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Psalms

About this book
Psalm 13

1 For the music director, a psalm of David. How long, Lord, will you continue to ignore me? How long will you pay no attention to me?⁠ 2 How long must I worry, and suffer in broad daylight? How long will my enemy gloat over me? 3 Look at me! Answer me, O Lord my God! Revive me, or else I will die. 4 Then my enemy will say, “I have defeated him.” Then my foes will rejoice because I am shaken. 5 But I trust in your faithfulness. May I rejoice because of your deliverance. 6 I will sing praises to the Lord when he vindicates me.

Texts in conversation

Compare Habakkuk 1:2 and Psalm 13:1

Hebrew Bible

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Summary

Psalm 13 and Habakkuk use lament to accuse God of delay and apparent neglect, expressing the tension between covenant promises and present suffering. The psalm says this in a personal plea, while Habakkuk describes violence and injustice in society.

Passages

Habakkuk 1:2

Hebrew Bible
1 This is the oracle that the prophet Habakkuk saw: 2 How long, Lord, must I cry for help? But you do not listen! I call out to you, “Violence!” But you do not deliver! 3 Why do you force me to witness injustice? Why do you put up with wrongdoing? Destruction and violence confront me; conflict is present and one must endure strife. 4 For this reason the law lacks power, and justice is never carried out. Indeed, the wicked intimidate the innocent. For this reason justice is perverted.
600–501 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Habakkuk

Psalm 13:1

Hebrew Bible
1 For the music director, a psalm of David. How long, Lord, will you continue to ignore me? How long will you pay no attention to me? 2 How long must I worry, and suffer in broad daylight? How long will my enemy gloat over me? 3 Look at me! Answer me, O Lord my God! Revive me, or else I will die.
600–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Psalms

References

"... We know nothing about Habakkuk except that 1:1 gives him the title 'prophet' (elsewhere only Haggai 1:1; Zechariah 1:1). This, plus the extensive use of liturgical forms and wisdom terminology, suggests that he may have been a 'cult prophet', functioning in some formal way in the worship of the Jerusalem temple. The book begins with the language used in the psalms of lament (compare 1:2—4 with Psalm 13:1—2; 74:10; 89:46; and 1:12-13 with Psalm 5:4-5), indicates that the prophet could seek an oracle from YHWH (compare 2:1 with 2 Kings 3:1120), speaks explicitly of YHWH's presence in the temple (2:20), and concludes with a psalm that uses technical terms found also in the Psalter (3:1, 9, 13, 19), all showing that the prophet knew well the language of worship and may have even been an official participant. He was also well acquainted with the concerns and vocabulary of the sages in Jerusalem: his questions about the justice of God remind us of Job and Ecclesiastes, and he uses favourite words of the sages, such as 'complaint' (2:1), 'taunt', 'mocking riddles' (2:6), and others. The only uniquely prophetic form in the book is the 'woe' (or 'alas') poem in 2:6-19 ..."
John Barton and John Muddiman, eds., The Oxford Bible Commentary (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), 601–602.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Habakkuk 1:2 and Psalm 13:1

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