John Calvin Commentary Psalms 13:3

"Consider [and] answer me, O Jehovah my God: Lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the [sleep of] death;" — Psalms 13:3 (ASV)

Look upon me, answer me. When God does not promptly provide assistance to His servants, it seems to the eye of sense that He does not behold their necessities. For this reason, David asks God, first, to look upon him, and second, to help him.

Neither of these things, it is true, is earlier or later in relation to God; but it has already been stated in a preceding psalm, and we will frequently have occasion to repeat the statement later, 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 been of no use for him to cry to God; but this persuasion was the effect of faith. In the meantime, until God actually extends His hand to give relief, carnal reason suggests to us that He shuts His eyes and does not behold us.

The manner of expression used here amounts to the same thing as if he had put the mercy of God first, and then added to it His assistance, because God hears us when, having compassion on us, He is moved and prompted to help us. To enlighten the eyes signifies the same thing in the Hebrew language as to give the breath of life, for the vigor of life appears chiefly in the eyes. In this sense Solomon says,

The poor and the deceitful man meet together; the Lord lighteneth both their eyes (Proverbs 29:13).

And when Jonathan fainted from hunger, the sacred history relates that his eyes were overcast with dimness; and again, that when he had tasted the honeycomb, his eyes were enlightened (1 Samuel 14:27).

The word sleep, as it is used in this passage, is a similar metaphor, meaning death. In short, David confesses that unless God causes the light of life to shine upon him, he will be immediately overwhelmed with the darkness of death, and that he is already like a man without life, unless God breathes new vigor into him.

And certainly, our confidence in life depends on this: that even though the world may threaten us with a thousand deaths, God possesses countless means of restoring us to life.