Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
Psalms 13:1 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 1. 1How long wilt thou forget me, O LORD? for ever? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me?
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
Psalm 13:1: Inside “How long: lament turns toward trust,” “How long wilt thou forget me, O LORD? for ever? how…” raises a real poetic question instead of supplying a detached answer.
Read It With
- Psalms 13:1–6
Read Psalms 13:1 with 13:1–6. Read alone, “How long wilt thou forget me, O LORD? for ever? how long…” could lose the individual voice, the parallel line or movement it develops, and the psalm's outcome. The complete movement establishes: Within Psalms 13:1–6, the individual voice carries the movement “How long: lament turns toward trust” as part of “How long: lament turns toward trust.” Its lament form and poetic parallelism hold the petitions, images, memories, or praise together before any single line is applied.
Why This Verse Appears Here
Psalms 13:1–6 opens Psalm 13 with “How long wilt thou forget me, O LORD? for ever? how long wilt thou hide thy face from…” and establishes the individual voice and “How long: lament turns toward trust” movement before later lines develop or answer it. Within that relationship, Psalm 13:1 poses the poem's question through “How long wilt thou forget me, O LORD? for ever? how long wilt thou…” and leaves the surrounding lines to answer, intensify, or hold it open.
Follow the Context
- Identify the individual voice, address, and parallel lines in Psalms 13:1–6; do not make every “I”, “we,” king, enemy, or worshiper interchangeable.
- Within Psalms 13:1–6, the individual voice carries the movement “How long: lament turns toward trust” as part of “How long: lament turns toward trust.” Its lament form and poetic parallelism hold the petitions, images, memories, or praise together before any single line is applied.
- The turn to trust does not make prolonged anguish a moral failure or impose a timetable for recovery.
What This Verse Is Not Saying
Psalms 13:1 does not allow “How long wilt thou forget me, O LORD? for ever? how long…” to become an independent promise, command, accusation, doctrine, or authorization. This verse poses the poem's question through “How long wilt thou forget me, O LORD? for ever? how long wilt thou…” and leaves the surrounding lines to answer, intensify, or hold it open. The complete movement is “How long: lament turns toward trust.” The turn to trust does not make prolonged anguish a moral failure or impose a timetable for recovery.
What Remains True
Psalm 13:1 carries “How long wilt thou forget me, O LORD? for ever? how long…” inside the lament movement “How long: lament turns toward trust.” Its durable contribution is this: Trust can be voiced within danger and delay without becoming a guarantee of immunity or a reason to reject practical care. The local movement is “How long: lament turns toward trust.” The unit's reviewed limit is: The turn to trust does not make prolonged anguish a moral failure or impose a timetable for recovery.
How It Can Shape Life
- Psalm 13:1 contributes to “How long: lament turns toward trust” in a specific way: Psalm 13:1 poses the poem's question through “How long wilt thou forget me, O LORD? for ever? how long wilt thou…” and leaves the surrounding lines to answer, intensify, or hold it open. Respond by doing this: Hold “How long wilt thou forget me, O LORD? for ever? how long…” as prayerful hope rather than a prediction; take the next safe and truthful action while the outcome remains uncertain.
Teach It Back
In your own words, place “How long wilt thou forget me, O LORD? for ever? how long…” inside “How long: lament turns toward trust.” Identify its lament role, the neighboring poetic movement, one uncertainty, one enduring truth, one proportionate action, and this boundary: The turn to trust does not make prolonged anguish a moral failure or impose a timetable for recovery.
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Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Psalms 13:1–6 — How long: lament turns toward trustSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? strong
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.
Exact location: Psalms 13:1–6, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Psalms
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology checked at the exact unit without treating morphology as a complete apparatus or interpretation.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Ps.xml, OSIS 13:1–6
Open the fixed Hebrew Psalms file ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible Notes: Psalms 1-150
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, current official online edition
Supports: Verse-level controls for poetic syntax, imagery, older KJV language, textual issues, headings, and alternatives in Psalms 13:1–6.
Exact location: Official NET Bible Psalm 13 HTML, translator, textual, and study notes attached to Psalms 13:1–6
Open the official NET Psalms notes ↗modern scholarly book course
Psalms course: summary, outline, background, introductory issues, theological themes, and Bible in the world
Fred Gaiser; revised by Nicholas Schaser
Enter the Bible, Luther Seminary, revised May 2024
Supports: Five-book, genre, poetic, historical, theological, liturgical, communal, and reception synthesis with visible limits.
Exact location: Enter the Bible Psalms course, Introductory Issues: individual and communal lament, from lament to praise, and Bible in the World; applied to Psalms 13:1–6
Open the Enter the Bible Psalms course ↗ancient greek text translation and introduction
A New English Translation of the Septuagint: Psalms
Albert Pietersma
International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies; Oxford University Press, 2009
Supports: Ancient Greek wording, numbering, division, and superscription evidence where it materially clarifies translation or reception.
Exact location: NETS Psalms, Pietersma introduction pp. 542–543 and exact Greek translation headed Ps 13 for Psalms 13:1–6
Open NETS Psalms ↗public health communication guidance
Preventing Suicide: A Resource for Media Professionals, Update 2023
World Health Organization
World Health Organization, 2023
Supports: Communication safeguards against romanticizing, sensationalizing, diagnosing, blaming, or simplifying despair, isolation, death wishes, and severe loss; not exegesis.
Exact location: WHO, Preventing Suicide: A Resource for Media Professionals, Update 2023, quick guide p. xiii and dos and don'ts pp. 11–16; applied only to modern safety-aware presentation of Psalms 13:1–6
Open the WHO communication guide ↗