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Psalm 102:7

I watch, and have become like a sparrow that is alone on the housetop.

5By reason of the voice of my groaning, my bones stick to my skin.
6I am like a pelican of the wilderness. I have become as an owl of the waste places.
7I watch, and have become like a sparrow that is alone on the housetop.
8My enemies reproach me all day. Those who are mad at me use my name as a curse.
9For I have eaten ashes like bread, and mixed my drink with tears,
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← Psalm 102:6Psalm 102:8 →
Notice

A sparrow alone on a housetop makes the speaker’s watchfulness visible, capturing the isolation of being awake without anyone beside him.

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

What part of the sparrow’s place on the housetop resembles your life, if any?

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If you prayed this line tonight, what would you want God to hear in it?

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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
Psalm 77:4You hold my eyelids open. I am so troubled that I can’t speak.Both speakers remain awake in distress: Psalm 102 pictures a solitary sparrow, while Psalm 77 describes open eyelids and trouble beyond speech.
Lamentations 3:28–30Let him sit alone and keep silence, because he has laid it on him.Both describe someone alone, though Psalm 102 voices the speaker’s condition and Lamentations directs someone to sit alone in silence.
Mark 14:33–37He took with him Peter, James, and John, and began to be greatly troubled and distressed.Psalm 102 pictures distress through a solitary bird; Mark names Jesus’ distress while Peter, James, and John are with him.
Jeremiah 15:17I didn’t sit in the assembly of those who make merry and rejoice. I sat alone because of your hand, for you have filled me with indignation.Both speakers describe being alone; Jeremiah also names his absence from the assembly of those who rejoice.
Psalm 130:6My soul longs for the Lord more than watchmen long for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning.Watching links these verses: Psalm 102 describes solitary watchfulness, while Psalm 130 compares longing for the Lord to watchmen awaiting morning.
Psalm 22:2My God, I cry in the daytime, but you don’t answer; in the night season, and am not silent.Both portray distress without relief in the line itself: solitary watching in Psalm 102 and an unanswered cry continuing into night in Psalm 22.
Psalm 38:11My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my plague. My kinsmen stand far away.Both describe isolation, pictured as a lone sparrow in Psalm 102 and expressed through friends and relatives standing far away in Psalm 38.
Job 7:13–16When I say, ‘My bed will comfort me. My couch will ease my complaint,’Both speak from distress, though Psalm 102 describes wakeful solitude and Job speaks of seeking comfort in his bed.
Deuteronomy 28:66–67Your life will hang in doubt before you. You will be afraid night and day, and will have no assurance of your life.Their overlap is limited to distress: Psalm 102 pictures solitary watching, while Deuteronomy describes fear night and day without assurance of life.
Where this verse fits

Loneliness. grief. anxiety or panic.

What the Bible says about loneliness →What the Bible says about grief →What the Bible says about anxiety →
One step

Something small to carry out of this verse

Pray Psalm 102:7 aloud at bedtime tonight

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Encouragement

Loneliness has a place in prayer to God. The sparrow stays alone in this line; Scripture lets that sorrow be spoken without a quick resolution.

Now put it in your words.

Start an entry on Psalm 102:7. 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).