To receive these posts by email each Monday, sign up.
For more commentary on this week's readings, see the Reflections on the Lectionary page. For full-text access to all articles, subscribe to the Century.
Psalm 13 fits a typical pattern for psalms of lament: an invocation and complaint, a petition, and a statement of trust and words of praise. Like all good liturgical language, it transcends its time and place to be a source of comfort to many. Its language is spare enough to fit many situations: illness or death, physical and metaphorical enemies, despair and suffering of various kinds.
