Psalms 13:1-6

Contents: Prayer for deliverance from enemies.

Characters: God, David.

Conclusion: The believer’s desires often turn to impatience. Days seem long when the soul is cast down, but because God’s face is hidden, it does not follow that His heart has forgotten. If we hold to God by faith, we will at the same time be assured that victory is coming and that, after all, God has dealt bountifully with us.

Key Word: Supplication, Psa_13:3. – Consider and hear me, O LORD my God: lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death; 

Strong Verses: Psa_13:6. – I will sing unto the LORD, because he hath dealt bountifully with me. 

Striking Facts: If, after all our pains, we find Jesus Christ in a new way, it will make up for all our time of patience.

Psalms 13:1-6

God sometimes hides his face, and leaves his own children in the dark concerning their interest in him: and this they lay to heart more than any outward trouble whatever. But anxious cares are heavy burdens with which believers often load themselves more than they need.

The bread of sorrows is sometimes the saint’s daily bread; our Master himself was a man of sorrows. It is a common temptation, when trouble lasts long, to think that it will last always. Those who have long been without joy, begin to be without hope. We should never allow ourselves to make any complaints but what drive us to our knees. Nothing is more killing to a soul than the want of God’s favour; nothing more reviving than the return of it.

The sudden, delightful changes in the book of Psalms, are often very remarkable. We pass from depth of despondency to the height of religious confidence and joy. It is thus, Psa_13:5. – But I have trusted in thy mercy; my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation.  All is gloomy dejection in Psa_13:4; – Lest mine enemy say, I have prevailed against him; and those that trouble me rejoice when I am moved.

But here the mind of the despondent worshipper rises above all its distressing fears, and throws itself, without reserve, on the mercy and care of its Divine Redeemer. See the power of faith, and how good it is to draw near to God. If we bring our cares and griefs to the throne of grace, and leave them there, we may go away like Hannah, and our countenances will be no more sad, 1Sa_1:18. – And she said, Let thine handmaid find grace in thy sight. So the woman went her way, and did eat, and her countenance was no more sad.

God’s mercy is the support of the psalmist’s faith. Finding I have that to trust to, I am comforted, though I have no merit of my own. His faith in God’s mercy filled his heart with joy in his salvation; for joy and peace come by believing.

He has dealt bountifully with me. By faith he was as confident of salvation, as if it had been completed already. In this way believers pour out their prayers, renouncing all hopes but in the mercy of God through the Saviour’s blood: and sometimes suddenly, at others gradually, they will find their burdens removed, and their comforts restored; they then allow that their fears and complaints were unnecessary, and acknowledge that the Lord hath dealt bountifully with them.