Psalm 13
Lesson Focus
In Psalm 13, we explore the psalmist’s desperate cry to God in the face of perceived abandonment and witness its transformation into confident hope in God's steadfast love and faithfulness.
Lesson Outcomes
By the end of this lesson, students should:
Understand the emotional journey from despair to trust, as expressed in Psalm 13.
Explore how personal suffering can lead to a deeper reliance on God's past faithfulness.
Reflect on the role of honest lament in their own relationship with God.
Catching Up on the Story
Over the last few weeks, we have explored several psalms. We have noted that each psalm is characterized by quiet confidence in God’s steadfast love and faithfulness. This is not to say that the psalmist does not lay bare the intense emotion produced by his current distressed situation. On the contrary, the psalmist presents his feelings with a rawness often lacking in Christianity today.
Questioning God regarding God’s presence and willingness to intervene in the psalmist’s distressed life is also present. Feelings of abandonment in the face of danger pervade psalms like Psalm 22 and this week’s psalm, Psalm 13. While the psalmist might feel like God is nowhere to be found, never does the psalmist doubt the ability of God to bring salvation in the way only God can. The psalmist often draws from personal experience and the collective and historical experience of God’s people to proclaim continued faith in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
We’ve also noted that while the psalms we have examined are mostly written in the first person singular, Israel has adopted them as communal and liturgical songs. Often, the imagery is generic enough for individuals and Israel to apply the psalm to their current situations. Israel can then cry out to God in despair while simultaneously expressing confidence in the coming of God’s salvation.
At only six verses long, Psalm 13 is the shortest prayer for deliverance in Israel’s songbook. Despite its brevity, Psalm 13 was no less significant for Israel as an individual and communal prayer. We can split Psalm 13 into three short sections. Verses 1-2 directly address God questioning God’s presence. In verses 3-4, the psalmist directly petitions God to intervene before the psalmist is overcome by death. In the final section, verses 5-6, the psalmist confesses his confidence in God’s faithful deliverance.
How Long, O Lord?
Psalm 13 begins with a phrase commonly found in the Psalms, “How long, O Lord?” The phrase is repeated four times over two verses, reinforcing the desperateness of the psalmist’s situation. We know nothing of the context behind the psalm. We can only assert that the psalmist, as in Psalm 22, feels abandoned by his God.
Psalm 13 is not a reflection within the psalmist’s heart and mind but a direct address to God. Reading the words on the pages (or screens) of our Bible robs us of the ability to truly appreciate the emotions the psalmist likely experienced. It might be helpful to imagine ourselves immersed in a situation of great distress and having a very frank conversation with God. Psalm 13 is likely not the first prayer the psalmist has directed toward God. It is reasonable to assume that the situation prompting this prayer has existed for some time, with help slow in coming. In my mind, I imagine the psalmist standing outside with their face turned up toward the sky while he shakes his fist at God, yelling, “How long! Will you forget me forever?!”
It’s important to note that the psalmist addresses God by the name God gave Israel to use before the Exodus, YHWH. “The name bestows the possibility and the promise of prayer. Prayer is already a response, based on the grace of the knowledge of God given through words and works” (Mays, 78). In other words, it is because God has revealed himself to us that we can pray at all. God’s revelation to us guarantees God’s continued faithful presence with God’s people. The psalmist evokes Israel’s collective history with God by calling God by his name. The psalmist takes his place as one for whom God has already worked in the past. The previous presence of God only highlights God’s perceived absence all the more.
The psalmists’ questioning cry does not seek answers so much as it presents the current distress to God in stark terms (Mays, 78). The psalmist believes God has forgotten him and turned his face away. The phrase “hide your face” is a common expression for the absence of God. The absence of God produces deep pain and sorrow in the psalmist. The sorrow is partly a result of the success the psalmist’s enemies have had against him.
In a world where people’s gods were judged based on the success and prosperity they experienced, defeat at the hands of an enemy meant that their god was superior. If the psalmist’s enemies gained honor at his expense, they would inevitably believe the psalmist’s God was inferior to theirs. So, there is more at stake here than just the psalmist’s life or dignity. The triumph of the psalmist’s enemies threatens the glory, grandeur, and power of Israel’s God.
Answer Me!
The psalmist’s prayer continues with a series of imperatives: Consider me! Answer me! Give light to my eyes! A long time ago, I was in a Bible study where we discussed a passage of scripture and one of the participants became fixated on the fact that the person offering a prayer didn’t address God with sufficient politeness. I don’t remember what passage we were studying, but apparently, a character in the text hadn’t said, “Please!”
I’m all for politeness when addressing or responding to others. We should care deeply about how others hear and perceive our words. It was unfortunate, however, that the point of the lesson was lost because the participant projected her understanding of polite discourse onto a text written over two thousand years ago! Don’t get me wrong, in our prayers, we probably shouldn’t be rude. In the context of a psalm like the one we are considering, a sense of urgency overrides our culturally conditioned sense of decorum.
The psalmist implores the God which he serves to intervene. The imperative to “consider” him displays the psalmist’s feeling of abandonment. Over the last few weeks, we’ve noticed abandonment as a significant theme. When things go wrong, the psalmist wonders aloud if God is paying attention. Like a child desperately seeking a parent’s attention, the psalmist incessantly taps God on the leg or shoulder to get God’s attention. But simple attention is not enough. The psalmist wants answers; “Answer me!” he yells. Again, the psalmist addressed God by the name he gave Israel, YHWH. There is no ambiguity here. The psalmist places himself in a significant and close relationship with the God he has been taught to know, love, and serve. There is an expectation of response because of the covenantal relationship with Israel that God has affirmed over and over again.
The second half of verse three contains the third imperative, “Give light to my eyes.” “Light to my eyes” is a Hebrew idiom indicating the individual’s health. If your eyes were dim, it meant you were ill and possibly near death (Lennox, 57). If death takes the psalmist, his enemies will rejoice over the psalmist’s defeat. The psalmist’s death will also injure the reputation of Israel’s covenant God. More is at stake here than the psalmist’s life.
But I…
The third section takes a hopeful turn, asserting God’s steadfast love and faithfulness. The Hebrew word, hesed, which is repeatedly used in the Old Testament to describe God and God’s relationship with Israel and creation, is now on the psalmist’s lips. Despite the questioning, despite the pain and terror of waiting for God to make God’s presence known, the psalmist looks backward toward God’s previous faithfulness. The God of the psalmist’s ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, has proven his faithfulness over and over again. What God has done in the past, God will do in the present and the future.
The only legitimate response to God’s past faithfulness and acts of salvation are joyful songs of praise. Note the shift in verb tense from the beginning of verse five. The psalmist “trusted” in God’s faithfulness. But now he “shall rejoice” and “will sing to the Lord.” While the psalmist looks back, he simultaneously looks to the present and the future. There is an anticipation of the salvation that God will bring when God “considers and answers” the pleas of the faithful.
The final verse, “I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me,” makes the causal explicit. Despite all that is happening, the psalmist will engage in joyful praise because of what God has done in the past.
So What?
As it was for the psalmist, life today is not always easy. At times, we will be compelled by life’s circumstances to exclaim, “How long, O Lord?” We will feel alone and abandoned, and possibly like God is nowhere to be found. Our desperate situations might be caused by our own unfaithfulness or our commitment to walking in the ways of Jesus Christ. We cannot expect that faithfulness in following Jesus does not contain the possibility that our end won’t look like Jesus’. That’s both a bad and good thing.
It’s bad because Jesus’ commitment to the way of love for friends and enemies, for sinners and saints alike, led ultimately to suffering and death on the cross. Unlike Psalm 22, Jesus doesn’t evoke Psalm 13 while on the cross, but he could have. The suffering Jesus experienced was at least as bad as anything the psalmist endured, if not much more so. Jesus could have prayed/sung this psalm and meant every word of it. That leads us to the good.
Along with the psalmist, Jesus could also faithfully pray verses five and six. Despite the rejection and suffering, Jesus trusted in God’s hesed, God’s steadfast love, and faithfulness. The promise of God’s faithfulness sustained Jesus through the worst the world had to throw at him. Amid the pain, there was always a joy-filled, hopeful expectation of salvation and redemption.
As we are called to follow Jesus’ way, we are called to withstand suffering of all kinds with the same joy-filled and hopeful expression that both the psalmists and Jesus displayed. Let us rejoice in our salvation, singing to the Lord songs of praise because God has (and will) deal bountifully with us!
Discussion Questions
Read the text aloud. Then, read the text to yourself quietly. Read it slowly, as if you were very unfamiliar with the story.
Why do you think the psalmist repeatedly repeats the phrase “How long, O Lord?”?
How does Psalm 13 compare with other psalms we’ve discussed, like Psalm 22?
What emotions do you think the psalmist feels when he asks if God has forgotten him?
How would you feel in a situation where you thought God was not listening?
Why do you think the psalmist addresses God so directly without much politeness?
Have you ever felt abandoned by God? How did you respond?
What does the psalmist mean when he asks God to “give light to my eyes”?
How does recalling God’s past faithfulness help the psalmist in the present?
What role does trust in God’s steadfast love play in the psalmist's change of tone?
How can we find hope and trust in God during difficult times like the psalmist?
Works Cited
Stephen J. Lennox, Psalms: A Bible Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition. Indianapolis, IN: Wesleyan Publishing House, 1999.
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