Twenty-one verses for asking forgiveness, from Psalm 51, headed as a psalm by David, to the one line prayer of Psalm 25:11.
The psalms ask for forgiveness plainly, and the reason they give is usually God's name or loving kindness, not the writer's goodness. Psalm 32 describes what keeping silent about sin did to the writer's body, and the relief of confessing it. Psalm 51, which its heading places after Nathan the prophet came to David, asks to be washed and given a clean heart. Psalm 130 says there is forgiveness with God.
The verses follow the order the psalms themselves use: asking, confessing, being forgiven and starting again. Tick the ones you want and print them as a sheet for prayer or study.
Direct requests to be forgiven. Each gives a reason, and none of the reasons is the writer's own goodness.
Have mercy on me, God, according to your loving kindness.According to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.
Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.
The first request of Psalm 51 rests on God's loving kindness and tender mercies. Blot out is the picture: the record itself removed.
For your name’s sake, LORD,pardon my iniquity, for it is great.
For thy name’s sake, O LORD, pardon mine iniquity; for it is great.
A one line prayer for pardon. The writer gives two reasons: God's name, and that the sin is great.
Help us, God of our salvation, for the glory of your name.Deliver us, and forgive our sins, for your name’s sake.
Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name: and deliver us, and purge away our sins, for thy name’s sake.
Forgiveness asked for a whole people, not one person. It is tied to rescue and to the glory of God's name.
Who can discern his errors?Forgive me from hidden errors.
Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults.
A request to be forgiven for hidden errors, the ones the writer cannot see. It follows the question, who can discern his errors?
For putting sin into words. These psalms name it rather than explain it away.
When I kept silence, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.
When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long.
What silence did: bones wasting away through groaning all day long. The psalm treats unconfessed sin as a weight the body feels.
I acknowledged my sin to you.I didn’t hide my iniquity.I said, I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah.
I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah.
I acknowledged, I did not hide, I will confess, and you forgave. The forgiveness comes in the same verse as the confession.
For I will declare my iniquity.I will be sorry for my sin.
For I will declare mine iniquity; I will be sorry for my sin.
Two short promises: to declare the iniquity and to be sorry for it. Earlier in the same psalm the writer links his sickness to his sin.
Verses that describe being forgiven, mostly in pictures.
Blessed is he whose disobedience is forgiven,whose sin is covered.
Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
Blessed is the one whose sin is covered. The psalm opens with the result before it tells how it came about.
As far as the east is from the west,so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.
As far as the east is from the west. The distance chosen is one that never closes.
But there is forgiveness with you,therefore you are feared.
But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.
Forgiveness is given as the reason God is feared. It answers the question in the verse before: if you kept a record of sins, who could stand?
You have forgiven the iniquity of your people.You have covered all their sin. Selah.
Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people, thou hast covered all their sin. Selah.
Forgiveness of a whole people, told in the past tense. You have covered all their sin.
For you, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive,abundant in loving kindness to all those who call on you.
For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee.
Ready to forgive. The readiness is set beside goodness and abundant loving kindness to all who call.
But he, being merciful, forgave iniquity, and didn’t destroy them.Yes, many times he turned his anger away,and didn’t stir up all his wrath.
But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath.
In a long history of a people turning away, this verse says God, being merciful, forgave and did not destroy them. Many times, it adds, he turned his anger away.
Requests for a changed heart, not only a cleared record.
Create in me a clean heart, O God.Renew a right spirit within me.
Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
Create in me a clean heart. The request is for something new to be made, and for a right spirit to be renewed.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit.O God, you will not despise a broken and contrite heart.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
What God will not despise is a broken and contrite heart. The verse before says he does not delight in sacrifice, so this takes its place.
See if there is any wicked way in me,and lead me in the everlasting way.
And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
The writer invites God to see any wicked way in him and asks to be led in the everlasting way. The prayer looks forward as well as back.
For guilt that will not lift and shame that feels written on the face. These psalms say both out loud.
For my iniquities have gone over my head.As a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me.
For mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me.
My iniquities have gone over my head, a burden too heavy for me. Guilt is pictured as a weight the writer cannot carry.
For I know my transgressions.My sin is constantly before me.
For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.
I know my transgressions. My sin is constantly before me. The writer cannot stop seeing what he did, and says so before asking to be washed.
God, you know my foolishness.My sins aren’t hidden from you.
O God, thou knowest my foolishness; and my sins are not hid from thee.
God, you know my foolishness. My sins are not hidden from you. The writer does not try to hide what God already sees.
Oh keep my soul, and deliver me.Let me not be disappointed, for I take refuge in you.
O keep my soul, and deliver me: let me not be ashamed; for I put my trust in thee.
Let me not be disappointed, or in the King James Version, let me not be ashamed. It comes two verses after the plain request, forgive all my sins.
They looked to him, and were radiant.Their faces shall never be covered with shame.
They looked unto him, and were lightened: and their faces were not ashamed.
They looked to him and were radiant. Their faces shall never be covered with shame. The picture is of a face turned up instead of hidden.
Psalm 51. Its heading says it is a psalm by David from when Nathan the prophet came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. The account of Nathan's visit is in 2 Samuel 12. Psalm 32, also headed By David, describes the relief that came after confession.
Psalms 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130 and 143 are grouped as the seven penitential psalms. The grouping is not made in the Bible itself. It is named in Cassiodorus's commentary of the sixth century, and Augustine knew four of them as penitential psalms in the early fifth century. This site has a separate page on the seven.
Psalm 51 is the fullest prayer for forgiveness in the psalms. For something shorter, Psalm 25:11 asks, for your name's sake, LORD, pardon my iniquity, for it is great.
Psalm 32:5, Psalm 85:2 and Psalm 130:4 all say so directly. Psalm 86:5 calls God ready to forgive.
Psalm 103:12. Two verses earlier, Psalm 103:10 says he has not dealt with us according to our sins.
Not directly. The forgiveness in the psalms is God's forgiveness of sin, and some psalms ask for justice against enemies rather than forgiveness for them.
Psalms about Mercy and GracePsalms for Lent and FastingPsalms of LamentPsalms for a Broken HeartPsalms about SalvationPsalms about Forgiving Others and Reconciliation