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Psalm 102:8
My enemies reproach me all day. Those who are mad at me use my name as a curse.
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,
10because of your indignation and your wrath; for you have taken me up and thrown me away.
Notice
A name used as a curse makes the hostility personal, while “all day” conveys the wear of reproach that leaves the sufferer no respite.
Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.
What changes when contempt targets your name, as it does for the speaker here?
Write on thisHow has repeated reproach shaped what you find hard to tell God?
Write on thisConnect
Where else Scripture says this
11 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 41:5My enemies speak evil against me: “When will he die, and his name perish?”Both speakers face enemies whose hostile words target their names, with Psalm 41 adding a wish for the sufferer’s death.
Acts 26:11Punishing them often in all the synagogues, I tried to make them blaspheme. Being exceedingly enraged against them, I persecuted them even to foreign cities.Both passages describe anger directed against others; Acts recounts that anger taking the form of punishment and persecution.
Isaiah 65:15You will leave your name for a curse to my chosen, and the Lord GOD will kill you. He will call his servants by another name,Both texts speak of a name becoming a curse, though Isaiah announces divine judgment and the psalm reports enemies’ reproach.
Acts 23:12–35When it was day, some of the Jews banded together and bound themselves under a curse, saying that they would neither eat nor drink until they had killed Paul.Both passages mention hostility and a curse, though Paul’s enemies bind themselves under a curse rather than curse with his name.
Romans 15:3For even Christ didn’t please himself. But, as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.”Reproach falls on a sufferer in both texts; Romans speaks of Christ bearing reproaches directed at God.
Psalm 69:9–10For the zeal of your house consumes me. The reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.Both speakers bear reproach, while Psalm 69 specifies that the reproaches directed at God have fallen on the speaker.
Psalm 69:20Reproach has broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness. I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; for comforters, but I found none.Both psalms describe the burden of reproach; Psalm 69 names heartbreak and the absence of anyone offering comfort.
Psalm 89:51With which your enemies have mocked, LORD, with which they have mocked the footsteps of your anointed one.Both passages describe enemies mocking someone; Psalm 89 identifies the target as the LORD’s anointed one.
Acts 7:54Now when they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth.Both texts portray hostility toward a person, expressed through reproach in the psalm and gnashing teeth in Acts.
Luke 6:11But they were filled with rage, and talked with one another about what they might do to Jesus.Both texts describe anger directed at someone; Luke records people filled with rage discussing what they might do to Jesus.
Jeremiah 29:22A curse will be taken up about them by all the captives of Judah who are in Babylon, saying, ‘The LORD make you like Zedekiah and like Ahab, whom the king of …Both texts describe people becoming the subject of a curse; Jeremiah records a curse naming Zedekiah and Ahab and their deaths.
Where this verse fits
Injustice and anger. work conflict. loneliness.
One step
Something small to carry out of this verse
Encouragement
There is room in prayer to name the humiliation of being mocked. Here, the sufferer speaks to God while the reproach continues; the complaint remains unresolved.
Now put it in your words.
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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).