READ Psalm 102:12–17. 12 But you, LORD, sit enthroned forever; your renown endures through all generations. 13 You will arise and have compassion on Zion, for it is time to show favor to her; the appointed time has come. 14 For her stones are dear to your servants; her very dust moves them to pity. 15 The nations will fear the name of the LORD, all the kings of the earth will revere your glory. 16 For the LORD will rebuild Zion and appear in his glory. 17 He will respond to the prayer of the destitute; he will not despise their plea.
NO UNANSWERED PRAYER. A disaster has left Jerusalem in ruins and many imprisoned (verses 16 and 20). The psalmist prays for God to restore Zion to a glory the whole world can see (verse 16)—now (verse 13). That did not happen. Unanswered prayer? Not really. God’s answer was “Not now, and not the way you think.” The answer, through Jesus, was far greater than he could have imagined (Hebrews 12:12–28). Likewise, when Elijah prayed to die (1 Kings 19:4), the answer was “Don’t be silly, you are not going to die at all!”99 There is ultimately no such thing as unanswered prayer. If the answer at first is “no” or “not yet,” it is because he gives us what we want in ways better than we asked.
Prayer: Lord, I confess that your promise to always hear prayer (verse 17) is of little comfort to me, and it’s my fault. I am so sure of exactly what a good and happy life must look like. Remind me that sometime your wise love “feeds us with hunger. . . . Lord, spoil my fool’s heaven on earth, that I may be saved forever.”100 Amen.