In many of the psalms, the author declares his righteousness and pleads for God to step in and save him from attacks that are unfair and undeserved. The declaration of righteousness is relative; the singer is not claiming moral perfection but instead claiming that he has acted appropriately, has pursued honesty and devotion to God, and is being attacked for these acts of righteousness.
But there are some psalms (not many) in which the writer-singer mourns his own unrighteous acts and admits that he is partially responsible for his troubles. These psalms have been dubbed "penitential psalms". Kidner lists the following psalms as penitential psalms: 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130 and 143.
Pastor Mike Mazzalongo has a sermon on penitential psalms here. Many of my notes, below, are from that sermon, where Mazzalongo argues that penitential psalms often have three parts: a cry for help, a statement of condition and a statement of renewal.
As an example, we might look at Psalm 6. (My blog on that psalm is here.) The psalm begins with a cry for help and mercy:
Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your wrath.
Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am faint; heal me, Lord, for my bones are in agony.
My soul is in deep anguish. How long, Lord, how long?
The plea for mercy leans on God's steadfast love (hesed). Here is verse 4:
Turn, Lord, and deliver me; save me because of your unfailing love.
The statement of repentance includes verse 6:
I am worn out from my groaning.
All night long I flood my bed with weeping and drench my couch with tears
At the end there is often a statement of renewal. Here are verses 8 and 9:
Away from me, all you who do evil, for the Lord has heard my weeping.
The Lord has heard my cry for mercy; the Lord accepts my prayer.
Here, in the same pattern, is Psalm 143. It begins with a cry for mercy.
Lord, hear my prayer, listen to my cry for mercy;
in your faithfulness and righteousness come to my relief.
David admits he is not righteous (verse 2):
Do not bring your servant into judgment, for no one living is righteous before you.
There is a statement of condition, of despair (verse 3)
The enemy pursues me, he crushes me to the ground;
he makes me dwell in the darkness like those long dead.
Finally David looks forward to renewal (verse 10)
Teach me to do your will, for you are my God;
may your good Spirit lead me on level ground.
Many churces today have an emphasis on personal forgiveness and regular repentance and so the psalms in which David declares himself righteous and seek victory over his enemies -- in short, he is good, they are bad! -- often seem arrogant and hypocritical to us, although the claims to righteousness there are relative. In my experience, the penitential psalms resonate more with us -- they represent our desire to be forgiven and set right with God.
Further reading
There are a number of online articles on the penitential psalms. Here are three:
- A GotQuestions article on the penitential psalms.
- A Wikipedia article on penitential psalms.
- An online Catholic blog on Praying the Penitential Psalms.
I will commit more on these psalms as we run into them in our daily study.
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