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Faith in the Midst of Delay (Psalm 13) | John Calvin · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to Reformed Thinking, the deep dive where we take
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scripture and commentary and really try to work through the
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spiritual exercises they show us.
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Glad to be here. Today, we're opening our source
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material to a Psalm that, well, it really cuts right to the
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heart of feeling spiritually abandoned.
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Psalm 13, David brings us face to face with one of the most
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terrifying questions a believer can ask.
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How long? But crucially, this prayer
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doesn't stay stuck in despair. It actually moves somewhere.
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And that movement is exactly what we want to unpack today.
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Yeah, the sources we're looking at guide us through the, let's
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call it the spiritual dynamics of this Psalm.
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They show David going from this crushing sense of being
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neglected, you know, internal chaos, debilitating stuff,
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right, to an assured hope, a vocal hope even.
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And that hope, this is key. It's anchored entirely in God's
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faithful character and His promise, not because things
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suddenly got better around him. So we're looking for a practical
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guide, really. How does faith actually work
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when everything you see and feel suggests God has just stopped,
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stopped acting for you? We want you, our listener, to
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walk away understanding how faith grabs hold of God's unseen
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help during really intense suffering.
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And the context here is vital. The sources note that Psalm 13,
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it's subject matter is very similar to the Psalm right
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before it, Psalm 12. It's documenting a soul just
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overwhelmed, not by one single hit, but by a long succession of
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calamities and multiplied afflictions, as the commentary
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puts it. Wow, just one thing after
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another. Exactly, David's kind of
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exhausted all the earthly options and he recognizes God is
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the only remedy which remained. So this whole Psalm, this
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exercise, it beautifully, sometimes painfully, brings
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together these feelings that seem totally opposite, you know,
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raw, bitter complaint, and then this ultimate settled trust.
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OK, let's start unpacking that first part then.
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The sheer weight of David's internal torment when he cries
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out. How long wilt thou forget me 4
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times? That's documenting something
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really deep isn't it? A multi layered spiritual and
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psychological pain. Oh absolutely.
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We need to see this is way beyond just feeling down.
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The commentary points to the source of his disquietude, his
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internal agitation. It comes from sorrow in his
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heart daily. Daily, not just a bad day.
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No, this isn't a sudden, acute pain.
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It's recurring. It's chronic grief.
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It grabs his heart and causes him to be the Texas violently
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agitated within. If we were talking today, we
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might say deep, persistent rumination rooted in grief.
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And then agitation seems to spiral into what the sources
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call a mental labyrinth. He's tormented, distracted by a
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multitude of thoughts that sounds like exhausting,
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physically and mentally debilitating, almost like severe
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anxiety. It's utterly exhausting, the
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text says. He's constantly thinking of
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different methods of obtaining relief.
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He's deliberating now in one way, and now in another.
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Just imagine someone spinning through potential solutions.
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Plan A today, a completely different Plan B tomorrow.
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He wears himself out because he can't settle on any solid course
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of action. His hope keeps shifting.
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This fruitless search for a human fix, a self started
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solution, this inability to just rest in a decision, that's the
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core of his psychological distress.
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It just ramps up the anxiety and the underlying fear.
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That sounds like such a classic picture of anxiety, doesn't it?
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The mind just working overtime running all the scenarios trying
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to find a fix that never comes until you just collapse from
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mental fatigue. That's precisely the effect
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described. But the core spiritual crisis,
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the thing underpinning all this anxiety, is that feeling of
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being forsaken, that raw perception that God has
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forgotten us. Why did the source material
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suggest that thought is almost unavoidable in situations like
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this? Well, it comes down to duration
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and perception, the sources say. This thought unavoidably forces
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itself on someone when they've been weighed down by troubles
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for a long time. OK, the length of time matters.
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Yes, and crucially, when they perceive no sign of divine aid.
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David isn't making some abstract theological statement here about
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God knowing everything. He's speaking from the feeling
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in his own mind and the judgement of the flesh.
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You know, our natural senses suggests God has hidden his
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face, which practically speaking, makes him seem absent.
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So the feeling of abandonment is almost a natural response to
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prolonged, unrelieved suffering, no matter what God is actually
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doing. Absolutely.
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The flesh, our natural inclination, judges only by what
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it feels right now. If the present feeling is
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non-stop pain with no relief insight, the flesh concludes God
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has hidden himself. But for David it was even worse.
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His suffering was compounded because this internal feeling of
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neglect was actually reinforced from the outside by public
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hatred. Oh, that's a terrible
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combination. Not only does he feel God might
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be hostile, but the world around him seems to confirm it.
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Precisely. The sources go into detail about
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how David was really hated by the generality of people.
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Why? Because widespread calumnies and
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false reports have been spread about him.
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Calumnies meaning lies. Basically malicious stuff.
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Exactly, Malicious misrepresentation lies spread
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specifically to ruin his character to defame him.
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Then the result was almost everyone judged that God must be
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just as hostile to him as his human enemies were.
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Wow. If your whole society believes
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you're suffering because God is actively punishing you, yeah,
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that must make the internal spiritual struggle almost
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unbearable. You feel completely alone.
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It makes the suffering so much heavier.
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When David felt forgotten by God, the public judgement seemed
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to just confirm it. It offered this cruel sort of
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validation to his own deepest fears.
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His enemies being insolent to his face was in their eyes, and
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maybe even his just mirroring what they thought God was
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already doing to him. OK, so that sets the stage for
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the next section. David moves from that deep
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lament to this urgent plea. He's exhausted, publicly shamed.
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He cries out. Behold, answer me, O Jehovah, my
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God. He wants God to see what's
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happening externally, but it feels like he needs an internal
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rescue too. Yeah, this plea for attention,
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it's rooted in a very human feeling, isn't it?
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The sources say. We often feel that until God
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actually puts forth His hand to give relief, it's like He shuts
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his eyes and does not behold us. Right.
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Like he's not looking. So David is asking God to shift
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from seeming inaction to compassionate intervention.
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He asks God to look 1st and then to answer.
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The idea is that God hears us when he's moved by compassion,
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when he's prompted to actually help us.
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And then comes that really specific phrase, Enlighten mine
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eyes, lest I sleep in death. We often think of enlighten my
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eyes as just a metaphor for, you know, spiritual understanding.
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But the commentary says the original Hebrew idiom is much
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more physical. It's intensely physical and
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specific. That's a really crucial insight
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from the commentary. Yeah, asking God to enlighten
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mine eyes. It's basically the same as
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asking God to give the breath of life.
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The phrase signifies restoring the vigor of life.
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The sources explicitly say that a person's vitality, or lack of
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it, shows up chiefly in the eyes.
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So it's about restoring immediate physical energy in
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life. So if he's asking for the vigor
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of life, then the opposite condition he mentioned sleeping
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and death. That means literal imminent
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death. He thinks he's about to die.
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That's the confession he's making.
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This David recognizes that unless God steps in right now,
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immediately he'll be overwhelmed by the darkness of death.
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He feels he's already right now as a man without life.
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This isn't some far off threat. It's immediate physical and
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spiritual collapse, knocking at the door.
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The commentary brings in that story about Jonathan, doesn't
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it, To ground this physically. It does, yeah.
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The accountant for Samuel, When Jonathan was just wiped out from
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battle and hunger, and he tasted that honey, the text says, his
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eyes were enlightened. But before that, when he was
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starving, his eyes were overcast with dimness.
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That dimness symbolized his life fares just draining away from
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physical lack. Dave is using that same kind of
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picture. This spiritual neglect, these
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endless calamities, they're draining his life force.
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He's begging for physical life and spiritual life, both at the
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same time. That makes his plea so much more
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desperate than just asking for understanding.
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He's asking for immediate life support basically to avoid dying
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right then and there. Exactly.
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But notice David doesn't just plead for himself.
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He immediately shifts gears and uses a theological argument.
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The argument from God's office, you could call it.
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He asks for help because his enemies winning would actually
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be an affront to God's own governance.
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OK, so he moves from his personal agony to the bigger
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picture of God's sovereignty and reputation.
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How does he build that case? He points out what happens
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because of his weakness, his languor.
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His enemies are puffed up over him.
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They triumph more boldly because they see him enfeebled,
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apparently without God's protection.
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And David, as God's servant, believes this kind of cruel
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arrogance is something God will less bear with.
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So David is basically making a kind of judicial appeal, saying
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God, like this situation is becoming a test of your
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reputation in public. He's tapping right into God's
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role in ruling over wickedness. The commentary highlights that
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it's the peculiar office of God, Part of his job description, you
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might say, to repress the audacity and insolence of the
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wicked as often as they glory in their wickedness.
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So God pushes back against arrogant evil.
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Right. And David argues that if his
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enemies succeed in crushing him, remember he's God's anointed
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servant operating under God's covenant, then they would
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effectively be wickedly triumphing over God himself.
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His personal safety becomes secondary to vindicating God's
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rule in front of everyone. OK, this really sets up the
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central amazing paradox of the Psalm, doesn't it?
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Yeah. In the first half, David feels
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forgotten. His eyes are dimming.
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He feels like he's dying. Then suddenly in the
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second-half, he declares, I have trusted in my mercy.
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How on earth does a believer bridge that gap when all the
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physical carnal evidence screams hopelessness?
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That bridge, that's the spiritual mechanism of faith.
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Carnal reason, our natural way of thinking based only on sight
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and feeling. It dictates that God shuts his
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eyes until relief actually shows up physically.
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Yeah, I'll believe it when I see it.
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Exactly. So acknowledging God has ongoing
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invisible care right in the middle of severe affliction.
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That is not the usual way with men, the commentary says.
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It's not what the feelings of nature would prompt.
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Faith acts directly against the judgement of the flesh.
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So if faith goes against the grain of natural feeling, it
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must be an active thing, an exertion of the mind, not just a
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passive emotion. That's a critical distinction.
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Faith allows the eyes of the mind to penetrate even to the
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grace of God, although it was hidden in darkness.
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The grace is there, but it's hidden, unseen by physical eyes,
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unfelt by raw emotions. Faith is that spiritual ability
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that secures our well-being in God's hand, regardless of what
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our senses are telling us right now.
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This grasping of unseen Providence is the assurance that
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pulls David back from the brink of despair.
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And if we look closely how David acts here, there's that
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fascinating paradox again. He complaints, Honestly, God,
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you've forgotten me. That's the genuine pain of the
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flesh speaking. But the very fact that he
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directs those raw, painful groans to God, that shows that
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his belief in God's truth wasn't completely snuffed out, right?
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This is the heart of spiritual wrestling.
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He's expressing despair and exercising trust at the same
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time. Faith enabled him to rise higher
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than his immediate grief. His underlying belief that God
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hears him even when God seems utterly silent stops him from
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just giving up or tuning elsewhere, or collapsing into a
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kind of practical atheism. He still knows where the
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ultimate remedy is found, even if he can't feel the hand
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holding it right now. So the spiritual work isn't
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about pretending the pain isn't there, it's about aiming that
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pain in the right direction towards God.
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What's the danger if we don't actively wrestle like that?
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Well, the danger is giving in to temptation, and temptation is
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always pushing us toward despair.
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David models how we have to wrestle against temptations.
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And how does he fight? He uses the hope of deliverance,
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a hope founded specifically on the faithful promise of God.
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He uses that hope like a shield to repel those temptations.
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That shield analogy is really strong.
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It implies this is a conscious defensive action, not passive
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waiting. It's a deliberate Longview, he
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teaches us. The commentary says that we have
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to stretch our view as far as possible into the future.
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Why? Because this foresight stops the
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present overwhelming grief from completely destroying our hope.
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The person who gives up easily, the commentary suggests, is the
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one who collapses at the first hit because they can't bear to
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look beyond the immediate pain. David saying no, look ahead.
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Look to the final promise. It's the discipline mind
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stepping in and saying OK, I feel this crushing weight right
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now, but I know what is true about God's character in His
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future action. And that knowledge, that
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certainty about the future, is secured by faith.
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Faith gives confidence to that future.
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Hope, the suffering itself is real, you can't deny it.
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But its power to destroy your hope is lessened when you view
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it through the lens of God's known, proven faithfulness over
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time. OK, so when David finally makes
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this incredible turn around, this declaration of trust, he
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needs a solid place to stand. And interestingly, he doesn't
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look back at his own track record or how good he's been.
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He anchors his trust explicitly, squarely in the goodness of God.
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Yes, and this is such a critical theological pivot point,
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especially if you're thinking from a Reformed perspective.
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He puts God's goodness first in order, calling it the cause of
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his deliverance. It's not an afterthought, it's
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the foundation David resolves to sing to the Lord.
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Because God hath dealt bountifully with me.
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And that phrase, dealt bountifully, leads us straight
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into the doctrine of grace. And that's where that specific
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Hebrew word comes in. Gamal, right?
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Yes, exactly. The word is Gamal, and this is
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where the commentary offers a really vital clarification for
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us. While some interpreters might
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translate Gummel as to reward or maybe do recompense, which would
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imply David somehow earned this benefit.
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Right, like God owes him. Calvin's analysis asserts that
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Gummel means nothing other than to bestow a benefit from pure
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grace. OK, wait.
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That distinction is huge for someone in David's shoes.
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If he thinks of God's help as a reward, well, his current
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suffering in public shame would surely convince him he hasn't
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earned anything. He'd feel disqualified.
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But if it's pure grace been his suffering, his feelings, his
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enemies, opinions, none of that matters regarding God's
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willingness to act. Exactly.
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If David's deliverance depended on his merit or some kind of
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payback for good deeds, his current feeling of being
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forgotten and his public humiliation would absolutely
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shatter his hope instantly. But if God acts out of pure,
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innate goodness, Kamal, then the assurance comes from God's
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nature, not from David's performance or circumstances.
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That anchors the believer in a way nothing else can.
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It frees him from that crippling cycle of am I good enough?
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Have I suffered enough? The moment David really grasps
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that God acts purely out of grace, that's when the
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psychological torment starts to loosen its grip.
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So, thinking about the specific problems he cried out about
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earlier, what forms of divine help does this assurance of
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grace actually guarantee him? Does it counter his specific
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complaints? Oh, it does.
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There's a beautiful theological symmetry here between his
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laments and the promises he now holds onto by faith.
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OK, so start with his biggest complaint.
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Feeling forgotten, feeling like he's about to die.
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How is that countered? It's countered by two specific
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promises he seems to grasp. First, salvation and
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deliverance. David assures himself his heart
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shall exult in thy salvation. That means total rescue, total
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restoration, and second life. Remember his desperate plea
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enlighten mine eyes. The promise he now rests on
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guarantees the restoration of the vigor of life and prevents
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that sleeping and death. The very life force he begged
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for is now assured, based purely on God's goodness.
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OK, that covers the life and death issue.
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What about the mental labyrinth? That multitude of thoughts that
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was driving him crazy and exhausting him.
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That gets countered by the promise of guidance.
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The sources point us towards the prophet Isaiah, actually Isaiah
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11.2 promising the spirit of counsel to the faithful.
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This divine counsel, this guidance from God, directly
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addresses that internal distraction, that chaotic
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multitude of thoughts. It replaces the anxiety and
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confusion with clarity and direction.
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The external storm might still be raging for a while, but the
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internal chaos begins to settle because of this promised spirit
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of counsel. It's like the perfect
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theological medicine for his specific spiritual sicknesses.
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And David becomes so utterly convinced by this goodness, by
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this grace, that he actually promises future Thanksgiving
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before he even gets the physical deliverance.
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This is, well, it's preemptive praise, isn't?
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It it absolutely is that declaration I will sing unto the
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Lord. That's the outflow of a really
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strong, compelling trust. It's proof, the commentary
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suggests, that he's fully convinced that God was already
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at hand to grant him deliverance.
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This cheerfulness of faith, as it's called, has to rise above
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the present sorrow. It puts a song in his mouth now
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because of the joy he knows is reserved for him in the future.
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So he's actively using the spiritual reality of future joy
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to reshape his experience of the physical present.
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Exactly. By using that future tense, I
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will sing, David is placing the distant deliverance immediately
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before his mind's eye. He's already celebrating God's
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grace in his heart, preparing himself for the song of
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salvation before the actual trouble has physically cleared
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up. It demonstrates a complete
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victory of faith, oversight over feeling.
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So he gets to the end of the Psalm and he's no longer just
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passively waiting or complaining.
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He's he's preparing a concert. A.
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Concert founded entirely on the non merited pure goodness of
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God. The shift from beginning to end
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is just remarkable. It's complete.
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Wow, this deep dive into Psalm 13 really gives us complete sort
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of manual for handling spiritual crisis.
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It validates the raw honesty of suffering.
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That complaint of the flesh is real, it's necessary even.
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But it demands that this complaint be rescued, repurposed
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by faith. The central lesson is precisely
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that David, guided by faith's light, acknowledges God's
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invisible care even when that grace seems totally hidden in
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darkness. He teaches us that even when we
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feel profoundly forgotten, completely alone, the truth of
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God's character, His unchanging goodness, His faithful promise,
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that has to be the shield we deliberately, consciously raise
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against the constant pull towards immediate despair.
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We see Him move all the way from that bitter, honest cry.
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How long, Lord, will you forget me forever, All the way to the
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resolution that defines His restored life.
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I will sing unto the Lord, because He hath dealt
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bountifully with me. And that final resolution?
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Remember, it isn't earned by good behavior or enough
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suffering. It's gifted.
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It comes from Gamel, from pure grace.
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David's urgent plea for God to enlighten mine eyes was, at its
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core, a desperate request for the visible light of life, for
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renewed vigor. So considering this whole
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exercise of Psalm 13, this journey from deep, honest
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complaint to assured trust in God's goodness, it really raises
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A challenging question for you, the listener.
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If faith is what's required to stretch your view into the
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future, and if that future promise is the shield against
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despair, what practical steps must you take today to actively
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use that hope instead of just passively waiting for the
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suffering to maybe lift on its own?
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That's definitely something to reflect on as you face your own
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daily sorrows, maybe your own debilitating multitudes of
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thoughts. The remedy, it seems, is found
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in grasping that unseen goodness.
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Until next time.