Psalms 13:1-6: a reflection

This short psalm moves from anguished complaint to settled trust, and the turn comes before any answer arrives. It begins with a fourfold cry of how long: How long, LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? The psalmist feels forgotten, sorrowful, overwhelmed. And yet, with no report that anything has changed, he turns: But I trust in your loving kindness. My heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing to the LORD. The trouble has not lifted; the how long is not yet answered; but the psalmist chooses to trust God's steadfast love even while he still waits. His trust does not wait for the answer to come; it rests on God's love before the deliverance arrives.

Notice when the psalmist turns to trust: before the answer comes. His how long has not been answered; nothing in his circumstances has visibly changed; the trouble still presses. And yet he turns from complaint to trust: but I trust in your loving kindness. He does not wait until the deliverance arrives to trust God; he chooses to rest on God's steadfast love even while he still waits, even while the how long hangs unanswered. His trust is not a response to a changed circumstance but a choice to rest on God's love before the change comes. To trust God's loving kindness even while the trouble continues, before the answer arrives, is the turn this psalm makes. The circumstances had not changed; the psalmist's trust rested on God's love, not on the answer.

That is worth taking to heart, for we can choose to trust God's steadfast love even before the answer comes, while the trouble still presses. When we are in trouble and cry how long, we can feel we cannot rest until the answer arrives, until the circumstances change; but the psalmist turned to trust God's loving kindness while he still waited, before anything had changed. We too can choose to trust God's steadfast love before the deliverance comes, resting on his love rather than waiting for the answer. When you cry how long and no answer has come, choose, as the psalmist did, to trust God's loving kindness while you still wait. Choose to trust God's steadfast love even before the answer comes, while the trouble still presses, as the psalmist turned from how long to but I trust in your loving kindness; for our trust need not wait for the deliverance to arrive, but can rest on God's love while we still wait, choosing to trust his steadfast love before the answer comes.