The scheming against you has dragged on so long you've started to wonder if God has forgotten you.
When your enemies' scheming drags on, don't lose heart as though God had forgotten you. Call on the Lord with Psalm 13.
Letter to Marcellinus
Psalm 13
What St Athanasius said to pray when it feels like God has forgotten you, in a letter from the 300s.
- 6Verses
- 1Situation
St Athanasius, Letter to Marcellinus
When to pray it
In the 300s, St Athanasius of Alexandria wrote a letter to his friend Marcellinus about praying the Psalms. In it he matched psalms to what people go through. This is what he gave this one for.
Psalm 13:5
Where it turns
But I have trusted in Your loving devotion; my heart will rejoice in Your salvation.
6 verses, Berean Standard Bible
The whole psalm
Psalm 13
Its own heading For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.
- 1How long, O LORD? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me?
- 2How long must I wrestle in my soul, with sorrow in my heart each day? How long will my enemy dominate me?
- 3Consider me and respond, O LORD my God. Give light to my eyes, lest I sleep in death,
- 4lest my enemy say, “I have overcome him,” and my foes rejoice when I fall.
- 5But I have trusted in Your loving devotion; my heart will rejoice in Your salvation.
- 6I will sing to the LORD, for He has been good to me.
Psalm 13 is 12 in the Greek numbering Athanasius used, which Orthodox Bibles and some older Catholic ones still follow.
When people turn against you
Close to this
- They won't stop trying to ruin you, and you want someone to finally judge who's in the right.
- The people scheming against you have no shame, and they've taken over your thoughts.
- It keeps coming at you, you're holding on, and you want to know what all this enduring is for.
- They're coming at you savagely, out to destroy you, and you've stopped fighting and put yourself in God's hands.
All 53 situations, in one guide.
Suggest a correction. Corrections that are applied are recorded in the public changelog.
Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Athanasius’s advice is paraphrased from his Greek.