Together with sickness there is usually the bitter complaint against the wicked enemies (Psalms 3, 13, 70, 64, 140, 7, 55, and 109). It is of course altogether understandable that men should be alienated from a sick person, regarding him as justly smitten of God and afflicted, and that such men should in turn be regarded by the sick man as enemies. It is also possible that in some instances, as in Psalms 22 and 69, it may be a matter of religious persecution. On the other hand the language used in a number of psalms (13, 70, 64, 140, 7, 55, 57, 59, and 109) rather strongly suggests that the enemies are practicers of black magic, an art familiar to every land unilluminated by modern scientific knowledge.
Yet in a considerable number of these psalms it is Yahwe himself who has sent the affliction. When this is the case the psalmist may do either of two things: he may acknowledge his misfortune to be just punishment for his sin, and accordingly petition for forgiveness and deliverance (Psalms 38, 88, 39, and 102); or he may affirm his innocence and demand deliverance as a matter of justice (Psalms 26, 7, 17, 59, and 71).
Of all the individual psalms of lamentation, unquestionably the three finest are 51, 42-43, and 130. Psalm 51 has but one single clause referring to physical distress! “that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice,” and is remarkable for its profound consciousness of guilt, and its strong conviction that cleansing and regeneration and the righteous life can only be achieved by divine mercy and divine redemptive power. As for Psalms 42-43, there is expressed in language of haunting beauty, both an intense thirst for the presence of God, and the awakening realization of a something of superior worth in man that can only be satisfied by the experience of God. This would seem to be the road along which the Hebrew ultimately arrived at the consciousness of his own supreme worth and immortality. Yet possibly the rarest of these psalms both for simplicity of expression and depth of religious insight is 130. The psalmist, who “waits for God more than they who watch for the morning” has an amazingly profound consciousness of sin expressed in the words:
If iniquities thou should’st record, O Yahwe,
Lord who could stand ...
and likewise a sublime conception of God’s mercy:
But with Thee is forgiveness
That Thou mays’t be revered.
Psalms of Testimony and Thanksgiving
Corresponding to the Psalms of Lamentation and Petition are the Psalms of Testimony and Thanksgiving. The afflicted community or individual which has, in answer to its petition to Yahwe, experienced deliverance is obligated to give public expression to its gratitude for Yahwe’s salvation. Such psalms may be expected to tell the story of the affliction, the appeal for divine help, and the deliverance. Furthermore it is altogether natural for any people with a national and a religious consciousness to look back through the years and the centuries and to give thanks for the favors manifested by Deity to the fathers. Originally the first words of such psalms may well have been: “Give thanks to Yahwe” or “I will give thanks to Yahwe.”