Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Psalm 13 | Date: February 19, 2023 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

Continuing our series on the Psalms, trying to learn from the Psalms—how to read and understand the Psalms—tonight we’ll look for the last time to investigate the Lament Psalms. I’ve titled this “Learning from the Petition Lament Psalms” because, as you’ll see on the back side of the page, we’ll spend some time looking at some observations, each of which really deserve an in-depth study of their own, but we’ll just make some remarks to get us thinking about the laments.

Review and Exposition of Psalm 13

But first of all, I do want to review and then take some time expounding a bit of Psalm 13. Now you remember by way of review that these Lament Psalms, as they’re called, are sometimes called Complaint Psalms or Protest Psalms. These are—yes, by the way, if you don’t have an outline, I’m sorry; raise your hand, we’ll make sure you get one. One over here. Thank you, Jim.

In these psalms, the psalmist goes to God with his suffering of whatever kind it is. Sometimes it’s persecution, sometimes it’s sickness, sometimes it’s sin (and so that will be a Penitential Lament Psalm). Sometimes it will be a complaining about the enemy that is attacking, and those might turn into an Imprecatory Psalm where he calls for God’s judgment on his enemies. We’re going to look at that subject next Sunday, Lord willing: Imprecatory Psalms. You’ve always wondered—we all have—we’ve always wondered how do we use those Imprecatory Psalms ourselves in our own praying, and should we at all, and how does that mesh with Christian teaching of loving your enemy? And I don’t think I will give you the last word on it next week, but I’ll give you some suggestions I think that can help with that.

But that’s the atmosphere of the Lament Psalms. It’s called Petition Lament Psalms because at the heart of every Lament Psalm—almost every, there’s one or two exceptions—the heart of the Lament Psalm is a petition for God to help. It might be a petition for God to relieve the suffering, it might be a petition for God to forgive the sin or to destroy the enemy, but there’s a petition at the heart of the Lament Psalms. So he is in affliction of some kind; he goes to God, complains about the affliction, makes his case, talks about it, and then turns to God with requests that He will intervene and help.

And so I’ve given you the identifying marks of the Lament Psalms. Typically, remember now, I’ve given you the structures of some of these psalms. There are exceptions; there are always exceptions. But typically, this is what you’ll find with the Lament Psalms: It will start out with a direct address (“O Lord,” “O God,” or “My Lord, my God”). And then you’ll move to the complaint or the lament itself. He’ll explain what the problem is. He’ll express confidence in God. He’ll make his petition. And then he’ll end up the psalm with an expression of praise or a vow to praise—one or the other, sometimes both.

As an example, I have in your outline Psalm 54, which is a very brief psalm. It gives a nice example of this. We have, first of all, the address in verses 1 and 2—the direct address with the introductory petition: “O God, save me by your name and vindicate me by your might. O God, hear my prayer, give ear to the words of my mouth.” When you read the Psalms and you see at the beginning of the first verse, usually among the very first words, a direct address to God, that’s the signal that we’re dealing with a Lament Psalm.

And then we have the lament itself, verse 3: “For strangers have risen against me, ruthless men seek my life, they do not set God before themselves.” So here he is complaining to God of what the problem is; it’s opposition. And then verse 4, we have the expression of confidence: “Behold, God is my helper. The Lord is the upholder of my life.” So he’s lamented. He’s made an introductory petition (verses 1 and 2). He’s complained about his situation. He’s expressed now his confidence. Even though the situation is bleak, he expresses his confidence in God.

Then he makes his formal petition: “He will return the evil to my enemies. In your faithfulness, put an end to them.” And then the praise: “With a freewill offering I will sacrifice to you. I will give thanks to your name, O Lord, for it is good. For he has delivered me from every trouble, and my eyes have looked in triumph on my enemies.” So here he’s looking at the problem in the past tense, as though it’s over, and he makes a vow to praise at the end of this episode.

Now that’s a crisp example of what you find in the Lament Psalms. So as you’re reading the Psalms, you want to look for these elements, these components that you find in the Psalms, and you can follow the psalmist’s train of thought.

Now I want to spend some time then in Psalm 13. Psalm 13. Six verses here. This is the shortest of the Petition Lament Psalms. It gives us another crisp example of the standard components of the psalm. First of all, this is the superscript: “This is a Psalm of David.” And then the direct address: “How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?” And then the threefold lament: “How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?” And then the petitions, verses 3 and 4: “Consider and answer, O Lord my God. Light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death. Lest my enemies say I have prevailed over him. Lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.”

And then the expression of confidence: “But I have trusted in your steadfast love. My heart shall rejoice in your salvation.” And then he gives a vow to praise as though the answer has already come, verse 6: “I will sing to the Lord because he has dealt bountifully with me.” And in this case, we have a subscript or a postscript. Notice over Psalm 14, “To the choirmaster.” That’s the—remember the parts of these in our printing, it’s in a superscript—but the part that has to do with the performance of the psalm, “To the choirmaster,” that’s actually a subscript or a postscript to the previous psalm.

All right, so here we have the basic elements of a psalm, Psalm 13. We have the direct address, we have the lament, the petitions (verses 3 and 4), and then the expression of confidence (verse 5), and the vow to praise in verse 6. I can give you a brief overview of the psalm in an outline. We have basically three stanzas to the psalm, or three movements in the psalm.

Verses 1 and 2, as I’ve said, we have the address and lament. It’s full of deep emotion and despair even. And then verses 3 and 4, we have the petitions. It’s perhaps a little bit calmer now as he prays to God and asks for His help. And then verses 5 and 6, we have the confidence and praise. The word “Lord,” the name of God’s name, “Lord,” appears three times in this psalm—once in each of the movements, kind of signaling each—well, it’s twice in the direct address, isn’t it? And then once with the vow to praise.

Many people have remarked on this psalm how the tone changes throughout the psalm. It’s a striking change in tone as we move past each component of the psalm. And that’s rather typical of, or at least common in, the Lament Psalms. As the psalm progresses, the tone of the psalmist himself changes. And so we have here early on, we have the deep sigh, and he’s in despair in the first couple of verses. And then we have the calmer spirit as he prays to God with his petition. And then finally, we have really joy in his heart in the final verses with the confidence and the vow to praise.

The Lament (Verses 1–2)

So let’s look through each of these. First of all, the lament, verses 1 and 2: “How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?”

So we have four questions here. First of all, “How long, O Lord?” That’s it, his first question. “How long, O Lord?” That’s the first introductory plea. And then he expands on that with specific points of lament with three more: “Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?”

On the setting here, we don’t know exactly. All we know is that it’s the Psalm of David from the superscript. We know from the psalm itself that there’s an enemy involved. Now that’s verse 2. Whether those enemies are within or without, we’re not told. You have both. You, of course, have foreign enemies that are attacking David at times in his lifetime. We also have enemies on the inside of the kingdom at times, like with Absalom. Also, like in Psalm 6, we’ll see there’s almost an attempted coup going on in his kingdom, and he’s sick and he’s weak and unable to deal with it. So we’re not told exactly here what the setting is, only that there’s an enemy involved and he’s in a weakened position. In fact, it’s some kind of desperation—whatever kind—some kind of weakness and helplessness on his part.

And so he says in verse 2, “How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day?” David’s in turmoil. He’s trying to figure this thing out. He’s trying to figure out a solution to the problem and how to resolve the imminent threat of whatever kind it is. He’s probably trying to resolve the situation, and as a result, he can’t. And as a result—the next part of verse 2—he has sorrow in his heart all day long. There is an increasing sense of frustration and helplessness. And then the last part of verse 2, the enemy seems to be gaining an upper hand because of it: “How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?”

But worst of all—and you also find this commonly in the Lament Psalms—God seems to be doing nothing. That’s verse 1: “How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?” God seems to be doing nothing. He’s forgotten David, it seems. Now, in the Old Testament, you have that language of God forgetting and God remembering. When God seems to forget one of His people, He doesn’t seem to be doing anything. He’s not intervening. He’s not bringing a resolution to the issue. When He remembers someone, He visits them with favor and He intervenes.

Well, here it seems that God has forgotten him, that David’s not even on the radar. So here is God’s covenant partner, David, to whom God has made great promises, and it seems to be failing, and David is helpless and he’s weak, and it seems that God has forgotten him. And this evidently, verses 1 and 2 here tell us, has been for a long period of time, a prolonged period of time. “How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?” And then again, “How long?” Again, “How long?” Again, “How long?” And you get the sense that this has been going on for a long time. “How long?” And David’s growing weary; he’s dismayed.

Charles Spurgeon made a comment about this psalm that we might just as well call this the “Howling Psalm.” David is howling. “How long, O Lord? How long is this going to continue?” God seems to do nothing, He doesn’t come to his aid, and this is while David carries in his heart and his mind the promise that God has made to him. “You’ll have a kingdom, it will prosper,” and now it doesn’t seem to be happening. So this first stanza, verses 1 and 2, is marked by deep emotion, desperation of some kind.

The Petitions (Verses 3–4)

And then verses 3 and 4, we have the petitions: “Consider and answer me, O Lord my God. Light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death, lest my enemies say I have prevailed over him, lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.”

Now the petition here is really stated three different ways. It’s basically the same thing, but you find this often—saying the same thing over in different words. So verse 3: “Consider”—there’s the first petition; “Answer me”—consider me, answer me, there’s two. And then the next part of the next line: “Light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death.” So “Consider me,” “Give me your attention.” “Pay attention to me, look at me. I’m your covenant partner, remember? The one you’ve made promises to? Don’t forget me.” That’s the idea there. Then “Answer me,” “Hear me when I pray. Come to my aid, help me.”

And then the next expression: “Light up my eyes.” That’s an interesting expression, “light up my eyes.” It’s not quite as foreign as you might think if you think about it a bit. We have the expression, “Someone’s eyes lit up,” and they’re encouraged with something. Actually, there’s this same expression in the lifetime—in an episode with Jonathan—in the Old Testament. You remember, they’re famished, they’re out in battle, and they’re famished, and they’re just about to give way, and they have much more fighting to do. And you remember, Jonathan sees the honey, and he’s going to take some, and his eyes lit up. Well, that’s the idea here. So he’s saying here, “Encourage me, renew my strength, give me reason to be encouraged, revive me.” That’s the sense of all of this. So with all of these together—consider me, answer me, light up my eyes—it amounts to the same: “Help me, intervene.”

So David is in desperation, he’s helpless, he can’t do anything himself; he’s tried to figure this out, he’s worked it through, and all it does is vex his soul all the more, and he can’t get anywhere, and so he goes to God and he pleads with Him, “Consider me, pay attention to me, help me.”

And then in the last part of verse 3 and verse 4, David gives God a rationale. He reasons with God in his prayer. Now this is a point of practical significance as well. When you pray, take time and reason with God over it. That’s what the psalmist regularly does. Now notice what he does here. You notice the three “lest” clauses. These are the negative purpose clauses—”lest” clauses: “Light up my eyes lest I sleep the sleep of death, lest my enemies say I have prevailed over him, lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.” So here’s his rationale: “If I die, they win. And they win over not just me; they win over my faith, and they win over You. You’ve made promises. This is not in Your best interest or mine.”

And so David is arguing that his cause is a moral one. He’s arguing for God’s sake and with God’s interests in mind; his motivations are for God and His kingdom. It wouldn’t be right for hell to prevail. That’s the essence of it. Now I think this is—I’m not going to spend time here, I’ll just mention it again—that this is of practical significance: learning to reason with God in prayer. Why are you asking Him? You’re in affliction of some kind, you’re in despair, whatever it is—reason with God with it. That’s one practical application we learn from the psalmist very often. Take your case to God and make your case. It’s not that God doesn’t understand it, of course, but make your case to God and reason with Him.

Confidence and Praise (Verses 5–6)

And then verses 5 and 6, we have the expression of confidence and the vow to praise. Notice first in verse 5, these first two words: “But I.” Now that’s very common in the Lament Psalms; it signals the turnaround. He’s lamented, he’s made his petition, and now there’s the expression of confidence. “But I”—the sense of it is, “But as for me”—and he’s resolving in his heart further: “But I have trusted in your steadfast love. My heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord because he has dealt bountifully with me.”

So verse 5, we have the confidence: “But I have trusted in your steadfast love.” I’ve trusted. What does that mean? He has a certain confidence that he’s safe, a certain confidence that God will keep him, a confidence that God is in fact on his side and that God will not forget him. “I’ve trusted.” So despite the circumstances, despite the fact that it looks to the contrary, I still believe God will help, and I’m trusting in Him. And you’ll often see this where a faith is brought out of the soul of the psalmist in the midst of a terrible affliction and desperation, and yet it’s a robust kind of faith where he has learned trust at a new level. And we have a hint of that already back in verse 3 where it says, “O Lord my God”; he hasn’t lost confidence in God yet.

Now notice the object of David’s trust: “I have trusted in your steadfast love.” Those of you who are in our Wednesday evening group when we read through the Psalms, you’ll remember this comes up again and again and again and again in the Psalms. This expression which is translated here in our version, “steadfast love”—it’s translated in other versions “tender mercies,” “loving compassion,” various things like that. It’s a word that doesn’t have an exact English equivalent, but it’s speaking of God’s mercies that He has covenanted with David to give him. This word that is used in the Old Testament always seems to have the connotations of a stronger partner in covenant relation and a weaker partner. And the stronger partner is committed to the help of the weaker partner out of affection. There’s the idea of love, but not just affection—out of a deep commitment, a covenantal commitment. So “steadfast love,” “covenantal love” tries to capture all of that.

For example, when Jacob asked his family, “Take my bones back up with you when you go,” there’s nothing Jacob could do to make that happen. He’ll be dead at the time. But he’s appealing to the steadfast love—the same word is used there—of his family, the commitment of the stronger to the weaker. We have with Ruth and Boaz and other places; there’s a stronger partner who out of affection and commitment is committed to the aid of the weaker. And the psalmist then regularly looks to God with this word and those kind of connotations: that God, who is my only help, He’s committed to me in love and affection and He will help.

So the object of David’s trust is God’s steadfast love. Now David himself was a fierce warrior, a feared warrior at that. He’s a tough hombre; you don’t want to run up against him, especially if he pulls out a slingshot. But the object of his trust is God’s steadfast love. That doesn’t mean he won’t try. He says in this psalm that he’s tried to figure this out and tried to work through it. In other psalms we will find that David—looking back at the life of David in those situations that it reflects—we’ll find that David very often worked very hard. He engineered some brilliant spy rings during Absalom’s rebellion and things like that. He’s working hard himself, but the object of his trust is God’s steadfast love. And afterwards, when he comes after deliverance, his praise is for God and His steadfast love, not for the ingenuity that he had. The object of his trust is God’s unfailing love. God is a covenant partner. He will come good on this. That’s the essence of it.

And so, at the end of verse 5 and then into verse 6, we have a vow to praise, as though the answer has already come: “My heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me.” So here, in effect, David has renounced the charge of verse 1—that God has forgotten him—and he’s confident that God will not forget him, and that God, in fact, will intervene, and He will help. Again, what does it mean to trust God? To trust His unfailing love? Again, I think we have to say is there’s a certain confidence that he is safe—that God’s providence is right and God will do what is right. And he maintains a peaceful spirit to submit to God’s providence and the confidence that ultimately he will be safe. That’s trust.

And then it’s significant, I think, that David adds, “To the choirmaster,” to the song leader. And that is, this is a psalm that we were intended to sing. All of Israel, and we today—that’s why it’s included in the Psalter—ultimately, this is a psalm that we were intended to sing. The Lord Jesus drank deeply from the Psalter. You find the psalms on His lips very often. He can quote them. During His earthly life, He could quote the Psalms at a moment’s notice, applying the insights to it in His own situation. He even quoted—and I’m sure he drank deeply from—the Lament Psalms, and I think we can be sure He sang Psalm 13. He sang Psalms with His disciples; we know that. I think we can be pretty certain He sang Psalm 13 as well.

The Lord Jesus suffered injustice; He wrestled with God against the forces of evil like no one else. And in it all, He trusted God. And in the end, He was vindicated, and God raised Him from the dead. Surely then, we can sing Psalm 13 as well. In fact, after the message, I think we will. We all wrestle with injustice. We all have affliction of various kinds. Sometimes it seems to be wrong what’s going on. There’s concern over the advance of evil in our society, in our culture. Sometimes it’s the oppression that’s coming against a given local church, and it all seems wrong.

And we can sing Psalm 13, and we can learn to sing. We can learn to lament, and we can learn to express confidence in God that He will help. And we can sing with the confidence that in the end, we will be vindicated as well. We are not in the same situation exactly—the same circumstances—that David was. We’re not the king. We don’t have the same promises that David had. But we do have the same situation of suffering. We do have promises that God will ultimately intervene for us. When we see the decay of our culture like we are seeing now, yes, we can lament, and we ought to take it to God, but we ought to do so in confidence that God will not break His promise. God’s plan and His purpose will be fulfilled, and we will be vindicated in the end, and righteousness will prevail. And meanwhile, then, this is how we may lament faithfully. Just like David here, we pour out our souls to God, we make our petitions, and we rest in the promise that in time, God will make all things right.

Broad Observations From the Lament Psalms

All right, well that’s Psalm 13. But now some—you have on the back of your handout—some broad reflections or observations from the Lament Psalms. Like I say, I think all of these deserve some in-depth study. We’re not going to do that, but just some things to touch on these for you.

Praise and Lament

First of all, lament and praise. Praise and lament are two contrasting ways of addressing God. There’s one Old Testament scholar who did a lot of work on the Psalms, and he’s famous for this observation that’s really pretty obvious, I think, once you hear it. And that is: These are two ways to address God. We address Him in lament, and we address Him in praise. And that’s helpful enough, I think, to see the different kinds of Psalms that we have.

But it’s also been pointed out that we should learn from the Lament Psalms that those two approaches to God are not mutually exclusive. Because in all of the Lament Psalms—there’s an exception, Psalm 88, and it’s not quite an exception; we’ll get to that at some point—but in all of the Lament Psalms, you have expressions of praise. That’s a standard feature in the Lament Psalms. And we can learn from that that you can praise God while lamenting. And in fact, I would argue then, that it would be inappropriate to lament without praise. And we find that in the Lament Psalms. The Lament Psalms are always, always doxological. The psalmist complains, but he never loses his composure, and he always turns to God with expressions of confidence and praise.

That, by the way, is the major difference between the Psalms and Job. We find Job complaining. We find the psalmist complaining. Both of them protest. Both protest that the suffering is unjust—what’s happening is not right. But with Job, there’s no praise until the very end of the story. There’s a right way to complain, and there’s a wrong way to complain. And I think we can learn from the Psalms the right way to complain, and that is: Come to God with your complaints, your laments. Express the problem. Reason it out with Him. But it must always be combined with praise. Praise is always necessary to petition and lament.

Lament and Faith

Number two, lament and faith. Now, if you think about it carefully, you might wonder: Are lament and faith even compatible? “If you’re really trusting God, you wouldn’t complain.” You ever heard something like that? And you might think that because in a way that makes sense, but it’s worth noticing that well over a third of the psalms—approaching a half of the psalms—are Lament Psalms. And continuously we have this example in the Psalter that lament and faith can coexist very well together. There’s a sinful way to complain, as I’ve said. You can complain in unbelief, but lament does not necessarily have to be untrusting of God’s providential care. Lament does not have to be accusatory against God. Lament may be expressed in faith.

And one commentator makes this observation: “The experience of anguish and puzzlement in the life of faith is not a sign of deficient faith, something to be outgrown or put behind you. It is intrinsic to the very nature of faith.” I think it’s a good observation that we struggle sometimes trying to trust God’s promises and His kindness and His goodness and His love for us and all of that, and match that up with the circumstances. And so the lament is, in a sense, then trying to put the two together in faith.

Suffering can be a struggle of faith, especially when God doesn’t seem to care, when God doesn’t seem to want to intervene, or God doesn’t answer the prayer. When it’s unjust, we’ve asked for help and it doesn’t come. We can be sure that in the end, righteousness will triumph and God will win. But in a fallen age, we have to recognize that God is sovereign in dispensing of His mercies. And He does not have to make life for us happy all the time. And in fact, if God answered all of our prayers immediately when we asked, we’d be spoiled rotten brats, and we would never learn to trust Him at all.

And there’s something—I was going to take time for this, but we don’t have time for it—but if you want to jot down Deuteronomy chapter 8, verses 1 to 3, Moses makes that very point with Israel. It’s not good for us if God were always to reward us with answered prayer immediately. We learn in our suffering. In fact, there’s a wonderful statement in—a fascinating statement—in Hebrews chapter 5 that Jesus, the Son of God, learned obedience. Learned obedience through suffering. You don’t learn obedience doing something that you like and that you want to do. If I were to give my kids when they were young a dollar and say, “Go out and buy an ice cream cone from the ice cream truck,” they don’t really learn obedience that way. But learning to do what is difficult, learning to trust when the things don’t seem to make sense—that’s when we learn trust at a new level.

Part of God’s design in suffering and in unanswered prayer is to learn a new level of dependence upon God. And that sense of dependence upon God is at the heart of all the Lament Psalms. He’s turning to God as his only help. And lament is not incompatible with faith. It is a struggle of faith. And he’s trying to work the two together. So take your complaints to God. Don’t overstep your bounds. Don’t become accusatory as though you deserve better and God owes you better. Take your complaints to God. Know what He has promised, know what He hasn’t promised, and trust Him to work it out in His time.

Lament and Prayer

Third, lament and prayer. And my point here is just to say that there are so many Lament Psalms in the Psalter; we ought to learn that that reflects—just reflects—real life. Now, in our advanced scientific age, we have helps with medical things, and suffering is relieved in many ways. We have conveniences that the former generations didn’t have, and suffering in our day is quite a bit less than it could have been at other times; and yet, and yet, suffering is still a part of life for every one of us. And we find that reflected in the Psalter. As I said, more than a third of the Psalms—approaching a half of the Psalms—are laments. And we have the Book of Job, which is something similar. Then we have a whole book of Lamentations. Life in this world is marked by suffering of all kinds, and much of it is injustice, failures, various kinds. And these Psalms teach us to take our concerns to God and lay open our hearts before Him.

When we read through the Psalms in our Wednesday evening prayer group, that was one of the things that impressed me the most: that in every situation—of course, almost half the time it’s suffering—in every situation, the psalmist is Godward in his orientation. And in every suffering, he’s Godward in his orientation. And the Bible—and the Psalms in particular—does not, the Psalms do not take some philosophical approach, like, well, like we often say, “Well, it’s life in a fallen world. There’s going to be suffering,” or something like that, or “All things happen for a reason.” Don’t you love it when someone says that? “All things happen for a reason.” The reason might be that that person is, you know, and it’s unjust.

In fact, the Psalms don’t even take the approach of saying all of this is for our good and for God’s glory. That’s not the approach the Psalms take, although much of that is right and good, and we’ve got to keep that perspective in mind as well. But in the Psalms, the pain of the suffering is very personal. And it’s on that level that the psalmist takes it to God. It’s out of an anguished heart that the psalmist turns to God, pours out his complaint, his lament, explains why it is so unjust and why it shouldn’t be, and makes his petition to God. It’s all very personal and full of pathos. And that’s the approach of the psalmist. And he teaches us by example then to take our laments to God with open hearts and to express our sufferings in a Godward perspective. And these psalms then teach us to keep our eyes fixed on Him. So in that sense, laments give us a model to praying, as I mentioned last time from Philippians chapter 4 and verse 6: “Don’t be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.”

Laments and Christ

All right, then finally, laments and Christ. This in particular deserves a study at length. Just a quick remark here: The psalmist frequently mentioned his enemies. Often it’s a military situation. It’s a battlefield and there’s arrows and there’s spears and military connotations. So the king is in view. Sometimes the king will be saying he’s being hunted like an animal. Sometimes he uses animal language to describe the arrogance and the evil of the enemy that is facing him. So all of that points to the king who is in view. And there’s this, as I’ve mentioned before, the royal orientation of the Psalter. The king is in view. The king’s enemies, then, are the enemies of God. The king is king over God’s kingdom on earth: Israel. And Israel’s enemies are God’s enemies. And the king is lamenting over that.

So this is God’s kingdom, this is God’s king, this is God’s people. And David’s complaints regularly—we’ll see this next week with the Imprecatory Psalms—regularly his complaints are for the glory of God and for the sake of His kingdom. And all of those kinds of observations remind us that the psalmist in the Lament Psalms as well—and not just the Praise Psalms and not just the Messianic Psalms, but in the Lament Psalms as well—they anticipate or point us to the Lord Jesus Christ who sang the Lament Psalms Himself, who Himself learned obedience through the things that He suffered. And in fact, in the New Testament, many of the Lament Psalms are found on the lips of Jesus Himself. He spoke these as His own words. Sometimes the New Testament writers put them on Jesus’ lips. Sometimes Jesus Himself will take the Lament Psalms—like Psalm 69 in John chapter 2—where He quotes that Lament Psalm.

Now without doubt, Jesus sang the Lament Psalms. I have no doubt that He sang the confidence sections of the Lament Psalms as well. And we’ll see sometime down the road that those confidence sections of the Lament Psalms actually become on their own sometimes a psalm, and we call those Psalms of Trust. Jesus sang the laments; He sang the confidence sections as well. And in that respect, it foreshadows something of our Lord’s work. And we ought to keep an eye open to see how this might reflect in the King’s suffering—the suffering of the King, capital K, who suffered par excellence. And still, if Jesus sang these laments, then so can we. We’re engaged in spiritual warfare for His kingdom and we can sing with lament, we can sing with trust, and we ought always to sing with an expression of praise because His promises will be fulfilled and His purposes will be fulfilled for us.

All right, I mentioned that with Psalm 13, there is one Psalm 13 hymn in our hymnal; it’s 541.