Psalm 13 Overview

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Welcome to the Overview of Psalm 13

This page will introduce and provide orientation to Psalm 13 as a whole. It includes the following sections:


Introduction to Psalm 13

Author:

Purpose:

To ask God to see the psalmist's suffering and rescue him.

Content:

YHWH, give light to my eyes! Lest I sleep in death, lest my enemy says: "I'm the victor!"

Message:

Suffering does not change the psalmist's covenant relationship with God, so he can still call on God with confidence.

Psalm 13 At-a-Glance

These sections divide the content of the psalm into digestible pieces , and are determined based on information from many of our layers, including Semantics, Poetics, and Discourse. The columns, left to right, contain: the verse numbers; the main title of the section; a brief summary of the content of that section (quote marks indicate the text is taken directly from the English text of the psalm (as per our Close-but-Clear translation); and an icon to visually represent and remember the content. Psalm 13 - overview.jpg

Background Orientation for Psalm 13

Following are the common-ground assumptionsCommon-ground assumptions include information shared by the speaker and hearers. In our analysis, we mainly use this category for Biblical/Ancient Near Eastern background. which are the most helpful for making sense of the psalm.

  • The question "How long? signals lament. It it not really a question, but rather, in speech act terms, an expressive. Similar expressions are known from ancient Mesopotamia, often in prayers for healing.
  • Sickness was viewed as just as dire a situation as a battle wound, brought on by men's curses and overcome by YHWH's compassion.
  • The expression "to hide one's face" is used several times in the Psalms, in the sense of turning a blind eye to the suffering of the innocent (Pss 10:11; 13:2; 22:25; 27:9; 30:8; 44:25; 51:11; 69:18; 88:15; 102:3; 104:29 (obj.: animals); 143:7).
  • YHWH promised to David that:
    • he would one day be king (1 Sam 16:1, 12),
    • his house and kingdom would be established forever (2 Sam 7:16).

Background Situation for Psalm 13

The background situation is the series of events leading up to the time in which the psalm is spoken. These are taken from the story triangle – whatever lies to the left of the star icon. Psalm 13 - Background Situation.jpg

Participants in Psalm 13

This resource is forthcoming.