How long wilt Thou forget me, O Lord?
Distress and confidence
This little Psalm begins in agitation and ends in calm. However true it is that sorrow is “but for a moment,” it seems to last for an eternity. Sad hours are leaden footed and joyful ones winged. That “How long,” reiterated, betrays how weary it was to the Psalmist. Very significant is the progress of thought in the four-fold questioning plaint, which turns flint to God, then to himself, then to the enemy. The root of his sorrow is that God seems to have forgotten him; therefore his soul is full of plans for relief, and the enemy seems to be lifted up above him. Left alone, without God’s help, what can a man do but think and plan and scheme to weariness all night, and carry a heavy heart, as he sees by daylight how futile his plans are? The agitation of the first strophe is somewhat stilled in the second, in which the stream of prayer runs clear without such foam as the impatient questions of the first part. The storm has all rolled away in the third strophe, in which faith has triumphed over doubt and anticipates the fulfilment of its prayer. The sad minor of “How long?” if coming from faithful lips, passes into a jubilant key which heralds the full gladness of the yet future songs of deliverance. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Sorrow lingers
That which the French proverb hath of sickness is true of all evils, that they come on horseback and go away on foot; we have often seen that a sudden fall, or one meal’s surfeit, has stuck by many to their graves; whereas pleasures come like oxen, slow and heavily, and go away like post horses, upon the spur. Sorrows, because they are lingering guests, I will entertain but moderately, knowing that the more they are made of the longer they will continue; and for pleasures, because they stay not, and do but call to drink at my door, I will use them as passengers with slight respect. He is his own best friend that makes the least of both of them. (Joseph Hall.)
The relative changes of the immutable God
He is unchangeable. “Job says, “He is in one mind.” James, “With Him there is no variableness.” And He Himself says, “I am the Lord, I change not.” In reality He is thus, but relatively He seems to change.
I. God as looked at through the soul in trouble. He seemed to be--
1. Forgetful. “How long wilt Thou forget me?”
2. As unkind. “How long wilt Thou hide Thy face from me?” To turn away the face was the sign of aversion and displeasure.
3. As utterly neglectful. “How long?” Four times he repeats this. As if God was utterly regardless of him. So it seemed to him.
II. God as looked at through the soul in devotion. In the midst of his troubles he prays, “Consider and hear me, O Lord, my God: lighten mine eyes,” etc. As he prays the cloud withdraws, and he cries, “My heart shall rejoice in Thy salvation.” Prayer changes the night of the soul into morning, its discords into music, its dark and chilly November into a sunny and life-giving May.
III. Conclusion.
1. The power of circumstances to disturb the soul. While no man need be their creature, it is impossible for him not to feel their influence.
2. The rapid changes which occur in the mood of the soul. The Psalm begins in gloom and ends in sunshine.
3. The influence of prayer to elevate the soul. Prayer is the power that changes the whole horizon of our spiritual nature. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
What total desertion by God would mean
When the king removes, the court and all the carriages follow after; and when they are gone, the hangings are taken down, nothing is left behind but bare walls, dust, and rubbish. So if God removes from a man or a nation where He kept His court, His graces will not stay long behind; and if they be gone, farewell peace, farewell comfort; down go the hangings of all prosperity, nothing is left behind but confusion and disorder. (J. Staughton.)
Soul eclipses
I. The nature of such eclipses. It is quite true that God never ceases to love His children, but still the people of God are sensible of eclipses of the soul such as the Psalmist describes in this Psalm. God has not really deserted His children, but it seems as if He had. In providential matters they fail to recognise His hand; His consolations cease in their spirits, and they are full of darkness and bitterness.
II. The causes of these eclipses. Why does God thus appear to desert His people at all? The end of God’s discipline is to make His people feel their absolute dependence upon Himself. These eclipses teach us--
1. That God is the source of happiness;
2. The source of wisdom;
3. The source of strength; and
4. The source of life. Why does God hide His face so long? Simply because we are so slow to learn the great truths which He designs to teach.
III. The duty of the saints in these hours of darkness. Not discontent, and not despair.
1. Wait in faith.
2. Wait in prayer.
3. Wait in hope. When the trial is over your soul shall be deeper, brighter, and more fruitful. (W. L. Watkinson.)
A sigh and a song
The “salute” of this Psalm is a sigh, the “adieu” is a song. We sight the Psalmist prostrate before the mercy throne, wrapped in grim shadows of gloom, bowed in soul by the weight of a great sorrow, and howling “How long?” We leave him sitting in the stillness of a new confidence, enwreathed with sunbeams of gladness, pealing forth from harp and lip an exultant Te Deum!
I. Earliest inquiry (Psalms 13:1-2). A fourfold inquiry. Can God forget? He hides His face, not willingly, but of necessity, that we may seek His face. And the longer, that we may seek it the more earnestly.
II. Devout and fervent entreaty (Psalms 13:3-4). Trouble gives point, pathos, and power to prayer. Genuine entreaty comes from a soul that has--
1. A clear recognition of its personal relationship to God.
2. It is definite in request. It knows what it wants, and asks for it. Entreaty has aim, directness, special need; hence is definite in request--e.g., Jacob, Jabez, etc. Here it seeks the Divine attention. The Divine illumination.
3. Genuine entreaty has powerful reasons for what it requests. “Lest I sleep,” etc. This is from the self-side. “Lest mine enemy say,” etc. This is from the God-side. Prevailing against him would be injurious to the truth.
III. Entreaty rising into triumphant assurance and praise. Here we have trustfulness--
1. Well located;
2. Triumphant;
3. Exultant. (J. O. Keen, D. D.)
God’s forgettings
It is quite unnecessary to point thus: “How long wilt Thou forget me?--For ever?” as if there were two distinct questions. It is natural to a perturbed and doubting heart thus to express itself in a confused and almost contradictory manner. In its despair it thinks, “God hath forgotten me”; and yet out of the very midst of its despair there rises up the conviction, “No, not forever”; and then its hopelessness is changed to expostulation, “How long wilt Thou forget me?” We may, if we choose it, paraphrase, “How long wilt Thou make as if Thou wouldest forget me forever?” God’s anger, the hiding of His countenance, as Delitzsch observes, cannot but seem eternal to the soul which is conscious of it. Nevertheless, Faith still cleaves to the Love which hides itself under the disguise of severity, and exclaims, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.” “When we have long been crushed by sufferings, and no sign appears that God will succour us, the thought will force itself upon us, God hath forgotten me. For by nature we do not acknowledge that God cares for us in our afflictions; but by faith we lay hold of His invisible providence. So David, so far as he could judge from the actual state in which he was, seemed to himself forsaken of God. But at the same time, because the Light of Faith was his guide, he, with the eyes of his mind, looked through and beyond all else to the grace of God, far as it might seem hidden from his sight.”--Calvin. “Does he not portray in fitting words that most bitter anguish of spirit, which feels that it has to do with a God alienated, hostile, implacable, inexorable, whose wrath is, like Himself, eternal? This is a state in which hope despairs, and yet despair hopes at the same time. This no one understands who has not tasted it.”--Luther. (J. J. Stewart Perowne, B. D.)
The continuance of trial
In laying forth his grief he beginneth at his apparent desertion; then speaketh of the perplexity of mind arising herefrom; and, last of all, he mentioneth the continuance of his outward trouble from his enemies. Whence learn--
1. Trouble outward and inward of body and spirit, fightings without and terrors within, vexations from heaven and earth, from God deserting and men pursuing, may fall upon a child of God at one time, and continue for a long time enough, as here. “How long wilt Thou forget me; how long shall mine enemy be exalted over me?”
2. When trouble is continued, and appearance of delivery is not, and God withholdeth inward and outward help, sense calleth this the Lord’s forgetting and hiding of His face. “How long wilt Thou forget me, and hide Thy face?
3. The Lord’s children, in their resolution for faith and patience, do set to themselves a shorter period usually than the Lord doth for making them have their perfect work; therefore, when their hope is deferred, it makes their heart sick, and to cry out, “How long?”
4. When comfort trysteth not with our time, fear of eternal off-casting may readily slide in; and this fear a soul acquainted with God, or that loveth Him in any measure, cannot endure. “Wilt Thou forget me forever?” saith he.
5. Whatsoever sense do speak, or suggested temptations do speak, faith will relate the business to the Lord, and expect a better speech from Him. For in this condition the Prophet goeth to God, saying, “How long, O Lord?”
6. A soul finding desertion multiplieth consultations, falleth in perplexity, changeth conclusions, as a sick man doth his bed; falleth in grief, and cannot endure to live by its own finding, but runneth upon God for direction, as here we see it. “How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily?”
7. The enemies taking advantage (by the continuance of trouble upon the godly), against his cause and religion and against God, doth augment both the grief and temptation of the godly. “How long shall mine enemies be exalted over me?” (David Dickson.)