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Psalm 102:14
For your servants take pleasure in her stones, and have pity on her dust.
12But you, LORD, will remain forever; your renown endures to all generations.
13You will arise and have mercy on Zion, for it is time to have pity on her. Yes, the set time has come.
14For your servants take pleasure in her stones, and have pity on her dust.
15So the nations will fear the LORD’s name, all the kings of the earth your glory.
16For the LORD has built up Zion. He has appeared in his glory.
Notice
Zion’s stones and dust draw affection and pity from God’s servants, a tenderness toward a beloved place even when its splendor is gone.
Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.
What do you notice about pleasure and pity appearing together in the servants’ response to Zion?
Write on thisWhat place connected with worship remains dear to you despite what it has lost?
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Where else Scripture says this
12 passages readers most often link with this verse, and the thread each one shares with it.
This verse's connections, by chapterThe Bible's strongest chapter linksHover or tap a book to trace it
Nehemiah 4:2He spoke before his brothers and the army of Samaria, and said, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they fortify themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they …Stones link these passages: God’s servants cherish Zion’s stones, while an opponent mocks the prospect of rebuilding with burned stones.
Ezra 1:5Then the heads of fathers’ households of Judah and Benjamin, the priests and the Levites, all whose spirit God had stirred to go up, rose up to build the …Both passages show attachment to Jerusalem, expressed through affection for Zion’s stones and through readiness to build the LORD’s house.
Nehemiah 2:3I said to the king, “Let the king live forever! Why shouldn’t my face be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers’ tombs, lies waste, and its gates have …Nehemiah’s sadness over the ruined city shares the servants’ tender concern for Zion’s stones and dust.
Ezra 7:27Blessed be the LORD, the God of our fathers, who has put such a thing as this in the king’s heart, to beautify the LORD’s house which is in Jerusalem;Both passages express care for Jerusalem, through delight in Zion’s stones and gratitude for plans to beautify the LORD’s house.
Ezra 3:1–3When the seventh month had come, and the children of Israel were in the cities, the people gathered themselves together as one man to Jerusalem.Jerusalem is the shared focus: the psalm describes affection for Zion, while Ezra records the people gathering there.
Nehemiah 4:10Judah said, “The strength of the bearers of burdens is fading and there is much rubble, so that we are not able to build the wall.”Both passages attend to a city’s damaged remains, with pity for Zion’s dust and exhaustion before Jerusalem’s rubble.
Nehemiah 1:3They said to me, “The remnant who are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem is also broken …The broken walls and burned gates reported to Nehemiah share the setting of devastation behind the servants’ pity for Zion.
Psalm 79:7–10for they have devoured Jacob, and destroyed his homeland.A devastated homeland links these texts, with destruction named in Psalm 79 and tender concern expressed through Zion’s stones and dust.
Psalm 137:5–6If I forget you, Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill.Both passages express enduring attachment to Jerusalem, through cherishing her remains and refusing to forget her.
Psalm 79:1A Psalm by Asaph. God, the nations have come into your inheritance. They have defiled your holy temple. They have laid Jerusalem in heaps.Jerusalem’s heaps in Psalm 79 share the ruined setting of Zion’s stones and dust, which God’s servants still cherish.
Jeremiah 41:5men came from Shechem, from Shiloh, and from Samaria, even eighty men, having their beards shaved and their clothes torn, and having cut themselves, with meal …Both passages connect sorrow with attachment to a place of worship: Zion receives pity, and mourners bring offerings to the LORD’s house.
Haggai 1:4“Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies waste?Both passages concern a cherished place in disrepair, though Haggai confronts neglect while the psalm describes affection and pity.
Where this verse fits
Grief. sermon or Bible study notes.
One step
Something small to carry out of this verse
Encouragement
God’s servants cherish Zion even in her dust; their love has room for grief, and the surrounding prayer looks to YHWH for mercy.
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Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).