Penitential Psalms Bible study

St. Paul writes, “Be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father” (Eph 5:18–20; cf. Col 3:16). With these words the apostle invites us to pray the Psalter’s meditations, cries, shouts, and songs in light of the salvation accomplished by God the Father through our Lord Jesus Christ. This Lent we will do so using the Seven Penitential Psalms, so named by Cassiodorus (c. 485–c. 585 AD) in the 6th century AD. For centuries Psalms 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, 143 have served as a source of prayer and reflection during Lent. Their honest confessions invite us to turn to our Lord with the same candor and humility. These prayers are so fitting at expressing contrition that, as he lay dying in AD 430, St. Augustine asked that they be written in large letters near his bed. This study will write the Penitential Psalms large upon our hearts as they invite us to come as sinners before a holy God in order that we might receive his love and mercy anew.