Psalm 13:1-6  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?  (2)  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?  (3)  Consider and answer me, O LORD my God; light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death,  (4)  lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,” lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.  (5)  But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.  (6)  I will sing to the LORD, because he has dealt bountifully with me.

David, the man whom God called “a man after My own heart,” went through a period when God felt distant. He describes it in Psalm 13. Out of the depths of his heart David repeats four times the haunting cry, “How long?” There is no indication in these verses that David had sinned. But his enemy was about to get him. In spite of David’s repeated prayers, God seemed unavailable. Have you ever been there? You desperately call out to God, but He seems to have taken an extended vacation. Psalm 13 tells you what to do when God seems distant.

The psalm falls into three stanzas of two verses each:

1. Questions from Sorrow.(13:1‑2)
2. Requests for Relief.(13:3‑4)
3. Trust in Truth. (13:5‑6).

The stanzas seem to decrease in their magnitude or turmoil. At first David cries out in anguish. Then he offers a more gentle petition. Finally, he rests in the joy of knowing that God will answer him. Franz Delitzsch says it well: “This song as it were casts up constantly lessening waves, until it becomes still as the sea when smooth as a mirror, and the only motion discernible at last is that of the joyous ripple of calm repose” (Commentary on the Old Testament, [Eerdmans] 5:199).

Discussion Questions

1. How would you answer a critic who said, “You’re denying reality to believe in God’s love when terrible things happen to you”?
2. Some groups offer instant godliness through some dramatic experience. Why is this so appealing? Is it biblical?
3. What are ways that we can grow in lamenting as individuals and as a church?
4. How would you counsel a Christian going through a difficult trial who said, “I just can’t trust God”?