Psalm 13:1
“The Cry of Abandonment”Psalm 13:1–2
Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain
Bible text: Berean Standard Bible · Public domain
Bible text: American Standard Version (1901) · Public domain
Bible text: World English Bible, Messianic edition · Public domain
Bible text: Geneva Bible (1599) · Public domain
Bible text: Young's Literal Translation · Public domain
- Superscription
- לַמְנַצֵּחַlam·na·Tze·achto the choirmasterH5329Prep-l ¦ V-Piel-Prtcpl-msVerb Piel Participle Singular Masculine Absoluteלַto theמְנַצֵּחַchoirmaster
- מִזְמוֹרmiz·Mora psalmH4210N-msNoun Singular Masculine Absolute
- לְדָוִדle·da·Vidof DavidH1732Prep-l ¦ N-proper-mNoun Proper MasculineלְofדָוִדDavid
- Verse
- עַד'aduntilH5704PrepPreposition
- אָנָה'A·nahwhen?H575InterrogParticle Interrogative
- יְהוָהYah·wehO YahwehH3068N-properNoun Proper Title
- תִּשְׁכָּחֵנִיtish·ka·Che·niwill you forget meH7911V-Qal-Imperf-2ms ¦ 1csVerb Qal Imperfect 2nd Singular Masculineתִּשְׁכָּחֵwill you forgetנִיme
- נֶצַחNe·tzachperpetuityH5331N-msNoun Singular Masculine Absolute
- עַד'aduntilH5704PrepPreposition
- אָנָה'A·nahwhen?H575InterrogParticle Interrogative
- תַּסְתִּירtas·Tirwill you hideH5641V-Hiphil-Imperf-2msVerb Hiphil Imperfect 2nd Singular Masculine
- אֶת'et[obj.]H853DirObjMParticle Object Indicator
- פָּנֶיךָpa·Nei·khayour faceH6440N-mpc ¦ 2msNoun Plural Masculine Construct with suffixפָּנֶיfaceךָyour
- מִמֶּנִּיmi·Me·nifrom meH4480Prep ¦ 1csPrepositionמִמֶּfromנִּיme
English is a literal word-by-word gloss of the Hebrew, not the KJV's wording. Why?
This is the original text the KJV's translators worked from — each Hebrew word with its own literal English meaning in this verse, prepared by scholars at Tyndale House, Cambridge. The KJV translates whole sentences, not word by word, so its wording differs: one Hebrew word can become several English words, and the KJV may choose “the LORD” where the gloss reads “Yahweh”. Both are faithful — they answer different questions. For the KJV's own rendering, switch to the KJV text.
Words in [ ] are added by the English.
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Public-domain commentary
Matthew Henry
From his Commentary on the Whole Bible. Henry wrote on whole passages, and this entry covers Psalm 13:1–6. He set out his notes in a four-level outline, kept here as he numbered it.
David, in affliction, is here pouring out his soul before God; his address is short, but the method is very observable, and of use for direction and encouragement.
I.His troubles extort complaints (Psalm 13:1, Psalm 13:2); and the afflicted have liberty to pour out their complaint before the Lord, Ps.
102 title. It is some ease to a troubled spirit to give vent to its griefs, especially to give vent to them at the throne of grace, where we are sure to find one who is afflicted in the afflictions of his people and is troubled with the feeling of their infirmities; thither we have boldness of access by faith, and there we have parrēsia - freedom of speech. Observe here,
1.What David complains of.
(1.)God's unkindness; so he construed it, and it was his infirmity. He thought God had forgotten him, had forgotten his promises to him, his covenant with him, his former lovingkindness which he had shown him and which he took to be an earnest of further mercy, had forgotten that there was such a man in the world, who needed and expected relief and succour from him. Thus Zion said, My God has forgotten me (Isaiah 49:14), Israel said, My way is hidden from the Lord, Isaiah 40:27. Not that any good man can doubt the omniscience, goodness, and faithfulness of God; but it is a peevish expression of prevailing fear, which yet, when it arises from a high esteem and earnest desire of God's favour, though it be indecent and culpable, shall be passed by and pardoned, for the second thought will retract it and repent of it. God hid his face from him, so that he wanted that inward comfort in God which he used to have, and herein was a type of Christ upon the cross, crying out, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? God sometimes hides his face from his own children, and leaves them in the dark concerning their interest in him; and this they lay to heart more than any outward trouble whatsoever.
(2.)His own uneasiness.
[1.]He was racked with care, which filled his head: I take counsel in my soul; "I am at a loss, and am inops consilii - without a friend to advise with that I can put any confidence in, and therefore am myself continually projecting what to do to help myself; but none of my projects are likely to take effect, so that I am at my wits' end, and in a continual agitation." Anxious cares are heavy burdens with which good people often load themselves more than they need.
[2.]He was overwhelmed with sorrow, which filled his heart: I have sorrow in my heart daily. He had a constant disposition to sorrow and it preyed upon his spirits, not only in the night, when he was silent and solitary, but by day too, when lighter griefs are diverted and dissipated by conversation and business; nay, every day brought with it fresh occasions of grief; the clouds returned after the rain. The bread of sorrow is sometimes the saint's daily bread. Our Master himself was a man of sorrows.
(3.)His enemies' insolence, which added to his grief. Saul his great enemy, and others under him, were exalted over him, triumphed in his distress, pleased themselves with his grief, and promised themselves a complete victory over him. This he complained of as reflecting dishonour upon God, and his power and promise.
2.How he expostulates with God hereupon: "How long shall it be thus?" And, "Shall it be thus for ever?" Long afflictions try our patience and often tire it. It is a common temptation, when trouble lasts long, to think it will last always; despondency then turns into despair, and those that have long been without joy begin, at last, to be without hope. "Lord, tell me how long thou wilt hide thy face, and assure me that it shall not be for ever, but that thou wilt return at length in mercy to me, and then I shall the more easily bear my present troubles."
II.His complaints stir up his prayers, Psalm 13:3, Psalm 13:4.
We should never allow ourselves to make any complaints but what are fit to be offered up to God and what drive us to our knees. Observe here,
1.What his petitions are: Consider my case, hear my complaints, and enlighten my eyes, that is, (1.) "Strengthen my faith;" for faith is the eye of the soul, with which it sees above, and sees through, the things of sense. "Lord, enable me to look beyond my present troubles and to foresee a happy issue of them." (2.) "Guide my way; enable me to look about me, that I may avoid the snares which are laid for me." (3.) "Refresh my soul with the joy of thy salvation." That which revives the drooping spirits is said to enlighten the eyes, 1 Samuel 14:27; Ezra 9:8. "Lord, scatter the cloud of melancholy which darkens my eyes, and let my countenance be made pleasant."
2.What his pleas are. He mentions his relation to God and interest in him (O Lord my God!) and insists upon the greatness of the peril, which called for speedy relief and succour. If his eyes were not enlightened quickly,
(1.)He concludes that he must perish: "I shall sleep the sleep of death; I cannot live under the weight of all this care and grief." Nothing is more killing to a soul then the want of God's favour, nothing more reviving than the return of it.
(2.)That then his enemies would triumph: "Lest my enemy say, So would I have it; lest Saul, lest Satan, be gratified in my fall." It would gratify the pride of his enemy: He will say, "I have prevailed, I have gotten the day, and been too hard for him and his God." It would gratify the malice of his enemies: They will rejoice when I am moved. And will it be for God's honour to suffer them thus to trample upon all that is sacred both in heaven and earth?
III.His prayers are soon turned into praises (Psalm 13:5, Psalm 13:6):
But my heart shall rejoice and I will sing to the Lord. What a surprising change is here in a few lines! In the beginning of the psalm we have him drooping, trembling, and ready to sink into melancholy and despair; but, in the close of it, rejoicing in God, and elevated and enlarged in his praises. See the power of faith, the power of prayer, and how good it is to draw near to God. If we bring our cares and griefs to the throne of grace, and leave them there, we may go away like Hannah, and our countenance will be no more sad, 1 Samuel 1:18. And here observe the method of his comfort.
1.God's mercy is the support of his faith. "My case is bad enough, and I am ready to think it deplorable, till I consider the infinite goodness of God; but, finding I have that to trust to, I am comforted, though I have no merit of my own. In former distresses I have trusted in the mercy of God, and I never found that it failed me; his mercy has in due time relieved me and my confidence in it has in the mean time supported me. Even in the depth of this distress, when God hid his face from me, when without were fightings and within were fears, yet I trusted in the mercy of God and that was as an anchor in a storm, by the help of which, though I was tossed, I was not overset." And still I do trust in thy mercy; so some read it. "I refer myself to that, with an assurance that it will do well for me at last." This he pleads with God, knowing what pleasure he takes in those that hope in his mercy, Psalm 147:11.
2.His faith in God's mercy filled his heart with joy in his salvation; for joy and peace come by believing, Romans 15:13. Believing, you rejoice, 1 Peter 1:8. Having put his trust in the mercy of God, he is fully assured of salvation, and that his heart, which was now daily grieving, should rejoice in that salvation. Though weeping endure long, joy will return.
3.His joy in God's salvation would fill his mouth with songs of praise (Psalm 13:6): "I will sing unto the Lord, sing in remembrance of what he has done formerly; though I should never recover the peace I have had, I will die blessing God that ever I had it. He has dealt bountifully with me formerly, and he shall have the glory of that, however he is pleased to deal with me now. I will sing in hope of what he will do for me at last, being confident that all will end well, will end everlastingly well." But he speaks of it as a thing past (He has dealt bountifully with me), because by faith he had received the earnest of the salvation and he was as confident of it as if it had been done already.
In singing this psalm and praying it over, if we have not the same complaints to make that David had, we must thank God that we have not, dread and deprecate his withdrawings, sympathize with those that are troubled in mind, and encourage ourselves in our most holy faith and joy.
Historical interpretation
Two Centuries of Reception
5 surviving comments on this verse. Each one is dated, so this reads as a timeline rather than a list.
Select a marker to jump to its quote. Markers stagger vertically where authors wrote within a few decades of each other.
The psalm’s theme, in fact, is clear: it is uttered on the part of David himself when he suffered the effects of the sin with Bathsheba. On falling foul of every harsh, grievous and painful incident on that account, remember, he then identified the sin as the cause, especially on hearing that “the Lord has taken away your sin.” You see, while he received the gift as coming from a loving Lord, he thought it behooved him not to forget the sin but instead to advance in virtue with the degree of determination he required to be preserved from committing such a sin against so good a lord. But on being caught up in the events involving Absalom in particular, he believed the outcome was God’s abandoning him and realized the sin was most of all to blame. He therefore asks God to be completely reconciled to him and not forsake him but to lift the weight of misfortune that was proving too heavy for the strength of the sufferer.
Whence comes his knowledge that God had forgotten him, does the text say? Since he knew also when he remembered him, and he was wise enough to know what forgetting meant and what remembering. Not like the majority of people, who, when they are wealthy, when they enjoy a good reputation with people, when everything goes favorably for them, when they better their foes, then think God remembers them. Hence neither do they understand when it is God forgets them. They do not recognize the sign of God’s remembering, you see, nor do they grasp the sign of his forgetting.… Nothing, after all, brings remembrance by God so much as doing good, being sober and watchful, practicing virtue; likewise, nothing prompts forgetting so much as living in sin and giving oneself to greed and rapacity. So for your part, dearly beloved, when you are in trouble, do not say, “God has forgotten me,” but when you are living in sin and everything is going favorably for you. After all, if you knew this, you would quickly abandon evil things.
"For Christ is the end of the law to every one that believes." [Romans 10:4] "How long, O Lord, will You forget me unto the end?" [Psalm 13:1] that is, put me off as to spiritually understanding Christ, who is the Wisdom of God, and the true end of all the aim of the soul. "How long will You turn away Your face from me?" As God does not forget, so neither does He turn His face away: but Scripture speaks after our manner. Now God is said to turn away His face, when He does not give to the soul, which as yet has not the pure eye of the mind, the knowledge of Himself.
The forgetfulness of God [would be] a very serious thing, even temporarily. It would mean death, the loss of immortality.
He asks for the appearance of Christ whom he already foresaw. For his face is what was capable of being seen with the eyes of the body, which that holy man with this general longing rightly desired to look upon. Such a face deemed it right to save the world by his heavenly appearance.
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This verse
David asks the LORD how long he will forget him, whether it will be for ever, and how long he will hide his face, the cry of a believer who feels cut off from God’s favour.
“To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.”
The title names David as the writer and gives the psalm to the leader of the music, for use in worship. It names no occasion.
“How long wilt thou forget me, O LORD?”
The first of four “how long” questions, addressed to God by his covenant name. Shâkach is the plain word for forget, and David speaks of how his trouble feels.
“for ever?”
The forgetting is joined to “for ever”, and the fear grows that the trouble will never end (Lamentations 5:20).
“how long wilt thou hide thy face from me?”
The second question says the first again in new words. The hidden face is the loss of God’s favour and presence, the opposite of the blessing “The LORD make his face shine upon thee” (Numbers 6:25).
Passage studyPsalm 13:1–2
David Asks the LORD How Long
Summary
Psalm 13 opens with David asking the LORD “how long” four times in two verses. He feels forgotten, perhaps for ever, and he feels that the LORD has hidden his face from him. Inside, he turns his plans over in his soul and carries sorrow in his heart every day. Outside, an enemy has been lifted up over him. Every one of these questions is spoken to the LORD himself, and the psalm that begins here goes on to prayer in verse 3 and to trust and praise at its close. These two verses give God’s people words for a long trouble, and they show that the LORD is the one to whom such words are brought.
Four times “How long”
The psalm’s title, “To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David,” names David as its writer and hands the psalm to the leader of Israel’s music. So a deeply personal prayer was set to music and given a place in the worship of God’s people. The title names no occasion. David’s life had many seasons that fit these words, such as the years when Saul hunted him in the wilderness (1 Samuel 23:14) or the day he fled Jerusalem before his son Absalom (2 Samuel 15:13–14). Left open, the psalm serves any of God’s people in a long trouble.
The Hebrew for “how long” is ʻad-ʼanah, literally “until where?”, the question of someone who has waited and longs for an end. David asks it four times. How long will the LORD forget him? How long will he hide his face? How long must David take counsel in his soul? How long will his enemy be exalted? The first two questions are about the LORD, the third about David’s own heart, and the fourth about his enemy, so the whole of his trouble is laid out before God.
Psalm 13 is a lament, a psalm in which a believer pours out his distress to God. Laments usually move from complaint to a request for help, then to trust in God, and often to a promise of praise, and this psalm follows that path closely. The complaint fills verses 1 and 2. At verse 3 David turns to asking: “Consider and hear me, O LORD my God.” Trust comes in verse 5, “But I have trusted in thy mercy,” and the psalm ends in song (Psalm 13:5–6). The complaint is given its full length first, and the way through it is prayer.
Forgotten by the LORD, “for ever?”
The verb for forget, shâkach, is the ordinary word for forgetting. David addresses the LORD, the covenant name of Israel’s God, who bound himself to his people by promise. To ask how long that God will forget him is the sharpest complaint David could make, because the LORD is his only hope and help.
Then come the words “for ever?” The verse joins the forgetting to “for ever”, and the question grows from how long the trouble will last to whether it will ever end. Lamentations asks the LORD the same thing on behalf of his people: “Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, and forsake us so long time?” (Lamentations 5:20). Asaph asks in his distress, “Hath God forgotten to be gracious?” (Psalm 77:7–9).
God does not truly forget his people. David’s word describes how his trouble feels from inside, and he speaks it to the very God he trusts to remember him. The LORD’s own promise stands over every such prayer: “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee” (Hebrews 13:5).
What does it mean that God hides his face?
For God to hide his face is for him to withdraw his favour and the sense of his presence, and David feels that withdrawal as his deepest trouble. The verb çâthar means to hide or conceal, and the whole phrase in Hebrew is satar panim, hiding the face. The noun for face, pânîym, is plural in form but always used as a singular, and its meaning reaches from the face itself to the front of a thing and to presence. When God’s face is toward a person, he is present with him in favour and blessing.
The priests blessed Israel with the words, “The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee” (Numbers 6:25), and a hidden face is the opposite of that blessing. Scripture can speak of God hiding his face as a sign of judgment, and God’s people also ask about it when they cannot see the reason. Another psalm asks, “Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and forgettest our affliction and our oppression?” (Psalm 44:24), joining the forgetting and the hidden face just as David does.
To David it feels like being left alone and exposed to his enemies and his suffering. He names no sin here. He tells the LORD how things are with him and asks how long it will last, and that question already expects the LORD to turn his face toward him again.
Counsel in the soul and sorrow in the heart
Verse 2 turns to what is happening inside David. To “take counsel” here means to set plans, and the Hebrew phrase is shith ʻetsah b’napshi, “to set counsel in my soul”. David goes over and over what he might do, inside himself, and finds no way out. The word for soul, nephesh, comes from a verb meaning to breathe, and it means a living being, a life, the self, so his whole inner self is caught up in these plans. Until the prayer of verse 3, his counsel stays shut up within him.
Alongside the plans is “sorrow in my heart daily.” The word for sorrow, yâgôwn, from yâgâh, means grief or anguish. The heart, lêbâb, is in Scripture the seat of thought, feeling and will, and “daily” tells us that this grief is with him every day. Another psalm speaks to the soul in the same distress: “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me?” (Psalm 42:5). Job says that wearisome nights are appointed to him and that he lies down asking when he shall arise and the night be gone (Job 7:3–4). David asks the same question in another psalm: “My soul is also sore vexed: but thou, O LORD, how long?” (Psalm 6:3).
The enemy lifted over him
The fourth question looks outward: “how long shall mine enemy be exalted over me?” The word for enemy, ʼôyêb, is a form of a verb meaning to be hostile, and it is the usual word for a foe. “Exalted” translates rûwm, to be lifted up, so the enemy stands above David, winning while he loses. In David’s day such a defeat was public, and it brought shame as well as danger.
The psalm gives the enemy no name. David knew such men well, and another of his psalms begins, “LORD, how are they increased that trouble me! many are they that rise up against me” (Psalm 3:1–2). So the complaint of these two verses has three sides: the LORD feels far away, David’s heart is heavy, and his enemy is on top. A cry about an exalted enemy is also a plea for God to act and set things right.
Is it right to ask God “How long”?
It is right, and Scripture gives us these very words to pray. David puts his questions to the LORD by name, and only a man who still believes God can act would ask him how long. His “how long” comes from anguish and longing for God to step in, and it is spoken in faith.
Others in Scripture pray the same way. Job says, “I will complain in the bitterness of my soul” (Job 7:11), and Habakkuk asks, “O LORD, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear!” (Habakkuk 1:2). David cries in another psalm, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Psalm 22:1). Crying out to a God who feels absent is itself an act of trust, because it treats him as the only one who can help. God welcomes this honesty from his children, and David’s way through his trouble begins with saying it to him.
Christ and the hidden face
The cry of these verses reaches its deepest point at the cross. Jesus, bearing the sin of his people, cried with the words of Psalm 22, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). Paul writes that God “hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Corinthians 5:21). There the Son bore the forsaking that our sin deserved, and he shares every cry of abandonment his people make. Because he endured it, those who belong to him have God’s promise that he will never forsake them (Hebrews 13:5), and his face shines on them.
Jesus also knew the sorrow of verse 2. In Gethsemane he told the disciples with him, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death” (Matthew 26:38). The enemy exalted over David points to a greater enemy, sin, death and the devil, and Christ defeated them by his death and resurrection. Paul says that Christ, “having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it” (Colossians 2:15). Jesus is “the resurrection, and the life” (John 11:25), so for those united to him, the sorrow of these verses leads on to joy and victory.
Words for a long trouble
These two verses give God’s people words for the longest kind of trouble, when God feels far away, the heart is heavy every day and an enemy has the upper hand. They show that such words belong in prayer and even in the songs of God’s people, since David handed this psalm to the chief Musician. And they show us a God who can be asked “how long”, who hears the question, and who, as the rest of the psalm shows, brings his servant to say, “But I have trusted in thy mercy.” Anyone in that place may pray David’s words as they stand and ask the LORD how long.
Psalm 13:1 This verse
“To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.”
The title names David as the writer and gives the psalm to the leader of the music, for use in worship. It names no occasion.
“How long wilt thou forget me, O LORD?”
The first of four “how long” questions, addressed to God by his covenant name. Shâkach is the plain word for forget, and David speaks of how his trouble feels.
“for ever?”
The forgetting is joined to “for ever”, and the fear grows that the trouble will never end (Lamentations 5:20).
“how long wilt thou hide thy face from me?”
The second question says the first again in new words. The hidden face is the loss of God’s favour and presence, the opposite of the blessing “The LORD make his face shine upon thee” (Numbers 6:25).
Psalm 13:2
“How long shall I take counsel in my soul,”
The third “how long”. David sets plans inside himself, going over what he might do, and finds no answer there.
“having sorrow in my heart daily?”
The grief is in his heart, the seat of thought, feeling and will, and it is there every day.
“how long shall mine enemy be exalted over me?”
The fourth “how long” looks outward. The unnamed enemy is lifted up above David, and in the next verse David turns from complaint to asking the LORD to hear him.
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