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Psalm 102:3

For my days consume away like smoke. My bones are burned as a torch.

1A Prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed and pours out his complaint before the LORD. Hear my prayer, LORD! Let my cry come to you.
2Don’t hide your face from me in the day of my distress. Turn your ear to me. Answer me quickly in the day when I call.
3For my days consume away like smoke. My bones are burned as a torch.
4My heart is blighted like grass, and withered, for I forget to eat my bread.
5By reason of the voice of my groaning, my bones stick to my skin.
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← Psalm 102:2Psalm 102:4 →
Notice

Smoke and a burning torch describe a life being consumed, where passing days and bodily distress become part of the same cry to God.

Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.

What, if anything, in your life feels like days consuming away like smoke?

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How close or distant is the image of burning bones from your own experience?

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Connect

Where else Scripture says this

9 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
James 4:14Yet you don’t know what your life will be like tomorrow. For what is your life? For you are a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.Smoke in the psalm and vapor in James describe human life as something that passes away.
Psalm 37:20But the wicked shall perish. The enemies of the LORD shall be like the beauty of the fields. They will vanish— vanish like smoke.Both passages use vanishing smoke, though Psalm 37 describes the fate of the LORD’s enemies and Psalm 102 describes the sufferer’s own days.
Job 30:30My skin grows black and peels from me. My bones are burned with heat.Both speakers describe their bones as burned, expressing bodily suffering through the heat of fire.
Psalm 31:10For my life is spent with sorrow, my years with sighing. My strength fails because of my iniquity. My bones are wasted away.Both speakers describe their lives being spent and their bones suffering as they voice distress.
Lamentations 1:13“From on high has he sent fire into my bones, and it prevails against them. He has spread a net for my feet. He has turned me back. He has made me desolate and …Burning bones convey severe affliction in both passages, though Lamentations names God as the one who sends the fire.
Psalm 38:7For my waist is filled with burning. There is no soundness in my flesh.Burning describes bodily suffering in both verses, with bones named here and the waist named in Psalm 38.
Psalm 22:14–15I am poured out like water. All my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax. It is melted within me.Both speakers describe distress through their bones, using images of a body burning or coming apart.
Job 19:20My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh. I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.Bones mark bodily suffering in both verses: burned like a torch here, clinging to skin and flesh in Job.
Lamentations 3:4He has made my flesh and my skin old. He has broken my bones.Both passages describe affliction reaching the bones, pictured as burned in the psalm and broken in Lamentations.
Where this verse fits

Illness or diagnosis. chronic pain. grief.

What the Bible says about grief →
One step

Something small to carry out of this verse

Pray Psalm 102:3 aloud before bed one night

prayeroncelight
Encouragement

These words belong to a prayer addressed to YHWH. Fading days and burning bones are part of what the afflicted person brings before him.

Now put it in your words.

Start an entry on Psalm 102:3. Write what it stirs. Psalmlog sets your words beside Scripture and gives you one next step. Your first entry is free, no account needed.

Keep goingPsalm 102 · the whole chapter with its connection mapPsalms · every chapterBuild a reading plan through Psalms

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).