Paraphrase Upon the Books of the Psalms, Book 1 · Psalm 13
The Thirteenth Psalm.
TO the chief Musitian a Psalm of David.
Paraphrase. The thirteenth is a complaint, and prayer in time of great distresse, and withall a confident chearful appeal to, and relyance on Gods mercy, compiled by David, and committed to the Praefect of his Musick.
1. How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord, for ever? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me?
Blessed Lord, thou art pleased to withdraw the wonted declarations of thy favour and loving kindnesse from me, to exercise me for some space, to defer the gracious acceptance of, and answer to my prayers: I cannot but think it very long that thou art thus pleased to withhold the*foreign splendor, Chald. blessing beames of thy countenance from me.
2. How long shall I take counsell in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? How long shall mine enemie be exalted over me?
I am in continuall thoughts of sadnesse, by black melancholick reflections on my present destitutions; not knowing what to doe, which way to turn, whilest I discern thy wonted faoours withdrawn from me, and a sad effect thereof, the prevailing of mine and thine enemies against me. O Lord, be thou pleased in thy goodnesse to set a speedy period to this.
3. Consider and hear me, O Lord my God;a. lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep‖death, or, to, or, in death, foreign the sleep of death;
Thou, Lord, art my only preserver and deliverer, my sole almighty refuge, to whom I may successefully resort: be thou at length pleased to restore thy favourable countenance, to hear and answer my prayers, to grant me some refreshing and reviving in this black state of sadnesse, which will without thy support soon bring me to my last; Lord, let me not for ever ly under it.
4. Lest mine enemie say, I have prevailed against him, and those that trouble me rejoyce when I am moved.
If thou continue thus to withhold the merciful revelation of thy selfe, this will be matter of triumph to them that oppose me, and so thy Ordinance in me. If they continue thus prosperous, and I thus improsperous, they will think themselves conquerors over that cause which thou dost own, and so that either thou art not able, or willing to support thy servants: And this will be matter of great rejoycing and boasting to them, if thou please not to check it speedily.
5. But I have trusted in thy mercy; my heart shall rejoyce in thy salvation.
This I know thou wilt doe, and am assuredly confident, that as I have constantly relyed on thee for ayde, so I shall have the pleasure and comfort of being timely delivered by thee.
6. I will sing unto the Lord, because he hathb. †rendred good, or, dealt well.dealt bountifully with me.
I have had so frequent and constant experiences of his goodness and mercy toward me, that I cannot doubt of the continuance of them; and therefore I have nothing to doe, but thus to comfort and stay my self in him, and praising him for what I have already received, place my chearfull affiance in him for the future.
Annotations on Psalm XIII.
V. 3. Lighten mine eyes] what is the meaning of this phrase, foreign lighten mine eyes] may perhaps be best judged by Jonathans speech i.foreign Sam. xiv. 27. who being very hungry, and ready to faint, dipt his rod in an honey-comb, and eat of it, and the text saith, his eyes were enlightened, i. e. he was refresht by it. Dimness of sight is a frequent effect of long fasting, and then eating is the proper means of repairing that decay; and so this effect is by metonymie set to signifie that refection, which causeth this. See, saith Jonathan v. 29. how mine eyes foreign have been enlightened, because I tasted a little of this honey, i. e. how I have received refreshment by eating this. There indeed the Lxxii. render foreign mine eyes have seen, either reading foreign from foreign to see, or more probably, thus to express the meaning more perspicuously; for his eyes seeing] was an evidence of their being inlightened, and his being thus refresht from his hunger: and so before v. 27. foreign, say they, his eyes received sight, or saw clearly. This was literally applicable to David when he came to Nob, 1 Sam. 1. for then being threatned by Saul, and advised by Jonathan to flie, he was so distrest by hunger, that he was fain to eat the Shew-bread. And so again in the time of Absaloms rebellion, David and his forces were hungry, and weary, and thirsty in the wilderness. 2 Sam. xvii. 29. had not Shobi, and Machir, and Barzillai refresht, and so enlightened their eyes. v. xxvii. 28. But it may also by an easie Metaphor be applied to the political state. When in any time of affliction, exprest frequently by darkness, and gloominess, the person is relieved or refreshed, his eyes are said to be inlightened, in proportion to that refreshment, that hungry fainting persons receive by meat. So Ezra ix. 8. the restitution after captivity, giving them a little reviving in their bondage, is styled Gods lightening their eyes. And so it is in this place, in the midst of that sadness that now lay on David, parallel to a fainting fit of hunger in the body, or to captivity in a state, which if it were not speedily relieved, would end in death quickly: See more of this Psalm xix. note e.
V. 6. Dealt bountifully] foreign foreignsignifies to retribute, whether good or ill, or simply to do either; and which it is, the context must direct. Here all interpreters agree of the good sense. The Chaldee adde foreign good; the Lxxii. read foreign, and the Latine bona tribuit, given me good things, and so the Arabick and Aethiopick; the Syriack, foreign hath delivered me, and so we finde it Psal. cxvi. 7. and cxix. 17. and in many other places, and 'tis indifferently used either with foreign on, or ל to, after it; and so 'tis best rendred here, hath dealt well with me.