Psalms
Chapter 13
2
How Long, Lord?
How long, O Lord, will you forget me and hide your face from me?
3
How long must I suffer pain in my souland grief in my heart all day long? How long shall my enemy triumph over me?
4
Look upon me and answer, O Lord, my God! Give light to my eyes,lest I sleep the sleep of death;
5
lest my enemy say, “I have routed him,” lest my foes rejoice of my fall.
6
But I put my trust in your unfailing love, my heart will rejoice in seeing your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, for he has been good to me!
Commentaries
13
It seems God’s friends can sometimes take liberties. Indeed, they can be peremptory, even to the point of rudeness. One might suppose that they see less danger in presumption than in despair. No doubt they are right! Furthermore, we hear a subtle tone elsewhere in this psalm: that the defeat of God’s friends reflects on God himself. With such pious cunning, we may hope that God is satisfied. The death and resurrection of Christ, who bore our sins, is God’s way of showing that the triumph of sin would have dishonored his honor. Therefore, we pray to God to protect his honor in us. We seem to be its guardians, yet only from God can we receive the strength to keep it. This was not the psalm Jesus began on the cross, but it might have been.