In times of trial and distress, when my heart is full of sorrows and deep reflection, especially when trials seem to last forever, there are a few psalms that provide some sense of comfort. Part of the comfort of the psalms, particularly those pslams that are more melancholy in nature [1], is the knowledge that one’s melancholy searching and questioning of God is not only not a problem for God, but is something that among the greatest heroes of the Bible had to face in their own lives. Whether we are dealing with heroes of the faith like Job or David, or more obscure questioners like Heman the Ezrahite [2], God not only is not bothered by people of faith who question Him, but He has often enshrined those questions of faithful believers in extremis in His Word, providing comfort to the faithful everywhere.

While I am a person of many concerns and anxieties by nature, and a person who has had lengthy and deeply unpleasant trials, I know that I am far from alone in these matters. In fact, I am constantly reminded of the similarities between my own life and the lives of others around me, remembering that we all struggle in our own ways but we do not struggle alone, and that we can often find great comfort in knowing the struggles of others because we have been there too and can provide encouragement. One of the more unfortunate aspects of suffering is that it often tends to cut us off from other people because we are embarrassed or uncomfortable or do not think that others will understand. While it can be difficult to be open and honest about one’s longings and frustrations and concerns, at the same time it does allow others to reveal themselves for who they are, whether they are godly and loving and encouraging or whether they are not.

And so we must look at Psalms like Psalm 13 with the understanding that this was a private questioning of David that was committed to writing, was preserved in scripture, and became a part of public worship. By turning his suffering and anguish into song, and making it an offering of his sorrowful heart to God, David turned his own personal life into an inspiration for believers ever since then. Even 3000 years after he lived, David’s words can still offer us encouragement, in the knowledge that however long we have to deal with problems and with their aftermath that God will not forget us or abandon us entirely, but will (eventually, in His own way) deliver us. Living in that knowledge can help us to encourage others when they too are burdened by life’s difficulties and frustrations, knowing that such suffering does not mean that God has abandoned us, only that He is refining us and preparing us for future glory.

Psalm 13 itself is a short psalm that is divided into three parts. It is a psalm of David that was dedicated, as was his fashion, to the chief musician. It contains no historical commentary describing its instrumentation nor the specific incident that inspired David’s melancholy quesitoning of God. Surely David, like all people of faith, had many occasions in life where he had reason to ask searching questions of God. The existence of this psalm ought to be a comfort to us when we ask the same questions of God that David did. Since the scriptures say that David was a man after God’s own heart (Acts 13:22, among other places), the fact that David questioned God seriously and deeply ought to give us the courage to do the same in our own crises and trials.

Psalm 13:1-2 is the first part of Psalm 13, and it reads: “How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? How long will my enemy be exalted over me.” How often have we not all asked these questions to God? When we have prayers to God about urgent and important matters, matters that weigh on our souls deeply, troubles that never seem to resolve or end, we may view God’s apparent tardiness in responding and answering those concerns to God as a matter of being forgotten or neglected by God. We question ourselves, pondering and reflecting over matters in anguish in our heart night after night, while our enemies take pleasure in our suffering, wondering if God will ever hear and answer our prayers. David’s experience is far from unusual, as this has been the case often in my own life.

Nor has this only been a matter of concern in my relationship with God. Very recently, for example, I wondered the same thing of a dear friend of mine, whether her hiding her face from me and not communicating in any fashion with me was a sign that she had forgotten me or wanted nothing to do with me ever again. No doubt some people who do not wish me well rejoiced in their own hearts over this matter, for their own reasons, but it is not an enjoyable matter at all to ponder over something daily without apparent resolution and with no communication to provide any clarification or answer to questions. We may wonder if others, those we care about, have simply forgotten us or wish to forget us, in the absence of any indication to the contrary.

Psalm 13:3-4 continues: “Consider and hear me, O Lord my God; enlighten my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death; lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed agaisnt him”; lest those who trouble me rejoice when I am moved.” After asking a series of questions about how long God will wait before responding, David continues with his plea, pointing out to God reasons why God should respond to his petition for help. David writes this song knowing that he needed to be enlightened and to understand, but also pointing out to God that it was potentially a matter of life to death and that the enemies of David (and presumably the enemies of God) would have reason to gloat and laugh if David’s prayers and concerns were not dealt with. After all, the sufferings of the righteous embolden the enemies of God to blaspheme Him and curse Him by claiming that God does not exist, or else He would bless His people and protect them from harm.

The problem of evil is something that many of us wrestle with. Ultimately, we know from God, at least intellectually (see Romans 8:28-30) that the trials and suffering of the righteous are not meant for our harm, but that good ultimately comes from them. Knowing something intellectually, though, is a far cry from feeling it in your heart. When we are suffering anguish and trials and under a great deal of pressure and stress, what we want is not to know in our heads that God will use this for the good, but to feel it in our hearts so that it lightens the strain that we are under, and to see it in our lives so that we know the refining and the blessing that will come from God’s work in our lives and so that we know the trial has had its desired effect and no longer needs to be around.

And it is that view that concludes this song in Psalm 13:5-6: “But I have trusted in your mercy; my heart shall rejoice in Your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me.” In using the covenantal name of the Eternal three times in six short verses, once in each section of the psalm, David reminds us (and God) of his own covenental relationship with God and the covenantal obligations on God’s part that come in defending and saving His people, obligations that God cheerfully takes up and manages according to His will and His purposes. The same encouragement that David himself felt is the same we should feel at the end of our trials, our questions answered, the good will of God expressed, our faith and character improved, our lives blessed. Let us take courage and continue until we see the desired end.

[1] For example, Psalm 88: https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2011/03/06/psalm-88-for-my-soul-is-full-of-troubles/

[2] https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2011/02/07/personal-profile-heman-the-ezrahite/