Psalm 13

Sutcliffe's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments - Psalms 13:1-6

REFLECTIONS. This psalm was Israel’s plaintive song in the time of trouble. It eased their hearts in captivity, that a bright morning would break, and chase their night away; that God would make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. The hidings of God’s face are the greatest calamities which can befal the believer in his pilgrimage; and they are to be deprecated as the last of evils. Those cheering emanations from the fountain of light, of life and love, which gladden both... read more

Joseph Exell

The Biblical Illustrator - Psalms 13:1-6

Psalms 13:1-6How long wilt Thou forget me, O Lord?Distress and confidenceThis little Psalm begins in agitation and ends in calm. However true it is that sorrow is “but for a moment,” it seems to last for an eternity. Sad hours are leaden footed and joyful ones winged. That “How long,” reiterated, betrays how weary it was to the Psalmist. Very significant is the progress of thought in the four-fold questioning plaint, which turns flint to God, then to himself, then to the enemy. The root of his... read more

Joseph Exell

The Biblical Illustrator - Psalms 13:2

Psalms 13:2How long shall I take counsel in my soul?Plan makingThe literal rendering of this verse brings before us the folly of mere plan making. David is taking counsel in his own soul: inventing plans of self-deliverance; making up schemes of daily life and programmes of service and progress. He no sooner makes one plan than it is displaced by another. His schemes follow in quick succession, but the second always amends the first, and both give way to the third, and he finds that in much... read more

Joseph Exell

The Biblical Illustrator - Psalms 13:3

Psalms 13:3Lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death. Moral and spiritual deathThe Psalmist’s cry was for a physical deliverance from mortal danger--probably from a violent death at the hands of his enemies. With little or no straining of the words they may be turned into a prayer against the peril of moral and spiritual death. Under the emblem of death, virtuous and pious souls in all ages have been wont to depict a torpor, coldness, and inactivity of the moral and spiritual... read more

Joseph Exell

The Biblical Illustrator - Psalms 13:5

Psalms 13:5But I have trusted in Thy mercy.On the mercy of GodI. What is meant by the mercy of God? Mercy differs from goodness in that it supposes guilt. Without the fall of man there could have been no occasion for his redemption; and without the plan of redemption it does not appear that we could have formed any opinion of the Divine mercy.II. How does it remedy man’s misery? The two evils to which man is exposed are sin and death. Yet they differ only as cause and effect. Sin is the... read more

Joseph Exell

The Biblical Illustrator - Psalms 13:6

Psalms 13:6I will sing unto the Lord.The passing of morbid states of mindMuch spiritual darkness is no doubt caused by the mind’s sympathising with a morbid condition of the body, a condition not always known to the sufferer, and often not even suspected. Nevertheless, the morbid condition exists, and prevents the mind from rightly estimating the evidences of its conversion. No sooner, however, is the believer’s health restored than he finds himself in a new world of religious hope and feeling,... read more

John Trapp

John Trapp Complete Commentary - Psalms 13:1

Psalms 13:1 « To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. » How long wilt thou forget me, O LORD? for ever? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me? Ver. 1. How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord? for ever? ] It appeareth that when David penned this psalm (which some think was about the end of Saul’s persecution, when he was forced to flee into the land of the Philistines, 1Sa 27:1 ) he was under a dreadful desertion, and that for a long while together; hence his many "How longs," and "for ever?"... read more

John Trapp

John Trapp Complete Commentary - Psalms 13:2

Psa 13:2 How long shall I take counsel in my soul, [having] sorrow in my heart daily? how long shall mine enemy be exalted over me? Ver. 2. How long shall I take counsel in my soul ] i.e. Conceal my grief, saith Aben Ezra, which is no small aggravation of it; or, How long shall I toss and tumble in my mind sundry counsels and purposes, but all to no purpose? This is no small affliction, when we try all courses to get out of durance, and nothing will do. Such must needs have much sorrow in... read more

John Trapp

John Trapp Complete Commentary - Psalms 13:3

Psa 13:3 Consider [and] hear me, O LORD my God: lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the [sleep of] death; Ver. 3. Consider and hear me, O Lord my God ] He turns him to God in this peck of trouble (for they seldom come single), and pleads the covenant, "My God," beseeching him to see and hear both at once how it fared with him, and to send him seasonable and suitable help. It were wide with the faithful if they had not their God to repair unto in distress, pouring out their souls into his blessed... read more

John Trapp

John Trapp Complete Commentary - Psalms 13:4

Psa 13:4 Lest mine enemy say, I have prevailed against him; [and] those that trouble me rejoice when I am moved. Ver. 4. Lest mine enemy say, I have prevailed against him ] This David frequently deprecateth as a great evil, because God’s honour was concerned in it, and would suffer by it. As unskilful hunters, shooting at wild beasts, do sometimes kill a man; so persecutors, shooting at saints, hit Christ, reproach him; and this the saints are very aware of. And those that trouble me... read more

Sutcliffe's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments - Psalms 13:1-6

The Biblical Illustrator - Psalms 13:1-6

The Biblical Illustrator - Psalms 13:2

The Biblical Illustrator - Psalms 13:3

The Biblical Illustrator - Psalms 13:5

The Biblical Illustrator - Psalms 13:6

John Trapp Complete Commentary - Psalms 13:1

John Trapp Complete Commentary - Psalms 13:2

John Trapp Complete Commentary - Psalms 13:3

John Trapp Complete Commentary - Psalms 13:4

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