The role of the steadfast love of the LORD in transforming despair to hope.

By Stuart Adamson.

Psalm 13

    For the director of music. A psalm of David.

 1 How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever?
   How long will you hide your face from me?
2 How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
   and every day have sorrow in my heart?
   How long will my enemy triumph over me?

 3 Look on me and answer, O LORD my God.
   Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death;
4 my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,”
   and my foes will rejoice when I fall.

 5 But I trust in your unfailing love;
   my heart rejoices in your salvation.
6 I will sing to the LORD,
   for he has been good to me.

There are basically three main features to Psalm 13, the fourfold cry of  "How long, O LORD?",  the Psalmist's enemy and the role the hesed (loving-kindness) (translated as unfailing love in the NIV) of the LORD. It is helpful to consider the first two in terms of despair, and the last one in terms of hope.

Psalms such as these abound in Scripture, and they are aptly termed individual laments. Typically, they fall into three parts, and Psalm 13 is no exception - Plea (v 1-2), Petition (v 3-4) and Praise (verse 5-6).

Theologian and commentator Walter Brueggemann says “the question of how the changed mood and ..situation are effected cannot be definitively answered, but that they were changed is beyond doubt.” He argues rightly that the psalm reflects the fact that transformation of life is a central conviction of Israel. As he says “Health is restored, enemies are resisted and destroyed, death is averted, shalom is given again.”

But I want to test Brueggemann and ask “Is it really impossible to know how the changed mood is effected?”

Even to the casual observer, the four-fold refrain of the psalmist (how long) is

the dominant feature of the Plea. The emphasis is on the feeling of abandonment.

We have heard this language before from Yahweh himself. “Then the LORD said to Moses ” (how long) will you refuse to keep my commands and my instructions?”(Ex. 16:28) (See also Num. 14:11, Jeremiah 47:6, Ps 62:3 and Hab. 2:1). These references portray the LORD as waiting in a longsuffering way for his covenant people Israel to repent and believe in him.

In our text, it is the Psalmist who utters a fourfold "how long".  It is a charge is of divine absence in time of need.  It’s audacious. No, it’s outrageous. Yet it is Scripture, and all of it is useful if we want to be thoroughly equipped (cf 2 Tim. 3:17). So what are we to make of it?

When God forgets in the OT it is often related to God’s covenant faithfulness ( eg Deut. 4:31) and Israel’s unfaithfulness (Jeremiah 23:39-40). But there is no transgression involved here, just a profound sense of betrayal by God.

The second (how long) relates to the concealing of the face of God. As with God forgetting, the

hiding of the (face) of God is related to sin and judgement (eg Isaiah 64:7). Conversely,

being before the (face) of God is a positive thing itself (eg Isaiah 9:3).

The third (how long) relates to the wrestling with personal thoughts (as translated

in the NIV). The Hebrew, (how long shall I set counsels in my soul and afflictions in my heart by day ) is rendered in the NIV as “How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and everyday have sorrow in my heart?” I think there are good reasons to conclude that the Psalmist craves the counsels of the Lord, but we do not have space to explore that issue here.

The final (how long) describes the agony of an enemy being exalted over the

psalmist for an extended period, rather than God himself. (eg Ps 18:46, 2 Sam. 2:22 and Isaiah 52:13).

The Petition begins anxiously with three commands, “Look at me!” and “take notice!” and “give light to my eyes”. They correspond to the prior exclamations of agony, forgetting and hiding the face. They anticipate transformation of the mood.  

Here in verse three, in the midst of despair, we have the psalmist, reflecting on his need

of blessing, to have the LORD’s face turned to him and to have peace in his heart. They are

reminiscent of the elements of the Aaronic blessing itself:

The LORD bless you

And keep you;

The LORD make his face shine upon you

And be gracious to you;

The LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace.

The psalmist’s cry is indeed a cry of faith – one that calls on the covenant God to honour his promises to his child.

Though the identity of (the enemy) in v 4a is debated, there is evidence to say that Death is the main protagonist, but also that mortal enemies arraigned against God are included as well.

The words in verse 3 (Yahweh) and (My God) underscore two things for the psalmist. Firstly that he is addressing the god who has revealed himself as the (the LORD) of the covenant and the god who the creator god who is also personal, and is regarded as “my” god by his covenant people. The utterance “my God” serves as a counterpoint to the fourfold “How long O Lord.” God is reminded of his obligation to those who call him “my God”.

The Praise, in verses five and six is rendered: But I trust (Heb: have trusted, a completed action, indicating that trust has been the hallmark of his attitude) in your unfailing love, I will rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the LORD, for he has been good to me. (Heb: has dealt bountifully, fully, to me).

Brueggemann’s comment on the three-fold use Yahweh – the LORD - helps us a great deal. “The dramatic movement of the psalm from disorientation to new orientation is marked by three uses of the name (Yahweh). In verse 1, he is named only to be assaulted. In verse 3, he is named with an appellation of intimacy as a ground for appeal, and in verse six, the accused has now become the object of doxology.”

Sakenfeld identifies the attributes of the word hesed in the OT as 1) always involving provision of an essential need 2) by a superior party 3) who is free not to perform the act 4) but recognises the responsibility to act 5) as the sole source of assistance to the weaker party. However, Clark is the one who describes hesed as a characteristic of God rather than of human beings, and as an enduring quality, evidenced by God’s commitment to Israel despite blatant and persistent rebellion.

It is my contention that the linchpin of the whole psalm is the word hesed.  For it is the covenant love of Yahweh in which the psalmist trusts from the first How long? to the final promise of praise. Indeed, it is this very hesed that releases the psalmist to boldly hold God to the promises that his hesed leads him to make. The psalmist has a hope that is sure, founded on Yahweh’s faithfulness, and possesses “a confidence that moves forward into the unseen”. There is nothing that can cause him to despair of God’s eventual help. “Those who pray are certain that what is coming, future help and deliverance, is more sure than what is present.”

At every point, faith in the steadfast love of the LORD is a feature.

And so, we can say that for the believer, faith in the hesed (loving-kindness) of  (the

LORD) (My God) awakens hope. It causes the psalmist to remember that God has been

full in his blessing of him in the past. He has indeed (dealt bountifully with me). So we

can, and do indeed know what transforms the mood of the psalm. It is the hesed of the LORD.

Copyright Stuart Adamson 2011.

Pastoral Imagery in Chaplaincy

By Kate Bradford
Pastoral imagery evokes an idealised view of rural life capturing a charming serene world protected from outside dangers. Similarly the twenty third Psalm captures sheep drinking and resting in a lush green valley inside the protection of their shepherd.

Pastoral care has on a number of occasions been seen as an exegesis of Psalm 23. The few brief stanzas have provided both direction and form for pastoral ministry. Variously harnessed and caught are the images of: guiding, healing, leading, restoring, nurturing, sustaining, comforting and liberating. Pastoral ministry ranges across vast terrains from the heights of the mountains down into deathly valleys, across battle fields opening out onto green pastures and still waters. Times of scarcity and of plenty, solitude and celebration, danger and peace are encompassed.

The enduring Biblical image of the shepherd appears and reappears throughout the Bible; being found in the law, the prophets and the writings, and the gospels, the epistles and the apocalypse.

Pastoral ministry in essence is never a programme that has its end in the material world; it always draws on a transcendent dimension. As people are cared for they are helped transcend their present difficulties; often external circumstances are not greatly changed but they are faced not alone but with the strength of the one who can truly help through prayer. The Pastoral carer draws on the same strength; that of the true shepherd for their inspiration. The Christian pastoral care worker is not any shepherd, but a shepherd after God’s own heart, a shepherd who is led by God’s knowledge and understanding (Jer 3:14-16).  These shepherds are contrasted with senseless shepherds who do not enquire of the Lord, and consequently their flock is scattered (Jer 10:20-22).

God himself is pictured as shepherd tending his flock, gathering the lambs in his arms close to his heart; gently leading those with young (Isaiah 40:11-12). Later in Matthew’s gospel account, Jesus had compassion on the crowd, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd (Matt 9:35-37).

The gospel of John (chapter 10) reveals how the idyllic lush pastoral valley of psalm 23 was secured.  The apostle John describes Jesus as the good shepherd, the one who calls his sheep by name and leads them out.  He goes ahead; the sheep follow because they know his voice. He is not only the shepherd showing the way, he himself is the way. He is the good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep.

The Good Shepherd not only cares, protects and and guides in the midst of danger but he comes with authority, and calls his sheep by name.  The sheep are called out through the gate that is the guaranteed safe passage into the future: deliverance far greater than a shepherd’s care or protection. He is the shepherd-king, who gave his life for the sheep; the sheep respond to his voice and follow his way. He calls his sheep into eternity.[i]

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[i] Roland Riem, Stronger than Death: A Study for Love for the Dying (DLT, 1993), p 56.