Psalms 13 ~ How Long???

Psalms 13 

 1 To the chief musician. A Psalm of

David.

Until when will You forget me, O

YAHWEH? Forever? Until when will

You hide Your face from me?

2 Until when shall I set counsel in

my soul, having sorrow in my heart

every day? Until when shall my enemy

be lifted up over me?

3 Look! Answer me, O YAHWEH, my

Elohim! Make my eyes gleam, lest I

sleep the death;

4 lest my enemy say, I have

overcome him; and my foes rejoice

when I am shaken.

5 But I have trusted in Your mercy.

My heart shall rejoice in Your

salvation (Y’shua*).

6 I will sing to YAHWEH, because He

has rewarded me

***Commentary by John Phillips

How long, How long? How long?

David wrote this psalm when he was exhausted and depressed. His troubles with King Saul had gone on year after year and he was dispirited and discouraged. He had already been driven by human expedients to escape his relentless foe. This psalm was wrung out of the extremity of his soul. He simply could not go on, not for another day, not for another hour, not for another minute.

Most of us have been there at some point or another. It may be a long drawn out sickness or financial problem of great severity or long standing, difficult, tangled, seemingly hopeless. It may be a wayward son or daughter, an alcoholic or workaholic spouse, an unsaved loved one. It may be a situation at work, a demanding unreasonable boss, a jealous spiteful fellow worker. We'll probably find ourselves in David's shoes over and over again. 

But man's extremity is Yahweh's opportunity. When we are at our wits end, without resources, at loss for a way, perplexed and desperate-that is usually when we see Yah begin to work. But before He does anything about our situation He wants to do something about ourselves, and that is where we begin to hedge. We want Yahweh to deal with our complication; He wants todevelop our character. We want Him to change our circumstances; He wants to change us first. This is why He allowed the circumstances. We cry: "Hurry up, Yah!" He says, "It's your move. I won't move until you do." This is what this little psalm is about. 

This psalm falls easily into three divisions. The keynote of the first division is the cry, "How long?" The keynote of the second division is the word "lest." The keynote of the third division is the word "but." We have sorrow (vs 1-2) We have supplication (vs 3-4) and song (vs 5-6). Here we have the story of a man taken out of a horrible pit and from the miry clay, his feet set upon a rock, and a new song put into his mouth-all within a half dozen verses which can be read in less than a minute.

I. Sorrow (vs 1-2)

How long? How long? How LONG? This is how this psalm begins. It starts with two interesting figures of speech. The first is called erotesis-asking questions without waiting for or expecting an answer. When driven into a corner by our  circumstances  we have all used this figure of speech in prayer, audible or unexpressed.  How we love David for baring his inner soul to us this way! We have been there so often ourselves and have  expostulated with Yahweh Elohim over His  seemingly  endless delays in the same way.

The second figure of speech is anaphora-repetition of the same word at the beginning of  successive  sentences. Its purpose is to add emphasis to statements and arguments by calling repeated attention to them. How long? How long? How long? It is David's  rhetorical way of saying, "Here, Yah, I'm talking to You. I'm trying to get through to You!"

When I worked in Chicago sometimes I would try to phone home. With a wife and three teenage girls in the house, and one telephone, my chance of getting through was about one in four million! Many a time I put down the receiver in exasperation. You know what it's like! A busy signal. You call the operator and she tells you your phone is in  good working order and "No sir, I can't disrupt a conversation unless it is an emergency." Nothing short of death, disaster, fire, famine, flood, earthquake, war or pestilence is an emergency! This is how David felt. How long? How long? How long? It was like getting a busy signal from Yahweh. So he uses this figure of speech to go around, as it were, and hammer at heavens door. Bang! Bang! Bang! Notice the two things which emerge from a study of David's spiritual frustration at this time.

A, His Seeming Abandonment 

It seemed to David that Yah had forgotten him: "How long will You forget me, O Yah, for ever?" How swiftly time flies when we are having a good time! We can hardly believe it when we look at the clock and realize that an hour, two hours, five hours have gone. But when we are in trouble-then time seems to creep by on leaden feet.  And we cry, "How long? How long?" Is this vain  repetition? 

Come for a moment to an olive yard, near the oil press in a garden at the foot of the hill called Olivet about a half a mile from Jerusalem. It is late at night. The central Figure has three men with Him. His other eight friends he left a distance away. One of His friends is at that moment rounding up a band of ruffians, in keeping with his bargain with the evil men who have bought his loyalty for the price of a slave. The central One, Yeshua, speaks to His three friends: "Wait here, watch and pray." He walks on "a stones cast" (the distance of death) silently and alone. He has come to  Gethsemane. he prays, "Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass Me, nevertheless not mine, but Your will be done." Sweat covers His brow and groans fill the garden, but Peter, James, and even John are sound asleep. Even human sympathy is denied Him in His hour of need. 

The loooong night drags on. An angel comes from heaven to strengthen Him for the anguish. He prays more  earnestly. He is in agony, and his sweat becomes as it were drops of blood falling down to the ground. At last he goes to His disciples and they are fast asleep. He wakes them and urges them to pray.

Again He withdraws Himself that somber distance, about fifty yards, and again He prays, "saying the same words." The moments creep by as He gazes into that dreadful cup. It's not the thought of death that crushes Him, but the though of being abandoned by Yahweh. Here in  Gethsemane, He is taking His first three sips of that dreadful cup.

Once more the lonely Man seeks out His human friends. It almost seems as though they are in a stupor. They blink at Him in the darkness. The Holy Spirit tells us that "they knew not what to answer Him." He leaves them to their sleep and walks silently, slowly, in utter isolation back to the worn, tear drenched spot where he wrestled with Yah alone. And again He prays a third time, "saying again," The Holy Spirit records the same words. When we find ourselves there (like I, Linda Rose Ann'e' have been over the summer) Let us remember that He our great High Priest, knows the spot well - the place where it seems Abba Yah has abandoned us. 

David felt Yahweh in heaven had forgotten him. Worse, he though Yah had forsaken him" "How long will You hide Your face from me?"

One thing we have and continue to learn is that Yah is NEVER in a hurry. The kind of work He wishes to accomplish in our souls can be accomplished only if sufficient time is given to allow His plans to ripen and mature. 

Our seeming abandonment by Yah when we hammer at Heaven's door does not mean that we have been forgotten. Yahweh KNOWS what He is doing. The intensity of our trial is controlled from on high. he has something to teach us. he has an end product in mind. Things are moving forward so slowly, from our impatient viewpoint, that we cannot see it, but He can.

*This is a song I did from the original song of Knockin on heavens doors, but the words are changed to reflect Yah's child knocking on heaven's doors and not the worlds. Sung by Spiritsong ~ Linda Rose

Knocking on Heavens Door

B. His Sorrowful Abandonment

David had been brought low low by his feelings. "How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily?" If we have ever been through some great trial we know what David was talking about. If we haven't been there yet, we will be. Job said, "Man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward." David was talking about that knot in the stomach, that lead-weight in the breast that makes the thought of food nauseating, that blights every joy, as a cool winter's blast withers the summer's flowers.  We can't sleep, can't eat, can't settle to anything. Every time we try and get our mind on something else, back it comes - that  gnawing  ache inside (That for me has been too close to home throughout this past summer.)

At this point in his spiritual pilgrimage, David was no longer the master of his emotions, his feelings had brought him low. He had also been brought low by his foes. "How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?" It seemed as though Saul was bound to win. He had the means and he had the power. The resources of the nation were being harnessed, not to fight the  philistines, but to hound and hunt David. The heat was on.

II. Supplication (vs 3-4)

In the first two verse, David had been crying out, almost incoherently, and certainly emotionally. Now he turned to deliberate, rational, and thoughtful prayer.

A. Overwhelmed by His Emotions.

"Consider and hear me O Yah, my Elohim: lighten my eyes, let I sleep the sleep of death." He was so worn out by his long drawn out emotional drain that he was afraid it would bring him to an early grave. 

But then he nailed his emotions to a glorious truth: he called upon God as Yahweh my Elohim! Yahweh - the God of promise, and Elohim - the God of power.For Saul could never win! Had not Samuel the prophet taken the holy anointed oil and anointed David as Israel's next king? David was going to reign no matter what Saul could do! In other words, David nailed emotions to the Word of Yahweh. Supplication brought a new  dimension  to the picture.

B. Overwhelmed by His Enemies

"Consider....lest my enemy say, I have prevailed against him; and those that trouble me rejoice when I am moved." 

A speaker gave a graphic illustration in a totally different context at the moody founder's Week conference some years ago. When he was young he considered himself the world's greatest checkers player, but there was an old man in town who was looked upon by the townsfolk as being the greatest. Our preacher friend was convinced that this was because he had never played him. 

Well, one day this old fellow was sitting on the porch of his home when the young man went by. The old gentleman challenged him to a game. The young man dusted his hands. He'd show him! They put the pieces on the board; the young fellow made a couple of moves, and so did the old man. Then the younger player saw an opening and snapped up the one piece after another of his opponents men. He thought to himself: "Doesn't this fellow know he can't win by losing men like this?" He's a pushover."

Then it happened. Suddenly the old man leaned over the board and - click, click, click, click, click - five of the boy's pieces were swept away. The man had come all the way down the board. "Crown me!" he said. With a crestfallen look, the young man crowned the old man's piece. Then --- Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! - with that one piece the old man took every checker the young player had remaining on the board. He learned the value of losing a checker or two as long as he was heading for the kings territory. 

What a lesson there is in that for us today. We can afford to give up a few things in life if we are going for the crown. We don't have to have everything we want. We can give up a few liberties, such as watching hours of tv at night, or going to places of worldly amusement, especially when we tell Yah (the Lord) we don't have time to ponder and pray. We don't have to have two jobs. We expect our missionaries to live by faith. Why should they have to when we don't? We can give up a few  loyalties. The devil is very clever. He will get us all wrapped up in good things, good activities, good commitments and see to it that these things take up  our time. Time that first belong to Yeshua, second to our children, and then to our fellowship gatherings. How much time do we really spend with our Yah? If our children have reached a point of rebellion and rejection, surely we need to spend a proportionate amount of time talking to Yahweh about them. The greater part of any loyalty we have left should be devoted to building up Yah's people in our local assembly and fellowship. 

David was fretting that the enemy might rejoice if he was moved, that the enemy might say, "I have prevailed against him!" What Yahweh was teaching him was the value of utterly being in His will. Then the moves, even when they looked like losses, would be eternal and glorious gains.

III. Song (vs 5-6)

David had moved to the final stage of the soul's experience in a (long and lengthy) time (not the minute it took you to read this psalm) of trial and testing. He had come through tears to truth and through truth to triumph. Some people wonder how David could swing so swiftly from gloom to gladness. The secret is found in the middle section of the psalm where he gets his eyes firmly fixed on Yahweh his Elohim. 

His song is in two parts.

A. He Can Sing Because of Yah's Salvation

"But I have trusted in Your mercy, my heart shall rejoice in your salvation."

is this salvation from sin? Probably that is included. Is this salvation from self? Probably that is included too. Is this salvation from satan? Surely that is included. But probably this salvation is also salvation from Saul. David is now standing on the victory side. So can we, for our salvation includes salvation from situations - in Yah's good time and way.

B. He Can Sing Because of Yahweh's Sufficiency 

"I will sing unto Yahweh, because He has dealt bountifully with me."

Have David's actual  circumstances changed? No. Has Saul called off his bloodhounds and bullies? No. Is Saul dead? No. Has David received a new shipment of arms? No. Nothing has changed. But David can sing because yahweh hasn't changed!

Notice that David put everything in the past tense: "He hath dealt bountifully with me." The change in his situation is so sure David reckons it as already having happened. No wonder he could sing!