Somebody Else’s Mail (28)

The sheer variety of ideas any given psalm generates in the minds of its readers constantly amazes me, both with respect to the circumstances in which the psalmists wrote them and with respect to their intentions in writing. I don’t look frequently at what other commentators have written about the scriptures before putting together one of these posts, but I happened to this morning. Almost everybody had something to say about the inspiration for Psalm 13.

Concerning the circumstances that led David to write it, we have a complete information vacuum. Vacuums apparently exist to be filled.

The Usual Speculation

Thus we get the usual speculations: David wrote this one while on the run from Saul, or perhaps from Absalom. One guess is probably as good as any other, but they are only guesses. It’s reasonable to suppose either situation may have troubled David sufficiently to inspire the first four verses. The NIV Study Bible mysteriously notes that perhaps David wrote Psalm 13 during a severe illness. That’s a bit fanciful, since we have no record of any such thing in the historical records of David’s life, which are far from scanty. In any case, those who wish to fill in the blanks about the psalm’s background find themselves doing it without biblical assistance.

With respect to David’s intentions, we have more to work with, which makes some of the commentary rather baffling. One blogger I came across wrote at length about David’s “depression”. Frankly, not all grief, sorrow or anguish of soul can be accurately described that way. David’s troubled spirits in this psalm are not rooted in trauma, abuse or an undiagnosed chemical imbalance. No mysterious cloud of misery hangs over him. His sorrows have an easily identified cause: a bunch of people want him dead. That would and should trouble just about anyone. It would be odd if it didn’t. Take the enemies away, and the anguish of soul speedily disappears with them. That’s not depression as I understand it.

You, Me and David’s Extremity

The psalm is about dealing with mortal enemies. For most of us, it also makes applying David’s words to our personal, modern circumstances a bit of a stretch. Apart from in the spiritual realm, where live the deadliest enemies of all, nobody I know of wants me dead. I suspect your experiences are similar. Still, David wrote this psalm for the Israelite congregation to sing. We can tell, because he has addressed it to the choirmaster, as with some others. If the words of Psalm 13 do not ring literally true for you or me, they certainly rang true for generations of Judeans afflicted by enemies on all sides. The average Israelite of David’s day had his share of mortal enemies.

All the same, there is meditation material for Christians here too: if David’s God could be trusted in his greatest extremity, we too can surely rely on him through the comparatively insignificant difficulties we encounter. A God who could deliver David from murderous enemies can certainly handle our fractured relationships, church divisions, health scares, difficult marriages, uncooperative children, employment hassles and anything else that comes along.

Psalm 13:1-2 — How Long?

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.

“How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?”

A Phrase in Frequent Use

David gives us four “How longs?” which, if we read between the lines, efficiently summarize his situation. He is currently fighting what he feels is a losing battle: his enemies are exalted over him. He has not lost the day for good or been captured yet, or else he would surely be dead, but anyone looking on may reasonably conclude David’s utter ruination is only a matter of time. The clock is ticking. He has been working through his troubles, trying to rationalize his situation, and his only answer is God. Yet God is not responding to his prayers. He feels abandoned.

“How long?” is a very common OT refrain. The phrase occurs 136 times overall, 24 as the same sort of prayer appeal to God we find in Psalm 13. The earliest to voice his distress this way was Job, the latest OT writer was probably Habakkuk, and the most frequent to articulate his distress with a “How long?” was David, followed by Jeremiah. Even our Lord used the line at least twice, and he was surely aware of its venerable history.

It’s a reasonable request. God always has a faithful answer.

A Forgetful God

People often have theological difficulties with anthropomorphisms like “Will you forget me forever?” or “How long will you hide your face?” when they are addressed to God. Of course God does not forget. Scripture makes that abundantly evident throughout. Furthermore, no man can see God’s face and live, a fact of which David was most surely aware. That sort of self-revelation is not what he was asking for.

One way of reconciling this particular line is to observe that David is probably telling us how his relationship with God appears to him, not what he believes on his best day is actually going on. Another is to note that when the Hebrew writers talk about being forgotten, they are not talking about mental processes or memory, any more than “hide your face” denotes a series of actual movements. Both are metaphors. Terms like “forget” and “hide your face” are euphemisms for the appearance of divine inactivity. The writers are asking, in effect, “How long, O Lord, will you refrain from showing up to battle on my/our behalf?” Absent relief from David’s plight, the knowledge that God has a perfectly functional memory would not help the psalmist a great deal.

Psalm 13:3-4 — A Request

“Consider and answer me, O Lord my God; light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death, lest my enemy say, ‘I have prevailed over him,’ lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.”

The appeal here is a good one, maybe a great one. It’s not because it truly matters one way or another whether David lost any particular battle or, for that matter, whether you and I go down in flames amidst our own spiritual conflicts. But when foes rejoice because they think they have put one over on God, that is something worth fighting over. Whether the enemy thinks he has prevailed over David, you or me, the real issue is that he thinks he has defeated, embarrassed or nullified God in some manner, and that’s when the Lord feels obliged to make his presence known. David understood this. On the surface, his request may appear to be primarily for himself. I think it meant more than that. If the almighty God cannot prevail through his least significant servant, he’s not much of a God. But he is. David dares the Lord to prove it.

Psalm 13:5-6 — Trust and Rejoice

“But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me.”

In the end, it always comes back to the Lord and his character. David can hold fast and wait for deliverance because God’s love is steadfast. He doesn’t quit. He doesn’t love you one day and reject you the next. He is faithful. More than that, he is bountiful. His mercies are not just predictable; they are overflowing. What’s not to sing about?

Can I throw out a question here? Everything David says in these six verses could simply be a commentary on his feelings as he waited for deliverance from God during a tough period of his own life. Equally, each verse could be interpreted Messianically. Can you read a single verse of this psalm and not hear the voice of the Lord Jesus? I can’t. Again, what about the tribulation remnant of Israel. Can you hear their voice in David’s words? Yes, I can too.

As with many of the psalms, everything David wrote here may well apply to more than one era.