Psalms 13King James Version
How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord? for ever? How long wilt thou hide thy face from me? But I have trusted in thy mercy. I will sing unto the Lord, because he hath dealt bountifully with me. The turn from 'how long' to 'I will sing' is the arc of many psalms in miniature.
The psalm of 'How long.' Four times in two verses, the question piles up: how long will God forget? How long will he hide? How long will sorrow fill the heart? How long will enemies prevail? Then comes the turn: a plea, a statement of trust, and anticipated praise. The compression is extreme: maximum lament, minimum resolution, but the resolution is real.
The grief of prolonged suffering is not incompatible with trust; the question 'how long' is itself a form of faith that believes the absence will not be permanent.
verse: "How long wilt thou forget me, O LORD? for ever? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me?" The repetition is liturgical: this is a form that teaches people how to name prolonged pain.
Superscription: 'To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.' No specific historical event given. The 'enemies' are real (v2, 4) and their rejoicing would be public. The vagueness makes the psalm portable across every generation's experience of prolonged divine silence. Six verses, maximum concentration of lament form.
David as the one forgotten; God as the one apparently hiding his face; unnamed enemies who are described as prevailing and being made glad over David's suffering.
Psalm 13 is one of the most psychologically precise short psalms in the collection. Its movement from 'How long?' to 'I have trusted' to 'I will sing' is not a miraculous cure but a discipline of reorientation that the psalm itself enacts. It has become a template prayer for anyone experiencing protracted difficulty with no end visible.
For when you have been in a hard situation for so long you cannot remember what normal felt like. This psalm is for the day when the length of the suffering is the new wound.
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?
2How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? how long shall mine enemy be exalted over me?
3Consider and hear me, O LORD my God: lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death;
4Lest mine enemy say, I have prevailed against him; and those that trouble me rejoice when I am moved.
5But I have trusted in thy mercy; my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation.
6I will sing unto the LORD, because he hath dealt bountifully with me.