The Penitential Psalms and Wholeness

Abstract

In this article I examine a Mesopotamian therapeutic ritual and its prayer, “My god, I did not know.” It is clear that although the prayer is quite general, its purpose is to reconcile a sick person to his personal deity so that the patient is healed. I will then examine structural and content similarities with Pss 38 and 51. Thus, the paper’s methodology is comparative and form critical. I conclude that Pss 38 and 51, like the Mesopotamian penitential prayers and rituals, were ritual prayers through which the faithful Israelite was reconciled to God so that wholeness could be re-established in his or her life. This has implications for wholeness and health today as believers pursue right relationship with their creator. It also has implications for the critical contextualization of the psalms into different cultural contexts.