Every psalm is special, but with this one we feel that we enter upon holy ground. While it is a confession of sin, it reflects an intimacy with God few psalms can rival. In most psalms, blame for a lamentable condition is attached to enemies or to sickness, but this psalm is uniquely introspective before God. In the traditions of the early church, there are the seven penitential psalms (Pss. 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, and 143). Upon closer inspection, however, we discover that only Psalms 32, 51, and 130 give concerted attention to sin and forgiveness as their chief issue. (Psalms 6 and 102 make no explicit mention of sin. Most of the verses of Ps. 38 concern sickness and enemies and those of Ps. 143 concern being near death and under enemy attack.) Only Psalm 51 gives sin exclusive attentio…