier than any other.
Commenting on Psalm 102:1-11