The Treasury of David

Psalm 13

The Psalm cannot be referred to any especial event or period in David’s history. All attempts to find it a birthplace are but guesses. It was, doubtless, more than once the language of that much tried man of God, and is intended to express the feelings of the people of God in those ever returning trials which beset them. If the reader has never yet found occasion to use the language of this brief ode, he will do so ere long, if he be a man after the Lord’s own heart. We have been wont to call this the “How Long Psalm.” We had almost said the Howling Psalm, from the incessant repetition of the cry “how long?”

Occasion

Division. This Psalm is very readily to be divided into three parts: the question of anxiety, Psalms 13:1-2; the cry of prayer, Psalms 13:3-4; the song of faith, Psalms 13:5-6.

Psalm 13:3

Exposition

But now prayer lifteth up her voice, like the watchman who proclaims the daybreak. Now will the tide turn, and the weeper shall dry his eyes. The mercyseat is the life of hope and the death of despair. The gloomy thought of God’s having forsaken him is still upon the psalmist’s soul, and he therefore cries,

Consider and hear me. He remembers at once the root of his woe, and cries aloud that it may be removed. The final absence of God is Tophet’s fire, and his temporary absence brings his people into the very suburbs of hell. God is here entreated to see and hear, that so he may be doubly moved to pity. What should we do if we had no God to turn to in the hour of wretchedness?

Note the cry of faith, O Lord My God! Is it not a very glorious fact that our interest in our God is not destroyed by all our trials and sorrows? We may lose our gourds, but not our God. The title deed of heaven is not written in the sand, but in eternal brass.

Lighten mine eyes: that is, let the eye of my faith be clear, that I may see my God in the dark; let my eye of watchfulness be wide open, lest I be entrapped, and let the eye of my understanding be illuminated to see the right way. Perhaps, too, here is an allusion to that cheering of the spirits so frequently called the enlightening of the eyes because it causes the face to brighten, and the eyes to sparkle. Well may we use the prayer, “Lighten our darkness, we beseech thee, O Lord!” for in many respects we need the Holy Spirit’s illuminating rays.

Lest I sleep the sleep of death. Darkness engenders sleep, and despondency is not slow in making the eyes heavy. From this faintness and dimness of vision, caused by despair, there is but a step to the iron sleep of death. David feared that his trials would end his life, and he rightly uses his fear as an argument with God in prayer; for deep distress has in it a kind of claim upon compassion, not a claim of right, but a plea which has power with grace. Under the pressure of heart sorrow, the psalmist does not look forward to the sleep of death with hope and joy, as assured believers do, but he shrinks from it with dread, from which we gather that bondage from fear of death is no new thing.

Explanatory Notes and Quaint Sayings

Ver. 1-4. See Psalms on “Psalms 13:1“ for further information.

Lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death. In time of sickness and grief, the “eyes” are dull and heavy; and they grow more and more so as death approaches, which closes them in darkness. On the other hand, health and joy render the organs of vision bright and sparkling, seeming, as it were, to impart “light” to them from within. The words, therefore, may be fitly applied to a recovery of the body natural, and thence, of the body politic, from their respective maladies. Nor do they less significantly describe the restoration of the soul to a state of spiritual health and holy joy, which will manifest themselves in like manner, by “the eyes of the understanding being enlightened; “and in this case, the soul is saved from the sleep of sin, as the body is in the other, from the sleep of death. George Horne.

Why dost thou hide thy face? happily thou wilt say, None can see thy face and live. Ah, Lord, let me die, that I may see thee; let me see thee, that I may die: I would not live, but die; that I may see Christ, I desire death; that I may live with Christ, I despise life. Augustine.

How long wilt thou hide thy face from me? Oh, excellent hiding, which is become my perfection! My God, thou hidest thy treasure, to kindle my desire! Thou hidest thy pearl, to inflame the seeker; thou delayest to give, that thou mayest teach me to importune; seemest not to hear, to make me persevere. John Anselm, 1034-1109.

Hints to the Village Preacher

By accommodating the text to the believer.

1. True character of Satan, “enemy.”
2. Remarkable fact that this enemy is exalted over us.
3. Pressing enquiry, “How long?”—B. Davies.

Lighten mine eyes. A prayer fit for (1) Every benighted sinner. (2) Every seeker of salvation. (3) Every learner in Christ’s school. (4) Every tried believer. (5) Every dying saint. B. Davies.
The Treasury of David.

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