Psalm 102 — How to voice your complaint
A Prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed, And poureth out his complaint before the LORD.
1 Hear my prayer, O LORD,
And let my cry come unto thee.
2 Hide not thy face from me in the day of my distress:
Incline thine ear unto me;
In the day when I call answer me speedily.
3 For my days consume away like smoke,
And my bones are burned as a firebrand.
4 My heart is smitten like grass, and withered;
For I forget to eat my bread.
5 By reason of the voice of my groaning
My bones cleave to my flesh.
6 I am like a pelican of the wilderness;
I am become as an owl of the waste places.
7 I watch, and am become
Like a sparrow that is alone upon the housetop.
8 Mine enemies reproach me all the day;
They that are mad against me do curse by me.
9 For I have eaten ashes like bread,
And mingled my drink with weeping.
10 Because of thine indignation and thy wrath:
For thou hast taken me up, and cast me away.
11 My days are like a shadow that declineth;
And I am withered like grass.
12 But thou, O LORD, shalt abide for ever;
And thy memorial unto all generations.
13 Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion:
For it is time to have pity upon her, yea, the set time is come.
14 For thy servants take pleasure in her stones,
And have pity upon her dust.
15 So the nations shall fear the name of the LORD,
And all the kings of the earth thy glory:
16 For the LORD hath built up Zion,
He hath appeared in his glory;
17 He hath regarded the prayer of the destitute,
And hath not despised their prayer.
18 This shall be written for the generation to come:
And a people which shall be created shall praise the LORD.
19 For he hath looked down from the height of his sanctuary;
From heaven did the LORD behold the earth;
20 To hear the sighing of the prisoner;
To loose those that are appointed to death;
21 That men may declare the name of the LORD in Zion,
And his praise in Jerusalem;
22 When the peoples are gathered together,
And the kingdoms, to serve the LORD.
23 He weakened my strength in the way;
He shortened my days.
24 I said, O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days:
Thy years are throughout all generations.
25 Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth;
And the heavens are the work of thy hands.
26 They shall perish, but thou shalt endure:
Yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment;
As a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed:
27 But thou art the same,
And thy years shall have no end.
28 The children of thy servants shall continue,
And their seed shall be established before thee.
There is a lot of emotional and lyrical appeal to this psalm. The author pours out his heart's feelings with evocative imagery that helps us feel his fears and anxieties. It wakes up our own feelings, remembering our own difficulties of feeling lonely and limited by pains.
And if, for some reason you have a hard time interpreting poetry, the kind of difficulty I've had in the past, then the heading to this psalm removes all doubts of its subject and usefulness. The afflicted are called to read this psalm in their feelings of overwhelming stress as their complaint to God. It becomes our own words of complaint - reverential complaint, but complaint nevertheless.
By these words we voice our anxieties and complaint about our state - yet all while glorifying the work & ability of God. The words may complaint but by no means do they imagine the removal of God. Rather, it pleads that God would be more present in our life. This is the true result of an honest complaint to God. It is not a disrespect or disregard for God, but the glorifying of God's true power and the trust that he will indeed respond to our troubled states.