2 How long is my soul to be in doubt, with sorrow in my heart all the day? how long will he who is against me be given power over me?
Do not be glad because of my sorrow, O my hater: after my fall I will be lifted up; when I am seated in the dark, the Lord will be a light to me. I will undergo the wrath of the Lord, because of my sin against him; till he takes up my cause and does what is right for me: when he makes me come out into the light, I will see his righteousness; And my hater will see it and be covered with shame; she who said to me, Where is the Lord your God? my eyes will see their desire effected on her, now she will be crushed under foot like the dust of the streets.
Keep this in mind, O Lord, that your haters have said cruel things, and that your name has been looked down on by a people of evil behaviour.
In the day of my trouble, my heart was turned to the Lord: my hand was stretched out in the night without resting; my soul would not be comforted. I will keep God in memory, with sounds of grief; my thoughts are troubled, and my spirit is overcome. (Selah.) You keep my eyes from sleep; I am so troubled that no words come. My thoughts go back to the days of the past, to the years which are gone. The memory of my song comes back to me in the night; my thoughts are moving in my heart; my spirit is searching with care. Will the Lord put me away for ever? will he be kind no longer? Is his mercy quite gone for ever? has his word come to nothing? Has God put away the memory of his pity? are his mercies shut up by his wrath? (Selah.) And I said, It is a weight on my spirit; but I will keep in mind the years of the right hand of the Most High. I will keep in mind the works of Jah: I will keep the memory of your wonders in the past. I will give thought to all your work, while my mind goes over your acts of power.
If I say, My foot is slipping; your mercy, O Lord, is my support. Among all my troubled thoughts, your comforts are the delight of my soul.
Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us: for all men are looking down on us. For long enough have men of pride made sport of our soul.
Looking to my right side, I saw no man who was my friend: I had no safe place; no one had any care for my soul. I have made my cry to you, O Lord; I have said, You are my safe place, and my heritage in the land of the living. Give ear to my cry, for I am made very low: take me out of the hands of my haters, for they are stronger than I. Take my soul out of prison, so that I may give praise to your name: the upright will give praise because of me; for you have given me a full reward.
A glad heart makes a shining face, but by the sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken.
This is what I have seen: it is good and fair for a man to take meat and drink and to have joy in all his work under the sun, all the days of his life which God has given him; that is his reward.
Why is my pain unending and my wound without hope of being made well? Sorrow is mine, for you are to me as a stream offering false hope and as waters which are not certain.
You said, Sorrow is mine! for the Lord has given me sorrow in addition to my pain; I am tired with the sound of my sorrow, and I get no rest.
In her skirts were her unclean ways; she gave no thought to her end; and her fall has been a wonder; she has no comforter: see her sorrow, O Lord; for the attacker is lifted up.
Then says he to them, My soul is very sad, even to death: keep watch with me here.
But your hearts are full of sorrow because I have said these things.
You have made clear your strength even out of the mouths of babies at the breast, because of those who are against you; so that you may put to shame the cruel and violent man.
And you have made clear to me how good you have been to me today: because, when the Lord gave me up into your hands, you did not put me to death.
And Esther said, Our hater and attacker is this evil Haman. Then Haman was full of fear before the king and the queen.
Am I a sea, or a sea-beast, that you put a watch over me? When I say, In my bed I will have comfort, there I will get rest from my disease; Then you send dreams to me, and visions of fear; So that a hard death seems better to my soul than my pains.
If it is a question of strength, he says, Here I am! and if it is a question of a cause at law, he says, Who will give me a fixed day? Though I was in the right, he would say that I was in the wrong; I have done no evil; but he says that I am a sinner. I have done no wrong; I give no thought to what becomes of me; I have no desire for life.
If I say, I will put my grief out of mind, I will let my face be sad no longer and I will be bright; I go in fear of all my pains; I am certain that I will not be free from sin in your eyes.
That, if I was an evil-doer, the curse would come on me; and if I was upright, my head would not be lifted up, being full of shame and overcome with trouble.
See, I go forward, but he is not there; and back, but I do not see him; I am looking for him on the left hand, but there is no sign of him; and turning to the right, I am not able to see him. For he has knowledge of the way I take; after I have been tested I will come out like gold.
So that he may not come rushing on my soul like a lion, wounding it, while there is no one to be my saviour.
If I have given back evil to him who did evil to me, or have taken anything from him who was against me without cause; Let my hater go after my soul and take it; let my life be crushed to the earth, and my honour into the dust. (Selah.)
You have given their towns to destruction; the memory of them has gone; they have become waste for ever.
To give decision for the child without a father and for the broken-hearted, so that the man of the earth may no longer be feared.
I am laughed at by all those who see me: pushing out their lips and shaking their heads they say, He put his faith in the Lord; let the Lord be his saviour now: let the Lord be his saviour, because he had delight in him.
Let the false lips be shut, which say evil against the upright, looking down on him in their pride.
Let my soul be overflowing with grief when these things come back to my mind, how I went in company to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with the song of those who were keeping the feast.
I will say to God my Rock, Why have you let me go from your memory? why do I go in sorrow because of the attacks of my haters? The cruel words of my haters are like a crushing of my bones; when they say to me every day, Where is your God?
Our name is a word of shame among the nations, a sign for the shaking of heads among the peoples. My downfall is ever before me, and I am covered with the shame of my face; Because of the voice of him who says sharp and bitter words; because of the hater and him who is the instrument of punishment.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Keil & Delitzsch Commentary » Commentary on Psalms 13
Commentary on Psalms 13 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
Suppliant Cry of One Who Is Utterly Undone
The ירוּם of the personal cry with which David opens Psalms 13:1-6 harmonizes with כּרם of the general lament which he introduces into Psalms 12:1-8; and for this reason the collector has coupled these two Psalms together. Hitzig assigns Psalms 13:1-6 to the time when Saul posted watchers to hunt David from place to place, and when, having been long and unceasingly persecuted, David dared to cherish a hope of escaping death only by indefatigable vigilance and endurance. Perhaps this view is correct. The Psalm consists of three strophes, or if it be preferred, three groups of decreasing magnitude. A long deep sigh is followed, as from a relieved breast, by an already much more gentle and half calm prayer; and this again by the believing joy which anticipates the certainty of being answered. 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.
(Heb.: 13:2-3) The complicated question: till when, how long...for ever (as in Psalms 74:10; Psalms 79:5; Psalms 89:47), is the expression of a complicated condition of soul, in which, as Luther briefly and forcibly describes it, amidst the feeling of anguish under divine wrath “hope itself despairs and despair nevertheless begins to hope.” The self-contradiction of the question is to be explained by the conflict which is going on within between the flesh and the spirit. The dejected heart thinks: God has forgotten me for ever. But the spirit, which thrusts away this thought, changes it into a question which sets upon it the mark of a mere appearance not a reality: how long shall it seem as though Thou forgettest me for ever? It is in the nature of the divine wrath, that the feeling of it is always accompanied by an impression that it will last for ever; and consequently it becomes a foretaste of hell itself. But faith holds fast the love that is behind the wrath; it sees in the display of anger only a self-masking of the loving countenance of the God of love, and longs for the time when this loving countenance shall be again unveiled to it. Thrice does David send forth this cry of faith out of the inmost depths of his spirit. To place or set up contrivances, plans, or proposals in his soul, viz., as to the means by which he may be able to escape from this painful condition, is equivalent to, to make the soul the place of such thoughts, or the place where such thoughts are fabricated (cf. Proverbs 26:24). One such עצה chases the other in his soul, because he recognises the vanity of one after another as soon as they spring up. With respect to the יומם which follows, we must think of these cares as taking possession of his soul in the night time; for the night leaves a man alone with his affliction and makes it doubly felt by him. It cannot be proved from Ezekiel 30:16 (cf. Zephaniah 2:4 בּצּהרים ), that יומם like יום (Jeremiah 7:25, short for יום יום ) may mean “daily” (Ew. §313, a ). יומם does not mean this here, but is the antithesis to לילה which is to be supplied in thought in Psalms 13:3 . By night he proposes plan after plan, each one as worthless as the other; and by day, or all the day through, when he sees his distress with open eyes, sorrow ( יגון ) is in his heart, as it were, as the feeling the night leaves behind it and as the direct reflex of his helpless and hopeless condition. He is persecuted, and his foe is in the ascendant. רוּם is both to be exalted and to rise, raise one's self, i.e., to rise to position and arrogantly to assume dignity to one's self ( sich brüsten ). The strophe closes with ‛ad - āna which is used for the fourth time.
(Heb.: 13:4-5) In contrast to God's seeming to have forgotten him and to wish neither to see nor know anything of his need, he prays: הבּיטה (cf. Isaiah 63:15). In contrast to his being in perplexity what course to take and unable to help himself, he prays: ענני , answer me, who cry for help, viz., by the fulfilment of my prayer as a real, actual answer. In contrast to the triumphing of his foe: האירה עיני , in order that the triumph of his enemy may not be made complete by his dying. To lighten the eyes that are dimmed with sorrow and ready to break, is equivalent to, to impart new life (Ezra 9:8), which is reflected in the fresh clear brightness of the eye (1 Samuel 14:27, 1 Samuel 14:29). The lightening light, to which האיר points, is the light of love beaming from the divine countenance, Psalms 31:17. Light, love, and life are closely allied notions in the Scriptures. He, upon whom God looks down in love, continues in life, new powers of life are imparted to him, it is not his lot to sleep the death, i.e., the sleep of death, Jeremiah 51:39, Jeremiah 51:57, cf. Psalms 76:6. המּות is the accusative of effect or sequence: to sleep so that the sleep becomes death (lxx εἰς θάνατον ), Ew. §281, e. Such is the light of life for which he prays, in order that his foe may not be able at last to say יכלתּיו (with accusative object, as in Jeremiah 38:5) = יכלתּי לו , Psalms 129:2, Genesis 32:26, I am able for him, a match for him, I am superior to him, have gained the mastery over him. כּי , on account of the future which follows, had better be taken as temporal ( quum ) than as expressing the reason ( quod ), cf. בּמוט רגלי , Psalms 38:17.
(Heb.: 13:6) Three lines of joyous anticipation now follow the five of lament and four of prayer. By יאני he sets himself in opposition to his foes. The latter desire his death, but he trusts in the mercy of God, who will turn and terminate his affliction. בּטח בּ denotes faith as clinging fast to God, just as חסה בּ denotes it as confidence which hides itself in Him. The voluntative יגל pre-supposes the sure realisation of the hope. The perfect in Psalms 13:6 is to be properly understood thus: the celebration follows the fact that inspires him to song. גּמל על to do good to any one, as in Psalms 116:7; Psalms 119:17, cf. the radically cognate ( על ) גּמר Psalms 57:3. With the two iambics gamal‛alaj the song sinks to rest. In the storm-tossed soul of the suppliant all has now become calm. Though it rage without as much now as ever - peace reigns in the depth of his heart.