Psalm 13 · a question people ask
"Give light to my eyes, lest I sleep in death" (13:3). What is he asking for?
He asks the LORD to give light to his eyes, and gives the reason: "lest I sleep in death" (13:3). He is asking not to die. Scripture has the same Hebrew verb with eyes in other places. On a day when "the people were faint" (1 Samuel 14:28), Jonathan tasted honey, and "his eyes brightened" (1 Samuel 14:27). Ezra prays "that our God may lighten our eyes, and revive us a little in our bondage" (Ezra 9:8) (tap light). In Hebrew sleep in death is the verb yashen, sleep, followed by the word for death, and Strong's gives yashen's senses as "sleep (figuratively, to die)" (tap sleep). The psalm doesn't say what the danger was beyond "my enemy" (13:2, 13:4), and it says nothing more about death. These notes don't add to it.
The verses
“How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart every day? How long shall my enemy triumph over me? Behold, and answer me, LORD, my God. Give light to my eyes, lest I sleep in death; lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed against him;” lest my adversaries rejoice when I fall.”
“But Jonathan didn’t hear when his father commanded the people with the oath. Therefore he put out the end of the rod that was in his hand and dipped it in the honeycomb, and put his hand to his mouth; and his eyes brightened. Then one of the people answered, and said, “Your father directly commanded the people with an oath, saying, ‘Cursed is the man who eats food today.’” So the people were faint.”
“Now for a little moment grace has been shown from the LORD our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a stake in his holy place, that our God may lighten our eyes, and revive us a little in our bondage.”