Psalm 13

This psalm expresses the feelings of a man who is at the edge of depression, and it shows the way out. There is a ray of hope in the query: "How long, O LORD?" We could actually place an exclamation mark at the place of the question mark. Only people who live within the limitations of time and space, and who are aware of it, can emit such a distress call. The solution is found in the awareness of the tension between time and eternity. If the caller realizes why he calls, he finds the answer at the same time. The very fact a man who lives within the boundaries of time and space calls upon the eternal God puts everything it its right perspective.

One of the characteristics of time is the fact that it passes on. Conditions may last a longer time or a shorter time, but there always comes a time when they change or end; nothing on earth is lasting. It may be difficult, however, for man to look over the edge of his existence and gaze into God's eternity. Time has a tendency to dull our sense of eternity, and thus we lose our touch with reality.

This seems to be the condition in which David finds himself at the writing of this psalm; but, at the same time, we hear in the cry "How long, O Lord?" the conviction that the condition is not a lasting one.

We are not told what has happened, but for some reason, David had lost the sense of God's presence which he normally possessed, and he, incorrectly, blamed God for this. It is, of course, impossible that the omniscient God would forget, or that the omnipresent One would hide Himself. The cause for David's negative experience, therefore, is to be traced to David and not to God. This does not, necessarily, mean that there are specific sins in David's life which caused the crisis, but it would also not have been possible to go through such experiences, if it were not for the fact that he was part of a fallen creation. Also, a person's emotions are never constant; we all have our ups and downs, even in our relationship with God. These are, however, our ups and downs and not God's.

David ascribes to God certain conditions that are normal for sinful man, but that are an impossibility for a holy God. God cannot forget anything, nor can He hide Himself. What David does is projecting his the frustration of his own soul upon the character of God. In a sense, this is a healthy exercise; it expresses the essence of the work of redemption Jesus accomplished for us. He took our sins upon Himself. God made Him to be sin for us. He took upon Himself the blame that we should have borne. This is what we mean when we say that we lay our sins on Jesus. It sounds impossible, but if we reproach God, unjustly, that He forgets us and that He hides Himself from us, God accepts this reproach, and thus, takes away our sins. However impossible this may sound to us, but David expresses with these words the essence of our salvation. He, himself, may not have understood this clearly, but the Holy Spirit uses these words to give a clear picture of the reality of our redemption. David's, "How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever?" is a shadow of Jesus' cry on the cross: " 'Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?'-- which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"¹ The question is too deep for us to be able to give the answer! So, David's "How long, O LORD?" actually accentuates what God does, and this turns out to be the salvation of humanity.

The second "how long" pertains to David himself. The NIV's rendering: "How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart?" is less clear than the paraphrase of TLB: "How long must I be hiding daily anguish in my heart?" It deals with a tension that is building up and that cannot find an escape valve. When a person is unable to express his anxieties he often falls into a depression. He finds things in himself which he does not understand and cannot digest. David feels himself thrown back upon himself, and since the sense of God's presence is gone, he cannot talk things over with the Lord. The secret of a spiritual and emotional equilibrium is to acknowledge the Lord in all our ways. As Solomon says in the book of Proverbs: "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight."² If we cannot do this our lives will start to evolve around ourselves; we start going around in a circle and finally we are sinking. David again realizes that the experience he is going through is also a passing episode. A person who asks the question "how long?" knows that the situation is not lasting.

David's thoughts pertain to his thinking, and the sorrow affects his emotions. It is especially this sorrow in his heart of which he cannot rid himself. The complaint in itself is the answer. In addressing his complaint to God, he casts his trouble upon Him.

The third "how long?" relates to the enemy. We assume that the enemy here is not, in the first place, a human foe but a demonic power. The devil uses human relations to put pressure on people, but the actual struggle is not with "flesh and blood." Again, the "how long?" expresses the conviction that the condition is not normal, or lasting. The Evil One is our enemy; he is "a murderer from the beginning," and "the father of lies."³ He is even the enemy of those who are on his side. In the first prophecy of the Bible God says to Satan: "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers."⁴ In the order of creation, God placed man above the angels, both the good and the bad ones. If a demon tries to place himself above man, he creates an abnormal situation. From a psychological viewpoint, we should reverse the order of the three "how longs," for God does not cause our depressions.

In vs. 3 David asks for three things: that God would look on him, answer him and give light to his eyes. The first request still belongs to the questions David had in the opening verses of this psalm; it is a projection of David's feelings of depression upon God. There never was any question as to whether God would look on him or not. God's omniscience and His omnipresence are a guarantee that nothing escapes His eye. The prophet Hanani said to Asa, king of Judah: "For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him."⁵ That is the answer to David's request. On the basis of His Word, we may expect with certainty that God will answer us if we obey, fulfilling the condition that our heart is fully committed to Him. This brings the ball back into our court and makes God's answer conditional upon our attitude.

With the request that God give light to his eyes, David returns to reality. This sense of reality seems to be the first answer to his prayer. The danger of passing through an extended period of oppression is that we fall asleep in the spiritual sense of the word, and that we begin to see the break of our fellowship with God, with all its disastrous results, as a normal condition. The light should never go out of our spiritual eyes. We should keep our eyes on God's reality, lest we lose our grip on life. In C. S. Lewis' book The Silver Chair, the author describes a scene where the green witch attacks the sense of reality of two children, a marshwiggle and a prince, by putting some incense on the fire that dulled their senses and by softly plucking the strings of her guitar. Jesus emphasizes the need for watchfulness. To fall asleep assures a speedy spiritual death. The devil succeeded in neutralizing the influence the disciples could have had on Jesus' suffering in Gethsemane by inducing sleep.

The question is: "how do we fall asleep and how do we stay awake?" Since David uses the analogy of sleep as in this psalm, the answer to our question has to be found in an analogy also. Most of the time sleep is not a condition we can manipulate according to our own desire. It is sometimes possible to stay awake by an act of the will, but more often than not, sleep is stronger than we are. If we learn to relax, we will fall asleep more easily. In the spiritual realm things work in the same way; we can let ourselves go to the point of falling asleep, but our determination not to fall asleep will have little or no effect, unless God gives light to our eyes. That is why the Bible links watching to prayer. It is the tactic of the enemy to lull us to sleep. This realization ought to be enough to jolt us awake, but it, usually, is not.

The Bible gives us examples of people who fell asleep but who were aroused in time, such as Lot. The secret is in our eyes: as long as our eyes are fixed upon Jesus and we keep on seeing His reality, we will not be overwhelmed by sleep. Moses kept his eyes on "Him who is invisible" and this saved him from being drugged by the atmosphere of the Egyptian court. The writer to the Hebrews says: "By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward. By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king's anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible."⁶

Sleep brings forgetfulness; we cease to remember where we came from, where we are at present, and where we are headed. As long as we keep on asking ourselves these questions, we will keep alert. They are the key to our walk through life. If Christ's light shines upon us, our acts and motives will remain pure, because we walk in the light. Paul writes to the Ephesians: "Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said: 'Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.' Be very careful, then, how you live-- not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil."⁷ And to the Christians in Rome he writes: "And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature."⁸ We walk in God's daylight.

David establishes a clear connection between his falling asleep and the presence of the enemy. The devil makes people blind, but the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to the reality of life. In the last verses of this psalm David demonstrates that his eyes are open, because he is conscious of God's unfailing love and salvation, which are guaranteed to him by God's Word. That is why he breaks out in a song: "I will sing to the LORD, for he has been good to me." He does not tell us if there has been any change in his circumstances, but inwardly something happened to him. God opened his eyes for a reality that was there all the time, but which had been hidden from his eyes. When Hagar found herself in the desert and she thought that her son, Ishmael was dying with thirst, God did not make a well for her, but we read: "Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water."⁹ The blessing consisted in waking up to God's reality, in seeing what was already there. All we often need is to have our eyes opened, to come to the place where we can praise God. Only realists have praise in their hearts.

² Prov. 3:5,6

³ John 8:44

⁴ Gen. 3:15

⁵ II Chr. 16:9

⁶ Heb. 11:24-27

⁷ Eph. 5:11-16

⁸ Rom. 13:11-14

⁹ Gen. 21:19

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