‏ Psalms 13:5

Confidence and Joy

After making his distress known to the LORD (Psa 13:1b-2) and pleading with the LORD to come to his aid (Psa 13:3-4), David comes to rest. “I” (Psa 13:5) has emphasis in Hebrew. After struggling with his doubt in his life of prayer, David achieves victory by trusting and looking to God’s lovingkindness. His confidence in God’s lovingkindness, that is, his trust that God remains faithful to His covenant, is back. He knows that God will show him His lovingkindness and help him. That awareness causes joy in his heart. He expresses his joy by singing to the LORD.

The occasion is that “He has dealt bountifully with me” and has turned everything around for the better (Psa 13:6). The phrase “has dealt bountifully” has the meaning of ‘treated with abundant blessing and goodness’. God is not good just a little bit, but full of goodness to His own. The enemies rejoice at God’s apparent absence and lack of care for His own, but the psalmist is certain that the God-fearing will ultimately rejoice in God’s salvation. The word “salvation” has the meaning of an ample redemption. It is not just that the enemy has been vanquished, but he has been totally eliminated.

We see here what we find in many psalms, that they begin with a lament and end with a song of praise. We see the order: complaint (Psa 13:1b-2), prayer (Psa 13:3-4) and expression of confidence in a song of praise (Psa 13:5-6). The complaint about being forgotten by God thus turns into a song of thanksgiving for God’s experienced goodness.

Copyright information for KingComments