“How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord? for ever? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me?”
This short lament opens with the anguished question how long, O Lord, will You forget me forever, expressing the fundamental crisis of divine abandonment. The repetition of forgetting and hiding emphasizes the sense of being utterly removed from God's awareness and care. The question assumes that God's memory constitutes the ground for divine attention and protection, making forgetfulness equivalent to abandonment. This opening establishes the acute distress underlying the psalm: the speaker believes God has ceased to attend to his existence.
Church Fathers on Psalms 13:1
Unto the end, a psalm of David. 1. “For Christ is the end of the law to every one that believes.” Romans 10:4 “How long, O Lord, will You forget me unto the end?” Psalm 12:1 that is, put me off as to spiritually understanding Christ, who is the Wisdom of God, and the true end of all the aim of the soul. “How long will You turn away Your face from me?” As God does not forget, so neither does He turn His face away: but Scripture speaks after our manner. Now God is said to turn…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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