Psalms 13:3 - Exposition

Consider and hear me, O Lord my God (comp. Psalms 5:1 ; Psalms 9:13 ; Psalms 141:1 , etc.). David will not allow himself to be "forgotten;" he will recall himself to God's remembrance. "Consider—hear me," he says, "O Lord my God;" still "my God," although thou hast forgotten me, and therefore bound to "hear me." Lighten mine eyes. Not so much "enlighten me spiritually,'' as "cheer me up; put brightness into my eyes; revive me". Lest I sleep the sleep of death; literally, lest I sleep death. Death is compared to a sleep by Job ( Job 11:12 ), Jeremiah ( Jeremiah 51:39 , Jeremiah 51:57 ), Daniel ( Daniel 12:2 ), and here by David, in the Old Testament; and by our Lord ( John 11:11-13 ) and St. Paul in the New ( 1 Corinthians 11:30 ; 1 Corinthians 15:51 ; 1 Thessalonians 4:14 , 1 Thessalonians 4:15 ). The external resemblance of a corpse to a sleeping person was the root of the metaphor, and we shall do wrong to conclude from its employment anything with respect to the psalmist's views concerning the real nature of death.