Psalm 13:2 NKJV
How long shall I take counsel in my soul,
Having sorrow in my heart daily?
How long will my enemy be exalted over me?
Breaking the Cycle
MY NOTES
“How long shall I take counsel in my soul, Having sorrow in my heart daily? How long will my enemy be exalted over me?” — Psalm 13:2 (NKJV)
David is stuck in the loop most of us know too well. He keeps turning the problem over in his mind—laying up plan after plan inside his own soul—and none of it opens a way out. The plans multiply. The relief does not. Day after day the same sorrow sits in his heart, and on top of that he has to watch his enemy rise while he stays low. The laughter of a foe is a bitter extra weight. It is one thing to be pressed; it is another to see the one pressing you enjoy it.
That kind of inner counsel is exhausting. When trouble lasts, the mind starts searching every corner for an exit. One idea replaces another. Anxiety keeps the thoughts moving, but none of them land. It is like being sick and shifting from one side of the bed to the other, hoping the next position will ease the pain, only to find it does not. David is not merely sad; he is worn out by the constant effort to fix what he cannot fix. The original wording carries the sense of storing up these counsels until they become a heavy, useless pile. Fixating on the trouble does not lighten it. It only makes the sorrow feel permanent.
1 Corinthians 10:13:
No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.
God gives His people the spirit of counsel (Isaiah 11:2), but He does not always give it at the first moment of need.
Isaiah 11:2
The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, The Spirit of counsel and might, The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.
Sometimes He lets the mind run in circles for a while so that we finally stop trusting our own devices and look to Him. The daily sorrow David names is not only nighttime grief. It follows him into the ordinary hours, when others are busy or distracted. Fresh reasons for heaviness keep arriving. Our Lord Himself was called a man of sorrows; the bread of sorrow has been the portion of many who belong to God.
The Trap of Inward Counsel
When we face prolonged hardship, we often make one of two errors: we either pore over our circumstances until we wear ourselves out, or we suppress our feelings and pretend everything is fine. Neither approach works.
- Mental Exhaustion: Poring over trouble is bitter work. Meditating on guilt, loss, or danger without bringing God into the equation turns our thoughts into a pressure cooker. Like a sick person tossing and turning in bed to find a comfortable position, our minds shift from one frantic idea to another without finding rest.
- Daily Heart-Sorrow: When our thoughts remain trapped inside, sorrow becomes our daily bread. It preys on our spirits not only in the quiet of the night, but throughout the day when work or routine should normally provide a distraction.
- The Taunt of the Enemy: Nothing grates on a grieving soul quite like watching the arrogant or malicious triumph while you are bowed down. Whether it is a literal enemy, a spiritual attack, or a relentless life trial, seeing hardship “exalted” over us can break our remaining patience.
Jeremiah wisely observed that
Jeremiah 10:23
“the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man who walks to direct his own steps”.
Seeking comfort or solutions purely by turning inward is like trying to draw clean water from a dry well.
Turning from Inward Counsel to Divine Help
The turning point in David’s life—and in ours—happens when we stop holding meetings inside our own heads and start taking our case directly to the Lord.
Notice how David handles his frustration. He does not let his inner turmoil ferment into silent bitterness. He takes his raw “how long” questions and lays them at the feet of God.
Even when God delays His answers, He never abandons His children. Scripture shows us that long seasons of waiting are often part of God’s deeper work:
- The paralytic at Bethesda waited thirty-eight years before Jesus spoke healing over him (John 5:5).
- The woman with the spirit of infirmity endured eighteen years of pain before she was loosed (Luke 13:11).
John 5:5
Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years.
Luke 13:11
And behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bent over and could in no way raise herself up.
Long trials do not mean God has forgotten you. They mean He is testing and refining your faith so that when deliverance comes, your trust rests firmly in Him rather than in your own cleverness.
Stop loading yourself down with self-generated plans. Hand over the heavy burden of overthinking to the One who promises to give you wisdom, peace, and a clear path forward.
Proverbs 3:5–6
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.”
A Prayer to Release Overthinking
Abba, I confess that I often try to solve my own problems through endless overthinking and anxiety. Forgive me for relying on my own limited wisdom instead of bringing my burdens straight to You. You see the daily sorrow in my heart and the heavy thoughts that keep me awake at night. I stop taking counsel in my own soul today, and I ask for Your Spirit of wisdom and direction to lead me. Silence the voice of the enemy who taunts my weakness. Grant me patience to wait on Your deliverance, knowing that You are working all things together for my good. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Key Takeaways
- Endless inner planning under pressure often exhausts us without producing a way out.
- Daily sorrow in the heart is a real experience of God’s people; it does not mean we have been abandoned.
- Seeing an enemy exalted adds a sharp edge to the grief, and it is right to bring that to God.
- God sometimes withholds immediate counsel so that we stop relying on our own devices.
- Long waiting has precedent; help comes, and the interim is not wasted for those who love Him.
Proverb for Today
He who speaks truth declares righteousness, But a false witness, deceit. There is one who speaks like the piercings of a sword, But the tongue of the wise promotes health. The truthful lip shall be established forever, But a lying tongue is but for a moment. Deceit is in the heart of those who devise evil, But counselors of peace have joy. No grave trouble will overtake the righteous, But the wicked shall be filled with evil. Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, But those who deal truthfully are His delight. Proverbs 12:17-22 NKJV
Daily Scripture
Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. Ephesians 1:15-23 NKJV
Closing
“The Lord bless you and keep you; The Lord make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace.” Numbers 6:24-26 NKJV
Grace be with you. Amen.
Please enter your email and click subscribe to be notified whenever I submit a new post.
Commentaries:
Charles Spurgeon
“How long shall I take counsel, in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily?” There is in the original the idea of “laying up” counsels in his heart, as if his devices had become innumerable but unavailing. Herein we have often been like David, for we have considered and reconsidered day after day, but have not discovered the happy device by which to escape from our trouble. Such store is a sad sore. Ruminating upon trouble is bitter work. Children fill their mouths with bitterness when they rebelliously chew the pill which they ought obediently to have taken at once. “How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?” This is like wormwood in the gall, to see the wicked enemy exulting while our soul is bowed down within us. The laughter of a foe grates horribly on the ears of grief. For the devil to make mirth of our misery is the last ounce of our complaint, and quite breaks down our patience; therefore let us make it one chief argument in our plea with mercy.
The writer’s grief is viewed, as it seems to be, as it is, as it affects himself within, and his foes without. We are all prone to play most on the worst string. We set up monumental stones over the graves of our joys, but who thinks of erecting monuments of praise for mercies received?
______________________________________________________
Enduring Word
How long shall I take counsel in my soul: No wonder David was discouraged! Taking counsel in his own soul had led him to sorrow in his heart daily. When I am discouraged and depressed, the answer is not in looking inside myself, but in looking to the LORD. (Guzik)
i. Many times when I am confronted with problems, I find this to be true: The more I think about the problems, the more depressed I get. But when I pray about the problems, a glorious sense of release and peace comes. (Guzik)
ii. Thinking about our troubles is hard work. Trouble is often like a pill God wants us to just swallow, but we make it worse by keeping it in our mouths and chewing it. (Guzik)
iii. Spurgeon proposed a sermon on the phrase, “How long should I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily?” He suggested that the sermon would have these points: “Self-torture, its cause, curse, crime, and cure.” (Guzik)
How long will my enemy be exalted over me? This mentions the third way that David was depressed. David didn’t want to lose in any area he was attacked and see his enemy…exalted over him. David was depressed in three ways:
· First, in his relationship with God.
· Second, within himself.
· Third, in regard to his enemies. (Guzik)
i. This was not a purely selfish desire. David knew he was the LORD’s man, with a special calling to lead God’s people. In this sense, David’s enemies were the LORD’s enemies, and enemies against the people of God. (Guzik)
ii. David’s feeling that God had abandoned him was connected to his sense of depression. Boice helpfully lists several sources of spiritual depression:
· Temperament may incline one to depression.
· Illness can drain the physical strength and lead to depression.
· Exhaustion can also leave one quite open to depression and the feeling of abandonment.
· The let-down after some great effort, fueled by coming down off of an adrenaline high, can often lead to depression.
· Pressure from spiritual and natural enemies can push us toward depression.
______________________________________________________
Albert Barnes
How long — This refers to the third aspect of the case, or the third phase of the trouble, that is, that he was perplexed and embarrassed, having a deep and heavy sorrow in his heart, and he asks how long this was to continue. “Shall I take counsel in my soul.” This refers to the methods which he endeavored to devise to escape from trouble. He was perplexed, persecuted, and apparently forsaken; and being thus apparently forsaken, he was constrained to attempt to devise some plan for his own deliverance, without interposition or help from on high. He was under a necessity of relying on himself; and he asks “how long” this was to continue, or when he might hope that God would interpose to aid him by his counsels, and thus to deliver him.
Having sorrow in my heart daily — Every day; constantly. That is, there was no intermission to his troubles. The sorrow in his heart seems to have been not merely that which was caused by troubles from without, but also that which sprang from the painful necessity of attempting to form plans for his own relief – plans which seemed to be in vain.
How long shall mine enemy be exalted over me? — This is the fourth form or phase of his trouble, and he asks how long this was to continue. This clause suggests perhaps the exact form of the trial. It was that which arose from the designs of an enemy who persecuted and oppressed the psalmist, and who had done it so effectually that he seemed to have triumphed over him, or to have him completely in his power. All the other forms of the trial – the fact that he seemed to be forgotten; that God had apparently averted his face; that he was left to form plans of deliverance which seemed to be vain, were connected with the fact here adverted to, that an enemy had persecuted him, and had been suffered to gain a triumph over him. Who this enemy was we do not know.
______________________________________________________
John Gill
How long shall I take counsel in my soul,…. Or “put it”; to take counsel of good men and faithful friends, in matters of moment and difficulty, is safe and right; and it is best of all to take counsel of God, who is wonderful in it, and guides his people with it; but nothing is worse than for a man to take counsel of his own heart, or only to consult himself; for such counsel often casts a man down, and he is ashamed of it sooner or later: but this seems not to be the sense here; the phrase denotes the distressing circumstances and anxiety of mind the psalmist was in; he was at his wits’ end, and cast about in his mind, and had various devises and counsels formed there; and yet knew not what way to take, what course to steer;
[having] sorrow in my heart daily; by reason of God’s hiding his face from him; on account of sin that dwelt in him, or was committed by him; because of his distance from the house of God, and the worship and ordinances of it; and by reason of his many enemies that surrounded him on every side: this sorrow was an heart sorrow, and what continually attended him day by day; or was in the daytime, when men are generally amused with business or diversions, as well as in the night, as Kimchi observes;
how long shall mine enemy be exalted over me? even the vilest of men, Psalm 12:8; this may be understood either of temporal enemies, and was true of David when he was obliged not only to leave his own house and family, but the land of Judea, and flee to the Philistines; and when he fled from Absalom his son, lest he should be taken and slain by him; or of spiritual enemies, and is true of saints when sin prevails and leads captive, and when the temptations of Satan succeed; as when he prevailed upon David to number the people, Peter to deny his master, &c. The Jewish writers observe that here are four “how longs,” answerable to the four monarchies, Babylonian, Persian, Grecian, and Roman, and their captivities under them.
______________________________________________________
Matthew Henry
He was racked with care, which filled his head: I take counsel in my soul; “I am at a loss, and am inops consilii–without a friend to advise with that I can put any confidence in, and therefore am myself continually projecting what to do to help myself; but none of my projects are likely to take effect, so that I am at my wits’ end, and in a continual agitation.” Anxious cares are heavy burdens with which good people often load themselves more than they need.
He was overwhelmed with sorrow, which filled his heart: I have sorrow in my heart daily. He had a constant disposition to sorrow and it preyed upon his spirits, not only in the night, when he was silent and solitary, but by day too, when lighter griefs are diverted and dissipated by conversation and business; nay, every day brought with it fresh occasions of grief; the clouds returned after the rain. The bread of sorrow is sometimes the saint’s daily bread. Our Master himself was a man of sorrows.
His enemies’ insolence, which added to his grief. Saul his great enemy, and others under him, were exalted over him, triumphed in his distress, pleased themselves with his grief, and promised themselves a complete victory over him. This he complained of as reflecting dishonor upon God, and his power and promise.
How he expostulates with God hereupon: “How long shall it be thus?” And, “Shall it be thus for ever?” Long afflictions try our patience and often tire it. It is a common temptation, when trouble lasts long, to think it will last always; despondency then turns into despair, and those that have long been without joy begin, at last, to be without hope. “Lord, tell me how long thou wilt hide thy face, and assure me that it shall not be for ever, but that thou wilt return at length in mercy to me, and then I shall the more easily bear my present troubles.”
______________________________________________________
Calvin’s Commentary
How long shall I take counsel in my soul? We know that men in adversity give way to discontent, and look around them, first to one quarter, and then to another, in search of remedies. Especially, upon seeing that they are destitute of all resources, they torment themselves greatly, and are distracted by a multitude of thoughts; and in great dangers, anxiety and fear compel them to change their purposes from time to time, when they do not find any plan upon which they can fix with certainty. David, therefore, complains, that while thinking of different methods of obtaining relief, and deliberating with himself now in one way, and now in another, he is exhausted to no purpose with the multitude of suggestions which pass through his mind; and by joining to this complaint the sorrow which he felt daily, he points out the source of this disquietude. As in severe sickness the diseased would desire to change their place every moment, and the more acute the pains which afflict them are, the more fitful and eager are they in shifting and changing; so, when sorrow seizes upon the hearts of men, its miserable victims are violently agitated within, and they find it more tolerable to torment themselves without obtaining relief, than to endure their afflictions with composed and tranquil minds. The Lord, indeed, promises to give to the faithful “the spirit of counsels” (Isaiah 11:2) but he does not always give it to them at the very beginning of any matter in which they are interested, but suffers them for a time to be embarrassed by long deliberation without coming to a determinate decision, or to be perplexed, as if they were entangled among thorns, not knowing whither to turn, or what course to take. Some explain the Hebrew word יומם, yomam, as meaning all the day long. But it seems to me, that by it is rather meant another kind of continuance, namely, that his sorrow returned, and was renewed every day. In the end of the verse he deplores another evil, that his adversaries triumph over him the more boldly, when they see him wholly enfeebled, and as it were wasted by continual languor. Now this is an argument of great weight in our prayers; for there is nothing which is more displeasing to God, and which he will less bear with, than the cruel insolence which our enemies display, when they not only feast themselves by beholding us in misery, but also rise up the higher against us, and treat us the more disdainfully, the more they see us oppressed and afflicted.
______________________________________________________
Miscellaneous Comments
“How long?” There are many situations of the believer in this life in which the words of this Psalm may be a consolation, and help to revive sinking faith. A certain man lay at the pool of Bethesda, who had an infirmity thirty and eight years. John 5:5. A woman had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, before she was “loosed.” Luke 13:11. Lazarus all his life long labored under disease and poverty, till he was released by death and transferred to Abraham’s bosom. Luke 16:20-22. Let every one, then, who may be tempted to use the complaints of this Psalm, assure his heart that God does not forget his people, help will come at last, and, in the meantime, all things shall work together for good to them that love him.
—W. Wilson, D.D.
“How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily?” There is such a thing as to pore on our guilt and wretchedness, to the overlooking of our highest mercies. Though it be proper to know our own hearts, for the purposes of conviction, yet, if we expect consolation from this quarter, we shall find ourselves sadly disappointed. Such, for a time, appears to have been the case of David. He seems to have been in great distress; and, as is common in such cases, his thoughts turned inward, casting in his mind what he should do, and what would be the end of things. While thus exercised, he had sorrow in his heart daily: but, betaking himself to God for relief, he succeeded, trusting in his mercy, his heart rejoiced in his salvation. There are many persons, who, when in trouble, imitate David in the former part of this experience: I wish we may imitate him in the latter.
—Andrew Fuller.
- Exploring the Beauty of Psalms: Insights and Commentaries
- Monthly Breakdown of Our Blog Content
- Psalms Commentary: Faith and Inspiration
Leave a Reply