Variety: Psalm 13

Book
Psalms
Chapter
13
Start Verse
1
End Verse
6

Read Psalm 13

For the director of music. A psalm of David.

How long, LORD? Will you forget me for ever?
    How long will you hide your face from me?
 How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
    and day after day have sorrow in my heart?
    How long will my enemy triumph over me?

Look on me and answer, LORD my God.
    Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death,
and my enemy will say, ‘I have overcome him,’
    and my foes will rejoice when I fall.

But I trust in your unfailing love;
    my heart rejoices in your salvation.
I will sing the LORD’s praise,
    for he has been good to me.

Reflect

Psalm 13 is a short psalm but it very clearly communicates the writer David’s almost despair. He’s been suffering for a long time and can’t see an end to it. So he pleads with God, ‘How long?’ 

How long, we might ask, must I wrestle with this mental anguish, this fear, this depression, this conflict with people close to me, this endless anxiety about my child or parent or sibling or partner? And, as we’ve seen already this week, this suffering is only made worse by the feeling that God has gone AWOL and doesn’t care. 

But I said that David is in almost despair – because in this psalm he is at last able to turn his thoughts away from his troubles and on to God. He remembers that God has been good to him in the past, and this gives him hope that he will sing God’s praise in the future. It also gives him the strength to trust in God in the present moment.

‘Trust’ is a beautiful word. It’s a very grounded word. It suggests contact with something solid – a floor that won’t give way, a hand that will keep holding on, a friend who quietly sits with you in the aftermath of trauma.

It’s hard to stop wrestling with our thoughts when we’re in unending pain. But David gives us some hints of a way through: remembering times when God has definitely helped in the past, believing that he will do so again in the future and trusting him in the present moment. Staying open to seeing God at work. 

In that trust and stillness often comes the turning point.

Respond

What does trust look like for you this Lent? Name some unanswered prayers and the ‘how long?’ questions that you have on your heart today. Then skip to the end of Psalm 13 and work back from there in your prayer:

  • Recall to mind a time when God has helped you in the past
  • Declare out loud your trust in God
  • Repeat, ‘Look on me and answer, Lord my God.’

Watch out for any ways God might be working this week – and keep trusting.