E. Prayer Song of the Sinner
(Pss 6, 38, 39, 40, 41, 51, 88, 102, 130)
The psalmists' awareness of sin as the (or a) cause of their plight marks these prayer songs (tep̠illôt̠) as a group. In some the awareness of sin prompts a clear confession or at least acknowledgment of sin (38:18; 39:8; 41:4; 51:1-5). In others this acknowledgment is less direct (40:12). In still others the sense of sin, though obviously present, is implicit, evidenced by the psalmists' conviction of being under Yahweh’s rebuke or discipline (6:1; 38:1; 39:11), the object of Yahweh’s wrath (6:1; 38:3; 88:5-9; 102:10), the target of Yahweh’s actions (88:6-9), 15-18)—all implying sin in the one praying. The petitioner feels rejected by Yahweh and alienated from him (88:4). In Ps 130 the sense of sin is present in the affirmation (vv.4, 8).
The need for healing is a second distinctive of most of these songs (not present in Ps 130 and not clear in Ps 40). These tep̠illôt̠ could perhaps have been called “Prayers of the Sick and the Sinner,” though the awareness of sin is the more consistent of the two themes. They can be properly understood only within the theological framework outlined under the Prayer Songs for Deliverance From Accusation and Persecution (section Ps. 0:6), the OT’s standard wisdom and historic covenant faith. Here obedience, wisdom, and covenant trust lead to present, concrete blessing, including health. Disobedience, folly, and unfaithfulness to the covenant bring divine cursing, including disease (e.g., Lev 26; Dt 28).
Standard wisdom and the historic covenant connection between sin/sickness and obedience/health says something other than the enduring insight that a relationship exists between moral choices people make and the quality of their health, the truth that sin often wreaks havoc in body and mind, and that godliness often saves persons from physical and mental ills. This last truth is a matter of creation; God in his wisdom and grace has made the world so that it reflects the goodness of his will.
The theology undergirding these prayers holds not simply a faith in created processes but in present, physical divine blessing and retribution. Pss 38 and 41 most clearly state this:
Because of your wrath there
is no health in my body;
my bones have no soundness
because of my sin.
38:3 (italics mine)
O Lord, have mercy on me;
heal me, for I have sinned
against you.
41:4 (italics mine)
These lines reflect a worldview in which illness itself was a sign of God’s displeasure and issued in the assumption that one had sinned, even where there was no clear awareness of specific sin that might have brought God’s judgment.
Perhaps this is why some of these songs cry for healing and proceed under the conviction of God’s rebuke and wrath and discipline but lack any clear confession of sin or clear acknowledgment of specific sin (Pss 6, 40, 88, 102). Ps 88 unveils the particularly poignant pain of a person suffering chronic illness, plagued from childhood. Such persons would have carried as well the continuing question as to the reason for God’s “obvious” anger and rejection (88:13-18). Perhaps this accounts also for the strange conjunction of continuing trust and confidence in Yahweh side by side with terrible consciousness of his wrath and rebuke and rejection, as in Pss 38, 40, and 88. In spite of the fact that these prayers acknowledge sin and seek help, these songs are not the prayers of “wicked” persons, “the foolish,” or “idolaters,” persons who deny and reject God. These are the saints, suffering under the perceived burden of their sins.
Since illness of necessity called the moral character of the sick one into question, another repercussion of disease registered in these prayers is the response of others to one’s plight (after the model of Job’s “comforters,” e.g., Job 8). Family and friends found the situation awkward at best, alienating at worst (38:11; 41:9; 88:8, 18). Enemies capitalized on the occasion to slander the good name of the sufferer (39:8; 40:14-15; esp. 41:5-8).
No doubt related to this theological frame of reference is the fact that most of these prayers of the sinner do not actually ask for forgiveness. The obvious exception to that pattern is Ps 51, with its classic confession of sin and profound cry for forgiveness. Ps 41 cries for mercy (v.4); Ps 130 anticipates redemption (v.8). In the main these prayers are concerned not with forgiveness of sin but with rescue from the perceived results of sin, particularly illness. Thus they cry for deliverance and salvation (6:4; 40:13), for help (38:22; 40:13), for God to hear (39:12; 88:2; 102:1, 2; 130:1). They ask for an end to rebuke and wrath (6:1; 38:1).
Moreover, while the distinctive features of the problems faced in these songs are sickness and the wrath of God prompted by sin, the problems are broader than sickness, including enemies and persecution much like those found in the Prayers for Deliverance From Accusation and Persecution. That is, the sickness with which these persons struggle is only one, even if in these cases the chief, manifestation of God’s displeasure and one feature of their plight. At one point the healing is desired so that the psalmist may live to exact vengeance (41:10). So these psalms contain prayers for general salvation and rescue and mercy.
The affirmations and rationale undergirding these prayers parallel those detailed for the Prayers of Deliverance From Accusation and Persecution (see Ps. 0:6). They emphasize the petitioners' trust in Yahweh (38:15; 130:5, 6), their denial of all other gods as help (39:7), and their proclamation of Yahweh’s loving deliverance (40:9-10). They assume Yahweh’s unchallenged rule (102:12-14) and his unchanging self (102:24-28) as the basis for hope. In other ways as well they reflect the confidence seen in the previous tep̠illôt̠. Distinctive, however, in this song type is the affirmation of the worshiper’s own moral deprivation and need (51:5-6, 10) as a prominent conviction motivating the prayer.
Ps 51 is Scripture’s premier model for confession of sin. The setting of David’s “classic sin” with Bathsheba, involving not only adultery but also lying, murder, and theft (2Sa 11), only enhances its power. Throwing himself without reserve upon the mercy of God (v.1), David takes full responsibility for his sin, implicating no one else, though others could have been cited, and offering no rationalizations or evasions of accountability (“my transgressions . . . my iniquity . . . my sin” [vv.1-3]; “I have sinned and [I have] done what is evil” [v.4]). Using virtually the OT’s entire vocabulary for sin, David calls his terrible deeds by their terrible names, eschewing euphemisms to blur the question. He acknowledges that God the Judge alone is the One with whom he must finally deal in this, in spite of the fact that others are involved (v.4). Acknowledging that this set of deeds is no isolated event, he accepts his sinful history from birth (v.5) and points beneath his deeds of sin to his more fundamental need, his sinfulness (vv.5, 10). He accepts legitimate social ramifications to his sin (v.14) and traces disruption of his health and emotions to his own vice (vv.8, 12, 15). He acknowledges one and only one source of rescue from all his sin and its many implications, the God of mercy and unfailing love, “the God who saves me” (v.14). Then in a vocabulary broader than that cataloguing his sin, he implores God to save him. Legal language—“expunging from the record” (“blot out”), sacral language borrowed from laundering—“cleanse,” ceremonial language—“make clean,” atonement language—to “un-sin with hyssop,” and traditional epic language of creation—“create,” all find use in this cry for full salvation.
But Ps 51 contains more than a paradigm for confession. This Prayer of the Sinner carries potent theology of sin and salvation, some features of which are anticipated in the model of confession. The prayer exposes the central human predicament, the contrast between human sinfulness from birth and the desire of God for inner and outer integrity (vv.5-6). It assumes human action to be symptomatic of inner life, tracing in this case human acts of sin to sinfulness of heart and spirit. The prayer everywhere assumes God’s ability and willingness not only to forgive the acts of sin and grant acceptance and continuing life to the offender, but also the ability and willingness to rectify the sinner’s inner need, creating and renewing the very core of the needy one’s person—heart and spirit (vv.1, 10, 11). The prayer makes the confession and pleas a truly individual and personal matter, emphasizing the priority of inner brokenness and integrity, while not privatizing or divorcing the entire endeavor from the worshiping community or its liturgy (vv.7, 16-17). The role of God in not only reconciling and renewing, but also in sustaining the rescued one in a continuing walk with God, is taught (v.12). Finally, the song sets forth the link between reconciliation with God and authentic worship, evangelism, and service (vv.13-15).
As in Ps 130, this prayer of confession and restoration is appropriated for the community’s needs. Distraught over the destruction from the nation’s sin, without temple and sacrifice, the exiled community made the confession and confidence expressed in the prayer its own confession and hope (51:18-19; 130:6).