Psalms 13 - Introduction

XIII.

In this short poem we see the power of lyric expression for rapid changes of emotion. In the compass of three short stanzas, decreasing in length as they proceed, we have an alternation from the deepest despair to the profoundest peace. Perhaps here is the record of an eventful period of David’s life, when he had to make a hundred shifts to escape from Saul, and feared often to close his eyes, lest he should never awake alive. But Psalms 13:3 sounds rather like the cry of one suffering from sickness. All we can be certain about is that the psalm is intense in its record of personal feeling.