Our remaining penitential psalms (Ps 102, Ps 130, Ps 143) do not seem, at first glance, to have much in common. Yet a closer inspection of all of them show a keen awareness of personal hurt and anguish (Ps 102:2-11; Ps 130:1; Ps 143:3-4). The Bible has much encouragement for us when we are in distress, discouraged and feel as though we are either in a deep pit or at risk of being swamped by the waves. There is tremendous relief simply to know that we are not alone in those feelings, that others before us have also walked a broken road. The causes of distress may well vary – loneliness, bereavement, pain, ridicule, opposition, to name just a few – but the feeling of desolation and isolation these things engender in us can cause our spirits to be faint within us. (Ps 143:4,7) Most of all, however, we are reassured and encouraged by the awareness that our Saviour is a ‘man of sorrows and familiar with pain’ (Is 53:5), that we do not have a Saviour who is unable to empathise with us in our weaknesses (Heb 4:15). Jeremy Camp captures this for us in the song ‘He Knows’, which declares:
‘He knows, He knows
Every hurt and every sting,
He has walked the suffering.’ (‘He Knows’, Jeremy Camp)
Another theme all these psalms deal with is the sense that we are lost without God’s mercy. Our own righteousness is not enough (Ps 143:2; see also Deut 9:5; Eccl 7:12; Rom 3:10, 20; Gal 2:16); if God kept a record of our sins, no one would be able to stand (Ps 130:3, John 8:1-11). The character of God – traced by forgiveness, mercy, unfailing love and full redemption – becomes our only hope. Each psalm may touch on despair, but each of these psalms also points to revelations of God’s nature which become our lifeline. God sits enthroned forever (Ps 102:12) and does not change (Ps 102:27); as Allen writes, ‘the assurance of God’s permanence is the answer to the psalmist’s overwhelming sense of transience.’ The fact that we can rely on God’s faithfulness (Lam 3:23, Ps 89:8, Ps 100:5) and righteousness (Ps 7:17, Ps 103:17, Is 33:5) ultimately sustains us, whether the trouble we face is caused by our own sin, by enemies or by the chastening hand of God. Our protection, salvation and deliverance come from God, in whom we can hide (Ps 143:9; Ps 17:8; Ps 31:20; ‘your life is now hidden with Christ in God.’ (Col 3:3))