“Consider and hear me, O Lord my God; Enlighten my eyes, Lest I sleep the sleep of death; Lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed against him”; Lest those who trouble me rejoice when I am moved.” —Psalm 13:3–4 (NKJV)
Enlighten My Eyes, Lord
MY NOTES
“Consider and hear me, O Lord my God; Enlighten my eyes, Lest I sleep the sleep of death; Lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed against him”; Lest those who trouble me rejoice when I am moved.” —Psalm 13:3–4 (NKJV)
There comes a point in deep trouble when silence feels heavier than words, and David finally breaks it with a direct cry. “Consider and hear me, O Lord my God.” He isn’t asking God to notice him for the first time. He’s asking the One who already sees to act on what He sees. The gloom of feeling forgotten is still sitting on his soul, so he goes straight to the root and asks God to deal with it. What can we do when the weight gets this heavy? Turn to the only One who can actually move it, turn to the One who said:
“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” —Matthew 11:28-30
Notice what David cries out: “Consider and hear me, O Lord my God.”
Notice the personal claim in the middle of the pain: “O Lord my God.” Trials can strip a lot of things away, but they don’t cancel the relationship. We may lose comfort, clarity, or even a sense of strength for a while, but we don’t lose the God who claimed us. The promise of Grace isn’t written in shifting sand; it is anchored in Christ Jesus. David holds onto it even while he’s asking for light.
To human sense and natural reasoning, unanswered prayer feels like God has closed His eyes or turned a deaf ear. But faith pushes through that illusion. Even when David feels abandoned, he still claims God as his own: “O Lord my God.” Circumstances might strip away our comfort, our health, or our earthly security, but they cannot erase our covenant relationship with God.
David’s primary petition is striking: “Enlighten my eyes.”
He’s asking for more than better circumstances. He wants the eye of faith cleared so he can still see God in the dark. He wants the eye of understanding opened so he doesn’t walk into traps. And he wants that quiet lifting of the spirit that makes a face brighten and eyes come alive again. Darkness has a way of making everything feel heavier and sleepier. Despair can settle over a person until the next step feels like the sleep of death itself. David doesn’t romanticize that possibility. He names the fear and brings it to God as a reason for mercy. Deep distress doesn’t give us a right to demand anything, but it does give us a chance to bring a real plea that grace knows how to hear.
2 Corinthians 4:6
“For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
He also brings the enemy into the prayer. He isn’t pretending the opposition isn’t real. He’s saying, in effect, “Don’t let them have the last word. Don’t let them boast that they’ve prevailed.” There’s something wise in that. Our lives and God’s honor are tied together. When the enemy seems to win against one of God’s children, it looks like a win against God Himself. David uses that reality as fuel for the request. Complaints that stay inside and fester only deepen the fog. Complaints that become prayer start to clear it.
This kind of prayer is practical. He’s asking God to strengthen his faith so he can look past the present trouble toward a better outcome. He’s asking for guidance so he doesn’t stumble into the next snare. And he’s asking for the kind of refreshment that only the joy of God’s salvation can bring. Nothing drains a soul faster than the sense that God’s favor has withdrawn. Nothing revives it faster than the sense that it has returned.
Paul later prayed something very much like this for believers. In Ephesians 1:17-19 (NKJV) he writes:
“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.”
Without that light, spiritual sleep becomes easy, and spiritual sleep can slide toward something worse. Paul may well have had David’s cry in mind when he urged the church in Ephesians 5:14 (NKJV):
“Therefore He says: “Awake, you who sleep, Arise from the dead, And Christ will give you light.”
The same God who hears David’s plea still hears ours. The mercy seat hasn’t moved. Prayer is still the place where the night starts to break.
Prayer
Abba, some days the weight feels heavy and the way forward looks dim. Consider and hear me. Enlighten my eyes so I can still see You in the middle of the dark, so my faith stays clear and my steps stay steady. Don’t let the enemy have the last word or the last laugh over Your child. Strengthen what is weak, refresh what is weary, and keep me from the kind of spiritual sleep that leads to death. You are still my God. Let that truth settle deeper in my soul than the trouble. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Key Takeaways
- Pain doesn’t cancel the relationship. “My God” remains true even when everything else feels uncertain.
- Asking God to enlighten your eyes is asking for clearer faith, better guidance, and renewed joy—not just a quick fix.
- It’s legitimate to bring the enemy’s potential boasting into prayer. God cares about His own honor as well as your relief.
- Complaints that turn into prayer begin to lift the fog. Complaints that stay unspoken only thicken it.
- Spiritual darkness has a sleep-inducing effect. Asking for light is how we stay awake and alive toward God.
Proverb for Today
The Lord is far from the wicked, But He hears the prayer of the righteous. The light of the eyes rejoices the heart, And a good report makes the bones healthy. Proverbs 15:29-30 NKJV
Daily Scripture
Then justice will dwell in the wilderness, And righteousness remain in the fruitful field. The work of righteousness will be peace, And the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever. My people will dwell in a peaceful habitation, In secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places, Though hail comes down on the forest, And the city is brought low in humiliation. Blessed are you who sow beside all waters, Who send out freely the feet of the ox and the donkey. Isaiah 32:16-20 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.
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Commentaries:
Charles Spurgeon
But now prayer lifteth up her voice, like the watchman who proclaims the daybreak. Now will the tide turn, and the weeper shall dry his eyes. The mercy-seat is the life of hope and the death of despair. The gloomy thought of God’s having forsaken him is still upon the psalmist’s soul, and he therefore cries, “Consider and hear me.” He remembers at once the root of his woe, and cries aloud that it may be removed. The final absence of God is Tophet’s fire, and his temporary absence brings his people into the very suburbs of hell. God is here entreated to see and hear, that so he may be doubly moved to pity. What should we do if we had no God to turn to in the hour of wretchedness?
Note the cry of faith, “O Lord MY God!” Is it not a very glorious fact that our interest in our God is not destroyed by all our trials and sorrows? We may lose our gourds, but not our God. The title-deed of heaven is not written in the sand, but in eternal brass.
“Lighten mine eyes:” that is, let the eye of my faith be clear, that I may see my God in the dark; let my eye of watchfulness be wide open, lest I be entrapped, and let the eye of my understanding be illuminated to see the right way. Perhaps, too, here is an allusion to that cheering of the spirits so frequently called the enlightening of the eyes because it causes the face to brighten, and the eyes to sparkle. Well may we use the prayer, “Lighten our darkness, we beseech thee, O Lord!” for in many respects we need the Holy Spirit’s illuminating rays. “Lest I sleep the sleep of death.” Darkness engenders sleep, and despondency is not slow in making the eyes heavy. From this faintness and dimness of vision, caused by despair, there is but a step to the iron sleep of death. David feared that his trials would end his life, and he rightly uses his fear as an argument with God in prayer; for deep distress has in it a kind of claim upon compassion, not a claim of right, but a plea which has power with grace. Under the pressure of heart sorrow, the psalmist does not look forward to the sleep of death with hope and joy, as assured believers do, but he shrinks from it with dread, from which we gather that bondage from fear of death is no new thing.
Another plea is urged in the fourth verse, and it is one which the tried believer may handle well when on his knees. We make use of our arch-enemy for once, and compel him, like Samson, to grind in our mill while we use his cruel arrogance as an argument in prayer. It is not the Lord’s will that the great enemy of our souls should overcome his children. This would dishonor God, and cause the evil one to boast. It is well for us that our salvation and God’s honor are so intimately connected, that they stand or fall together.
Our covenant God will complete the confusion of all our enemies, and if for awhile we become their scoff and jest, the day is coming when the shame will change sides, and the contempt shall be poured on those to whom it is due.
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Enduring Word
Consider and hear me: We should not think that David meant two different things when he said, “Consider and hear me.” He used the Hebrew method of repetition to show emphasis. David desperately cried out to God, asking the LORD to hear him. (Guzik)
i. David felt God was not listening before (Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me? Psalm 13:1). Yet he should continue to cry out because God is honored when we persistently and desperately cry out to Him. (Guzik)
ii. God often waits until our prayers are desperate before He answers us. The cause of the powerlessness of much of our prayer is lack of desperation; too often we almost pray with the attitude of wanting God to care about things we really don’t care too much about. (Guzik)
iii. Desperate prayer has power not because it in itself persuades a reluctant God. Instead, it demonstrates that our heart cares passionately about the things God cares about, fulfilling Jesus’ promise If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire and it shall be done for you (John 15:7). (Guzik)
Enlighten my eyes: David had the wisdom to know that though he felt powerful feelings, he wasn’t seeing reality. His vision was clouded and dark, so he cried out to God, “Enlighten my eyes.” (Guzik)
i. This was a great prayer. We need the light of God to shine upon us and to give us His wisdom and knowledge. No matter what problem we are in, we should cry out with all our heart, “Enlighten my eyes.” (Guzik)
ii. The Apostle Paul knew the importance of having our eyes enlightened by the Lord. This is what he prayed for Christians: 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 (Ephesians 1:17-19). (Guzik)
Lest I sleep the sleep of death: If we are not enlightened by God, we will surely fall asleep. And often, spiritual sleep leads to spiritual death. (Guzik)
i. Paul may have had this verse in mind when he wrote of our need for the light of Jesus: Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light (Ephesians 5:14). (Guzik)
Lest my enemy say: David knew one of the worst parts about losing to anyone is hearing him boast after he has defeated you. He did not want his enemy to rejoice when he was brought low. (Guzik)
Lest those who trouble me rejoice when I am moved: Knowing how his enemies would gloat over his fall, David was even more determined to not be moved. (Guzik)
i. “Awareness of God and the enemy is virtually the hallmark of every psalm of David; the positive and negative charges which produced the driving force of his best years.” (Kidner)
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Albert Barnes
Lest I sleep the sleep of death — literally, “Lest I sleep the death;” that is, “in” death, or, as in the common version, the sleep of death. The idea is, that death, whose approach was indicated by the dimness of vision, was fast stealing over him as a sleep, and that unless his clearness of vision were restored, it would soon end in the total darkness – the deep and profound sleep – of death. Death is often compared to sleep. See the note at 1 Corinthians 11:30; the note at John 11:11, John 11:13; 1 Thessalonians 4:14; Daniel 12:2. The resemblance between the two is so obvious as to have been remarked in all ages, and the comparison is found in the writings of all nations. It is only, however, in connection with Christianity that the idea has been fully carried out by the doctrine of the resurrection, for as we lie down at night with the hope of awaking to the pursuits and enjoyments of a new day, so the Christian lies down in death with the hope of awaking in the morning of the resurrection to the pursuits and enjoyments of a new and eternal day. Everywhere else death is, to the mind, a long and unbroken sleep. Compare Jeremiah 51:39, Jeremiah 51:57.
Lest mine enemy say, I have prevailed against him — I have overpowered him; I have conquered him. That is, to triumph over him as having obtained a complete victory.
And those that trouble me — Hebrew, “My adversaries.” The reference here is the same as in the former member of the verse. It is to the enemies that seemed almost to have triumphed over him already, and under whose power he was ready to sink. “Rejoice.” Exult; triumph.
When I am moved — Moved from my steadfastness or firmness; when I am overcome. Hitherto he had been able to hold out against them; now he began to despair, and to fear that they would accomplish their object by overcoming and subduing him. His ground of apprehension and of appeal was, that by his being vanquished the cause in which he was engaged would suffer, and that the enemies of religion would triumph.
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John Gill
Consider [and] hear me, O Lord my God,…. The psalmist amidst all his distresses rightly applies to God by prayer, claims his interest in him as his covenant God, which still continued notwithstanding all his darkness, desertions, and afflictions; and entreats him to “consider” his affliction and trouble, and deliver him out of it; to consider his enemies, how many and mighty they were; and his own weakness his frame, that he was but dust, and unable to stand against them: or to “look” upon his affliction, and upon him under it, with an eye of pity and compassion; to have respect to him and to his prayers, and to turn unto him, and lift up the light of his countenance upon him: and so this petition is opposed to the complaint in Psalm 13:1; and he further requests that he would “hear” him; that is, so as to answer him, and that immediately, and thereby show that he had not forgotten him, but was mindful of him, of his love to him, and covenant with him;
lighten mine eyes: meaning either the eyes of his body, which might be dim and dull through a failure of the animal spirits, by reason of inward grief, outward afflictions, or for want of bodily food; which when obtained refreshes nature, cheers the animal spirits, enlightens or gives a briskness to the eyes; see 1 Samuel 14:27; or else the eyes of his understanding, Ephesians 1:18; that he might behold wondrous things in the law of God, know the things which were freely given to him of God, see more clearly his interest in him, and in the covenant of his grace, and have his soul refreshed and comforted with the light of God’s countenance; and he be better able to discern his enemies, and guard against them; and be directed to take the best method to be delivered and secured from them. The people of God are sometimes in the dark, and see no light; especially when benighted, and in sleepy frames; and it is God’s work to enlighten and quicken them;
lest I sleep [the sleep] of death; a natural death, which is comparable to sleep, and often expressed by it; and which sense agrees with lightening the eyes of his body, as before explained; or rather the sense is, lift up the light of thy countenance, revive thy work in the midst of the years; let me see thy goodness in the land of the living, that I may not faint and sink and die away. Or it may be an eternal death is designed; for though true believers shall never die this death, yet they may be in such circumstances, as through unbelief to fear they shall. The Targum paraphrases the word thus; “enlighten mine eyes in thy law, lest I sin, and sleep with those who are guilty of death.”
Lest mine enemy say, I have prevailed against him,…. Which is an argument God takes notice of; and for which reason he does not give up his people into the hands of their enemies; see Deuteronomy 32:27. The Chaldee paraphrase interprets this of the evil imagination or corruption of nature, and represents it as a person, as the Apostle Paul does in Romans 7:15; and which may be said to prevail, when it pushes on to sin, and hinders doing good, and carries captive; and it may be applied to Satan, the great enemy of God’s people, who triumphs over them, when he succeeds in his temptations;
[and] those that trouble me rejoice when I am moved; meaning from his house and family, from his country and kingdom, from a prosperous state and condition to a distressed one; at which the troublers of David’s peace would rejoice. They that trouble the saints are sin, Satan, and the world; and the two last rejoice when they are in an uncomfortable and afflicted condition; and especially Satan rejoices when he gains his point, if it is but to move them from any degree of steadfastness, of faith and hope, or from the ways of God in any respect: the Targum adds, “from thy ways”; for to be moved so as to perish eternally they cannot, being built upon the Rock of ages, and surrounded by the power and grace of God.
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Matthew Henry
His complaints stir up his prayers, v. 3, 4. We should never allow ourselves to make any complaints but what are fit to be offered up to God and what drive us to our knees. Observe here,
1. What his petitions are: Consider my case, hear my complaints, and enlighten my eyes, that is,
(1.) “Strengthen my faith;” for faith is the eye of the soul, with which it sees above, and sees through, the things of sense. “Lord, enable me to look beyond my present troubles and to foresee a happy issue of them.”
(2.) “Guide my way; enable me to look about me, that I may avoid the snares which are laid for me.”
(3.) “Refresh my soul with the joy of thy salvation.” That which revives the drooping spirits is said to enlighten the eyes, 1 Sa. 14:27; Ezra 9:8. “Lord, scatter the cloud of melancholy which darkens my eyes, and let my countenance be made pleasant.”
2. What his pleas are. He mentions his relation to God and interest in him (O Lord my God!) and insists upon the greatness of the peril, which called for speedy relief and succor. If his eyes were not enlightened quickly,
(1.) He concludes that he must perish: “I shall sleep the sleep of death; I cannot live under the weight of all this care and grief.” Nothing is more killing to a soul than the want of God’s favor, nothing more reviving than the return of it.
(2.) That then his enemies would triumph: “Lest my enemy say, So would I have it; lest Satan, be gratified in my fall.” It would gratify the pride of his enemy: He will say, “I have prevailed, I have gotten the day, and been too hard for him and his God.” It would gratify the malice of his enemies: They will rejoice when I am moved. And will it be for God’s honor to suffer them thus to trample upon all that is sacred both in heaven and earth?
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Calvin’s Commentary
Look upon me, answer me. As when God does not promptly afford assistance to his servants, it seems to the eye of sense that he does not behold their necessities, David, for this reason, asks God, in the first place, to look upon him, and, in the second place, to succor him. Neither of these things, it is true, is prior or posterior in respect of God; but it has been already stated in a preceding psalm, and we will have occasion afterwards frequently to repeat the statement, that the Holy Spirit purposely accommodates to our understanding the models of prayer recorded in Scripture. If David had not been persuaded that God had his eyes upon him, it would have availed him nothing to cry to God; but this persuasion was the effect of faith. In the meantime, until God actually puts forth his hand to give relief, carnal reason suggests to us that he shuts his eyes, and does not behold us. The manner of expression here employed amounts to the same thing as if he had put the mercy of God in the first place, and then added to it his assistance, because God then hears us, when, having compassion upon us, he is moved and induced to succor us. To enlighten the eyes signifies the same thing in the Hebrew language as to give the breath of life, for the rigour of life appears chiefly in the eyes. In this sense Solomon says,
“The poor man and the oppressor have this in common: The Lord gives light to the eyes of both.” (Proverbs 29:13)
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