Knowledge and prayer. "I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight..." "Create in me a pure [clean] heart, O God, and renew a stedfast spirit within me." "Restore to me the joy of my salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me" (Ps 51:3-4, 10, 12). The 7 "penitential psalms" can help you recognize your own sinful state, understand that sin has consequences, and that God's mercy and forgiveness is available to all who confess and acknowledge their sin. Since ...

Forgiveness: "If you, Lord, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, so that we can, with reverence, serve you" (Ps 130:3-4). The voice of Paul in the O.T. Martin Luther called Psalm 130 a "Pauline Psalm" because it strikes the typical "Pauline" notes of man naturally under condemnation: the need for free mercy and forgiveness (Ps 130:2, 4), redemption as the sole act of God out of his love (Ps 130:7-8), and man's total dependence on mercy (Ps 130:1-2). Psalm 130 is a psalm of divine sufficiency. Psalm 129 sees Zion's danger as hostility ...

“…darkness is my closest friend” (Ps 88:18). “…darkness is my best friend” [Alec Motyer]. “My friends—utter darkness” [Robert Alter]. Prayer: Psalm 13:1-6. No sadder psalm. Psalm 88 is regarded as the saddest psalm, the most desolate of all 150 psalms. It is considered the most despairing and bleak passage in the Bible with its themes of unrelenting darkness, suffering, agony, helplessness, even hopelessness, due to the apparent absence of God. It is a profound expression of anguish and despair. It has no uplifting or hopeful themes like many other psalms. Yet it is significant as an individual lament psalm where ...