Good To Me (Psalm 13)
Of all the types of psalms in the psalter, the lament is the most common. The psalter gives us model after model of what to do when our lived experience does not match the good life in God for which we hope and wait. Psalm 13 is a classic model of a lament—of what it looks like to pour out our complaints to God, to cry out to him in our pain and fear, to beg him to act, to ask him how long we will feel his absence. And, like most lament psalms, after calling to him, complaining to him, and asking for rescue, the psalmist closes with a call to himself - a declaration of what he will do anyway, no matter how dire the circumstance. In verses 5 and 6 we find, "Rejoice, my heart, in God’s salvation." I will sing to God because “he has been good to me”, or “he has dealt bountifully with me.” The Hebrew verb is in the perfect tense, signifying a completed action.
For the Christian, both our memory and our hope extend much further back and look farther forward than our own particular lifetime. When we continue to praise him because “he has been good,” we look back not only through our own personal story but also through the history of the people of God and the redemptive work of God for Israel and in Christ. It is a long, long story with many memories of God’s goodness. And when we “trust in (his) unfailing love” (v.5) - when we live our lives believing that he will fulfill his good promises to his people - we look for his presence and rescue in our day to day lives while knowing that our ultimate hope extends past our life right now. All of his promises that are “yes” in Christ Jesus will be fulfilled, and every tear shed to him in lament will be wiped away, and we like every saint before us will end our days on earth hoping for that day in faith, not sight. Even so, we can sing of his goodness. It is sometimes a tender, painful song, a true sacrifice of praise.
Bruce Waltke and Jim Houston write about the praise that is so often embedded into a psalm of lament in terms of the Christian’s immediate narrative and the biblically-informed metanarrative of which we are a part:
“Sometimes, when we step back and look upstairs, the lights are out and no one seems to be home. Perplexity is normal Christian experience, but saints do not despair because the verities of the metanarrative transcend the immediate narrative.”
God invites us to bring our complaints to him. Our anger, our hurt, our anguish, our declarations of his seeming absence, our fear - bring them to him. Even when you feel like you can’t make it to the end verses that come back to praise. Even when the pain of our immediate narrative eclipses a metanarrative perspective. Lament is an act of worship.
Jill, for Ordinary Time
Good To Me (Psalm 13)
How long, Lord, will you forget and hide your face from me?
How long must I bear the sorrow pressing down on me?
While you are silent I wait for you
My own thoughts mock me … still I trust in you
Let me not be ashamed
Let me not wait in vain ... for you
Look on me and answer
O my lord and my God
Give light to my eyes or I will, I will surely die
I trust in your love, your unfailing love
My heart rejoices in your salvation, Lord
I will sing the lord’s praises, for he has been good to me
I will sing the lord’s praises, for he has been good to me
I will sing the lord’s praises, for he has been good to me
I will sing the lord’s praises, for he has been good to me
I will sing the lord’s praises, for he has been good...
Let me not be ashamed
Let me not wait in vain ... for you
