Ps 38 4My guilt has overwhelmed me
like a burden too heavy to bear.
 9All my longings lie open before you, O Lord;
my sighing is not hidden from you.
19  Many are those who are my vigorous enemies;
those who hate me without reason are numerous.
 20 Those who repay my good with evil
slander me when I pursue what is good.


Psalm 38 is commonly taught as a Penitent Psalm.  The view of this Psalm is put in the context of the reformed teaching of repentance. We are taught that the God disciplines us because we sin. They teach that the focus of the Penitent Psalms is confession of sin. We are taught that we must go through the discipline so that we will be taught that sin brings pain.They quote the teaching in Hebrews the father loves his son by disciplining him. We are taught that the discipline can be very painful.

We are commanded to submit our minds to all of scripture. If we submit our minds to the bible then we must examine every word in the Book of the Psalms and in each chapter so that we can put the words in the context the main point of each Psalm. This is not easy. I have memorized the Psalms and meditated on them for 40 years. Not only should we examine the words but we must understand in the common phrases the culture of those words. We must understand the language used to describe the Psalmist experience. In speaking the Psalms thousands of times I have learned that the phrases must be put in the context of reciting each Psalm Not all of the Psalmist complaints are spoken because of a sin.

The theologians do not include the obvious teaching of the curses.Whenever a word is not included in the teaching it changes the context of the other words. If we leave the curses out of the text then we change the purpose of the Psalm, the nature of sin, our view of the world, and how we relate to spiritual authority. If we include the teaching of the curse in the Penitent Psalms then we change the purpose of the Psalm. The Psalmist confesses his pain. He expresses his confidence by pronouncing that he is innocent because of his inner man. And finally he uses the curses against his enemies.

If we accept the Psalm at face value and include the curses then he is not coming to confess his sins but to complain about his pain that comes from corruption and curse his enemies.  But if we ignore words that are clearly written in the text then we can teach that Penitent Psalms are written for repentance.

If we say that the Penitent Psalms are teaching repentance then we are focused on ourselves in order to gain forgiveness from God. But if we unchain the curses then the purpose the Psalms is to look outward not inward. In other words instead of teaching that we cannot get better unless we repent when we unlock the curses the Psalm is teaching that it is more important for us to be involved in the battle than to be focused on our sinful condition.

This is why it is dangerous to purposely avoid words in the text. We can lead others to fall off the cliff. We must not accept the chaining of words of scripture.