Ps 38 10 My heart pounds, my strength fails me;
even the light has gone from my eyes.
  11 My friends and companions avoid me because of my wounds;
my neighbors stay far away.
  12Those who seek my life set their traps,
those who would harm me talk of my ruin;
all day long they plot deception. "


This Psalm has been historically labeled a penitent Psalm. It is taught that when God is offended by our sin we must come with a contrite heart in order to receive ongoing forgiveness. After speaking this Psalm for 40 years, I believe it is a confession but the second part  puts the confession into context. The historical  teaching is that each Psalm must be put in the circumstances that motivated the Psalmist to write each Psalm. But the Psalmist is using words, deliverance, salvation, redemption, and sin that are mention in other parts of scripture that cannot be put in a separate category from the rest of scripture. If we say that the same concepts that are taught in other parts of scripture are different in the Psalms then we are opening a Pandoras box for reinterpreting other parts of scripture. The Psalms are made to memorize , meditate using them for illumination and prayer.


So when the Psalmist uses the words of salvation , he is repeating them in order to apply them so that he is orthodox in his petitions. So we must always ask the question, What is the central argument that he uses and is it effective in gaining access before God? So when we study the penitent Psalms we must see that he is expressing his pain according to Gods view in order to overcome his opposition. Our natural approach is trying to be contrite or happy. We are thinking that if we present the right attitude that all of the promises will be given to us. If we practice prayer then we become good at developing the attitudes like humility or happiness. But the Psalms are not like this. When you speak the Psalms in prayer it is much different than coming to God with an attitude or with our own petitions.

The Psalms are written from Gods view as if Christ was praying them. There are different levels of communication according to how close we are to a person. This is why the Psalmist is always describing his usage of them as face to face with God. So when we pray the Psalms we are using them as a way of communicating that is beyond our natural way of describing our experiences. We are talking to God and ourselves. Our natural way of speaking is pragmatic. But the Psalms are written as extremes in response to evil and good. The purpose is more than just learning how to petition. We must understand that we make choices by how we think and then it affects what we like. Our fall back position is to be pragmatic.  This is why we accept a lower standard of what we describe as pleasurable. When we speak the extremes we are beginning to change from being pragmatic to having eternal standards. The Psalms help us live in the pleasure that comes from the unity that is created by the them. We can say that most of our pain comes from accepting pragmatism.

We use the pronouncements of both extremes in order to develop desires that cannot be satisfied in other forms of speech. When we learn to live in these forms of speech our definition of abuse and favor change. After you pray these Psalms for years you learn that there is no formula or steps in approaching God. When we fail to memorize and pray the Psalms we are living as if prayer should be steps to God.  So when we see the Psalmist confess his sin it is always in a greater context. We must understand that God reacts to sin with anger. Gods anger is universally applied in the curse. It is always seen in sorrow, guilt, fear and shame.  It is always experience in either physical or spiritual suffering. But the Psalmist uses this universal anger in the context of how the implanted law in man is used in a culture.  The plot is that since he has been declared righteous the anger of God is directed toward the wicked. The Psalmist complains about the physical and spiritual suffering of his sin but it is not to receive forgiveness because he says  9 All my longings lie open before you, O Lord; my sighing is not hidden from you." He is saying that salvation has made Him righteous by making him a new man. In other words he knows that he is not like the wicked because he has a new core ..the new man that dwells in him. After this he turns away from himself and puts it into the context of being opposed.

He is asking why he is suffering since the Psalmist desires are all for the glory of God. In a sense he opens up as a man who is hurt because God is taken the side of his opposition. God has treated the Psalmist as He directed his anger toward the wicked. The first part of the Psalm is a complaint as the reason for his argument that he is losing to the wicked. The Psalmist has not approached God with pragmatic intentions. He is not approaching God according to a circumstance or a level of attrition but rather as a man who has righteous desires who is being abused by the cursed wicked. The Penitent Psalms teach us how to argue in the culture of cursing or blessing.