(To the chief Musician. A Psalm of David.) How long, Jehovah, wilt thou forget me for ever? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me?
Psalm 13 opens with a question that has no soft edges: the psalmist tells God to His face that he feels forgotten, and asks how long it will last. Commentators read that cry as real distress and as faith at the same time.
The question is not a complaint thrown into empty air. It assumes God is listening and that He sets limits.
(v. 1) Though tried by evil without and fears within, the grace of God sustains the soul. So comes the cry, "How long?" This is the language of faith that clings to God. Faith knows He will put a limit to the trials of His people and to the evil of the wicked. Faith can ask, "How long will you forget?" in circumstances that seem to say, "For ever."
To say that God has forgotten is to say something impossible about Him.
The psalmist cries a strange cry, born of closeness and of distance at the same time — that Jehovah, the Unchanging, has forgotten! Then will His forgetfulness itself never change? Will it be permanent? Who can read such a riddle as this? Clouds have hidden the sun, but who would then confuse the sun with the cloud? The cloud passes; the sun remains.
Psalms 11 to 15 belong together, and this one marks the bottom.
In this group of psalms (11-15) the distress of the godly soul deepens. In Psalm 11 he sees the "foundations" going. In Psalm 12 the godly man is gone and the faithful disappear from among the children of men. In this Psalm (13) the soul reaches the deepest point of distress, because the circumstances would make it appear that God Himself has forgotten the soul.
What makes it the lowest point is where the trouble seems to come from — not from enemies only, but from God.
Psalm 13 is deeper distress of soul because of a sense that it comes from God. The faith of God's people cannot go on for ever; they cry, "How long?" "Are You treating us as if we were given up? If it goes on like this, I shall faint under it!"
Nothing in the psalm points to sin as the cause. That is part of what makes it so hard. So the delay has another explanation.
We are not told what caused David to write this psalm that found him so depressed; it may have been while he was an exile hunted by Saul. His faith was in the Lord, yet it wavered as he felt the Lord had forgotten him. The time seemed so long that he feared it might stretch on for ever (v. 1). Such experiences are truly a trial of faith, especially since there is no sign of failure or sin on David's part.
Though the time seems endless, it is God's wisdom that delays the answer. He is patient toward the ungodly. He also knows that His servants need a long exercise of heart, so that faith may be both tested and strengthened.
Should a believer today make these words his own? One writer says the Christian's standing rules out this complaint.
No Christian who knew the grace of God in truth could ever rightly speak the complaint with which this Psalm begins. For the standing of a Christian is a conscious acceptance in the Beloved. He is no longer a stranger, but an heir of God... He is kept in Christ before the Father's face for ever.
For Israel under the old covenant, a hidden face was part of the agreed terms.
That Jehovah should hide His face from His people under the old covenant was strictly in keeping with the terms of the covenant itself. Their disobedience would provoke His anger. The effect would be a course of discipline. Its sharpest edge was that He withdrew His visible favour from them. Without it they were defenceless prey before their enemies.
The words are also read as belonging to a future time of trouble for God's people in Israel.
They are indeed in deep distress... Already the cry is going up from many a heart, "How long will you forget me, O Jehovah? for ever? how long will you hide your face from me?" (Ps. 13:1)... The time of their deliverance has not yet come, but their groans and cries are heard.
The psalm moves from this question to singing.
God snaps the ties of nature in everything that sin has spoiled. He ends all dependence on the creature — and so on self — so that all our trust may fasten on Himself. Then, when we make Him everything, we find Him everything... Here the soul begins with a groan and ends with a song. We have passed through a tunnel of earth into the unveiled glory of heaven.
- Groan. The psalm begins at the lowest point of a series. The trouble seems to come from God Himself, not just from enemies.
- Riddle. To say the Unchanging has forgotten is to confuse the cloud with the sun; the cloud passes, the sun stays.
- Faith. "How long?" is not unbelief but faith's own word, asking a limit from God while the circumstances shout "for ever."
- Delay. No sin explains the silence here. God's wisdom stretches the waiting, so that faith is tested and strengthened.
- Song. When every other support snaps, trust fastens on God alone. The psalm that opened with a groan closes with singing.
How long shall I take counsel in my soul, with sorrow in my heart daily? how long shall mine enemy be exalted over me?
The psalmist has already asked "How long?" twice about God's silence; now he turns the same question on himself and on his enemy. Three pressures meet in one line: a mind arguing with itself, a heart in sorrow all day, and a foe lifted high. The question is whether any of them has a limit.
The question is not asked once. One writer counts the cries and traces how the trial grows:
Four times "How long?" The trial of faith becomes more severe. Sorrow is in the heart and an enemy is outside. Has Jehovah then forgotten? The hearts begin to despair; an answer is demanded, it must come "lest I sleep the sleep of death."
This psalm is heavier than the ones before it. The difference is not the size of the trouble but where the sufferer feels it comes from:
Psalm 13 is a deeper distress of soul because of a sense of its being from God. The faith of God's people cannot go on for ever; they cry, "How long?" "Are You treating us as if we were given up? If it goes on like this, I shall faint under it!"
To take counsel in my soul is to hold a private conference with myself, apart from God. That inward turn produces the other two things this verse names:
Under the pressure of the circumstances the soul turns in upon itself — taking counsel in its own soul apart from God. The weary reasonings of the mind bring no relief. The result of self-occupation, as always, is to fill the heart with sorrow, and to give the enemy an occasion to triumph over the soul.
The delay is not neglect. One writer gives two reasons why God lets the clock run:
Though the time seems endless, it is God's wisdom that delays the answer. He waits not only because He is patient toward the ungodly, but because He knows how necessary it is for His servants to be exercised in heart for a long time, so that faith may be both tested and strengthened.
The enemy is "exalted over me" — that is, measured against the psalmist's own strength. Later in the psalm the measure changes:
With his eyes enlightened, the soul sees clearly the aims of the enemy, and that the resource of the godly is found in the mercy and salvation of the Lord. Occupied with himself, he can only see his own weakness and the power of the enemy in relation to himself. Having turned to the Lord, he sees the enemy in relation to the Lord. The heart was filled with sorrow when it was occupied with its own reasonings in verse 2. Now the heart rejoices in view of the mercy and salvation of the Lord.
One writer applies the psalm to the believer now, and names the promise that answers the fear:
Such experiences are indeed a trial of faith, especially since there is no sign of failure or sin on David's part. Yet the believer today may be lifted high above his circumstances. He needs only to take to heart the truth of the word of the Lord Jesus: "I will never leave you nor forsake you" (Hebrews 13:5). If it seems He has left us, this word is enough to cancel such a fear.
- Counsel — Apart from God, the soul holds a private council with itself. The reasoning goes round and round and brings no relief.
- Sorrow — Self-occupation ends the same way every time. The heart fills with grief, and the grief returns each day.
- Enemy — Measured against my own strength, the foe towers over me. Measured against the Lord, he is small.
- Delay — God's silence is planned, not careless. He is patient toward the ungodly, and He keeps His servants waiting so that faith is tested and strengthened.
- Turn — Looking inward brings sorrow. Looking to the Lord lightens the eyes, and the heart that was full of sorrow rejoices.