Devotional Psalms 13:2, 5

Good Morning Yamon Ki Yesepar

Psalms 13:2, 5: “How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? How long will my enemy be exalted over me?    But I have trusted in your mercy my heart will rejoice in your salvation.”

I have to admit I sure can relate to David in the verse.  The words “How long” is “’ad ‘anah.” This has no real translation as it is an expression of an emotion, it is a sigh of sorrow, of total frustration.  How do you translate that into English?  “How long?”  “Until when?”  You have to feel this to be able to translate it.

What is David feeling so frustrated about? It is the fact that he is taking counsel in his soul.   The word “taking” is “shyath” which expresses a uniting or teaming up.  You might express it as joining hands.  “How long will I join hands with the counsel of my soul.”  He further states, “having sorrow (yagun) or affliction in his heart. By joining hands with the counsel of his soul, his heart is under great distress.

Ever feel like David at times?  I sure do.  I can look at Proverbs 3:5-6 which tells me to trust in the Lord with all my heart and lean not to my own understandings.  This really  brings comfort until I start to join hands or unite with the counsel of my soul.  I’m walking along minding my own business, trusting in God when all of a sudden my soul pops up and says: “This is bad, really bad.  There is no way out of this one, Bunkie, you’re toast now.  Sure the Lord has pulled you out of tough ones before but maybe He is going to let you cook in your own oils this time.  Remember old Job? He really got dumped on, there was no 11^th hour rescue for him, he lost it all.”    Then I fall into a real funk, I mean like all faith is gone.  I fret, I worry, can’t sleep, eat… some of you know the routine.

But soft, look at what David says in verse 5: “I have trusted in your lovingkindness (chasad) and my heart will rejoice (yagul). Note the play on words here. When he listens to his soul his heart is “yagun” but when he trust in God’s lovingkindness, his heart is “yagul.”   Two words that sound the same but have opposite meanings.  This word for rejoice means to spin in a circle with joy.

The word trust is batach which is similar to the word “shyath” both mean to unite.  But “shyath” is joining hands where batch (trust) is welding yourself to God’s lovingkindness.   All I have to do is just “lean to my own understandings” and I fall into misery.  But I forget that I am “welded” to the lovingkindness of God.  That thought brings rejoicing.  Job did, after all say: “Though He slay me, yet I will trust in Him.”  No matter what happens, no matter what the outcome, there is a bright ray of sunshine, the lovingkindness of God.  David knew that at the end of that lovingkindness was salvation or deliverance.

What happens on this earth, so long it is of God’s design and not that of my soul, it will be rooted in His lovingkindness. If I can believe that much, that He is a kind God, then I need not fear.  A kind God will take everything into account and make sure that ultimately, I will be at rest with Him.