Confession, has been called “the handmaid of repentance.”^[1]  This apt phrase was coined by Tertullian, the “Father of Latin Theology”.  He asks those who would draw back from confession, “why do you desert your own salvation?  Why are you tardy to approach what you know heals you?  Even dumb irrational animals recognize in their time of need the medicines which have been divinely assigned them.”^[2]

         St. Cyril of Jerusalem in his Catechetical Lectures describes the time for repentance and confession: “The present is the season of confession:  confess what thou has done in word or in deed, by night or day; confess in an acceptable time, and in the day of salvation receive the heavenly treasure.” (Cat i. paragraph 4)    He goes on to say that “confession has power to quench even fire, power to tame even lions.” (cat. ii. 15).  What is confession, then?  The Greek word used for confession, exomologesis is made up of the constituent elements, ek (out of), omo (the same) and logos (word or idea, or the Divine Logos, the Word of God).  The American Heritage Dictionary defines “confession” as:

To disclose (something damaging or inconvenient to oneself); admit. To acknowledge belief or faith in; profess. To make known (one's sins) to God or to a priest. To admit or acknowledge something damaging or inconvenient to oneself: The suspect confessed to the crime.  To disclose one's sins to a priest. ^[3]

 Fr. John Chryssavgis in Repentance and Confession in Orthodox Tradition writes that the Orthodox view of confession is not merely the admission of sins, but something deeper:

....an acceptance of and submission to the divine Logos [exomologesis] beyond and above the nature and condition of man.  It is this Logos, the Word of God, that man seeks to regain or rather commune with.  To confess is not so much to recognize and expose a failure as to go forward and upward, to respond from within to the calling of God.”^[4]

So we can see that the act of confession is not merely a juridical act in which a person tries to gain absolution from sins.^[5]  It is a movement by a human being toward his Creator.  Sin is a separation from God, and confession is a means of healing that separation.

         Exomologesis can be found to have been not uncommonly used in this sense of confessing sins in the New Testament and early Church Fathers.^[6]  But it has another meaning, that of “praise” or “thanksgiving.”  These definitions are to be found in many of the versions of the Psalms in the Septuagint (as well as the New Testament:  Matt. 11: 25, Phil. 2:11).  St. Maximos the Confessor says concerning confession by thanksgiving and confession in the form of self-accusation:

Every genuine confession humbles the soul.  When it takes the form of thanksgiving, it teaches the soul that it has been delivered by the grace of God.  When it takes the form of self-accusation, it teaches the soul that it is guilty of crimes through its own deliberate indolence.^[7]

St. John Chrysostom in commenting on Psalm 9^[8] also notes that there are two kinds of confession, “condemnation of one’s own sins, or thanksgiving to God.”^[9]

         Today,  I want to make a short survey on how the Greek word exomologesis   (usually in its verbal form exomologeomai) is used in the Psalms, looking at a few examples of Psalms in which the word is used for praise and thanksgiving, and confession as praise and as a confession of sins. Finally, I will also look at how the Fathers’ teaching on confession of sins leading to praise can be used to interpret Psalm 50.   Although the word exomologesis does not appear in that psalm, it epitomizes their teaching on confession. It could sound a little “academic” but hopefully we’ll be able to see how the use of the word for confession as both praise and repentance in the Psalms can make us appreciate the meaning of the psalms more and to bring us joyfully to a Mystery of the Church that many find fearful.  When approached in the manner of the Psalms, confession of sins is first painful, but ultimately a joyful experience.  Confession is a means of freeing our souls from our burden of sins and praising the Lord with joy.

Confession as Thanks and Praise

         The second kathisma begins with Psalm 9 and the words “I will confess Thee, O Lord, with my whole heart, I will tell of all Thy wonders.” (Ps. 9:1 LXX)  Confess here is in the verbal form  exomologesomai  “I shall” or “I will” confess or give thanks. Some translators translate the word as “give thanks,”^[10] while the others use “I will confess.”  The psalm continues, “I will be glad and rejoice in Thee, I will chant unto Thy name, O Most High. When mine enemy be turned back, they shall grow weak and shall perish before Thy face....” (Ps. 9:2-3 LXX) The Psalmist then describes all the glorious things that God will do for His people: enemies turned back, the world will be judged in righteousness, the Lord becomes “a helper in times of well-being and afflictions.” (v. 9)  Even so, the Psalmist, King David, is now in distress, “Have mercy on me, O Lord; see my humiliation which I have suffered from mine enemies, O Thou that dost raise me up from the gates of death, that I may declare all Thy praises in the gates of the daughter of Sion.  We will rejoice in Thy salvation.” (v. 13-14)  A vivid picture of a cry to the Lord for deliverance from misfortune is painted, but with trust that the Lord is good to His people is confirmed.  The goodness of God is confessed with a whole heart.  St. John Chrysostom takes up this notion of confessing the goodness of God amid distress (and even punishments) thus:

This, after all, is a particular mark of thanksgiving, this is an index of sound attitude, rendering thanks amid difficulties, giving glory for everything, not only for benefits but also for punishments.  This, in fact, is the means to greater reward. You see, in giving thanks for good things you discharged a debt, whereas for bad you put God in your debt. In other words, the person who was well off and acknowledged the favor discharged the debt, while the one who was in trouble and gave glory created indebtedness.  In response to thanksgiving of this latter sort, therefore, God bestows many other good things time after time, with the result that we are left with no sense of hardship.^[11]

St. John says that by giving praise in hardship and loss, the loss itself causes less pain than the joy given by the giving of thanks.  Since one is not distressed by what causes thanksgiving, by giving thanks for hardships the loss become negligible.  “This deals a deadly blow to the devil; it puts our thinking on a sound basis, and ensures we have a correct estimate of worldly affairs.”^[12]  In the Psalm David can give thanks amid misfortune and cares, and St. John enjoins his flock to do the same.  That sounds easy enough to say, “give thanks for sorrows or losses,” but how can it be taught in a practical manner?  St. John gives an interesting means of putting this confession, this thanksgiving into practice.  He teaches that fear of loss, fear for the things of this world, is a choice.  It does not proceed from our nature. One example he uses is that a man trapped in mire does not notice the stench of it after a while.  So a man trapped by avarice does not notice it until he gets out of that mire.  St. Chrysostom teaches a person to wean himself gradually from attachments to things of the world and from the fear of losing them:

....distance yourself gradually, give in to the inclination only slightly, and gradually the distance will become considerable.  Make but the beginning of reform.  Do you have a house you do not need?  Sell it, and give the proceeds to the needy, considering not that your house has gone to others but rather that it has gone to your own.  Think not of the loss but of the gain, not that you have been deprived of it here below but that you will be master of it in that other place.

         In this way you will succeed completely in describing God’s marvels. This, you see, is what the psalm speaks of from the beginning.^[13]

         In a similar manner, Blessed Augustine also teaches the same thing about thanksgiving amid hardships, but he adds that these torments we suffer may be for our benefit; one must constantly trust in God’s providence that all things are done for our good.  On the verse “I will confess unto Thee O Lord, with a whole heart,” Augustine writes:

He does not, with a whole heart, confess unto God, who doubts of His Providence in any particular: (in other words doubts concerning God’s care for us at al times prevent us from fully confessing Him)...... but he who sees already the hidden things of the wisdom of God, how great is His invisible reward, who says, "We rejoice in tribulations;" and how all torments, which are inflicted on the body, are either for the exercising of those that are converted to God, or for warning that they be converted...^[14] 

Indeed, in Blessed Augustine’s commentary on Psalm 110 (which also begins with “I will confess Thee, O Lord, with my whole heart...”) we are given a good summary of the teaching of giving praise to God in our confession:

Confession is not always confession of sins, but the praise of God is poured forth in the devotion of confession. The former mourns, the latter rejoices: the former shows the wound to the physician, the latter gives thanks for health. The latter confession signifies some one, not merely freed from every evil, but even separate from all the ill-disposed.^[15]

         St. John Chrysostom in commenting on this psalm as well, calls this confession, “thanksgiving” and “giving praise.”  He describes the command to Moses to love God with our whole heart and our whole mind not in words alone or by voice.  This was the Psalmist’s occupation:

...at all times, offering thanks for favors done both to him and to others.  God looks for nothing as much as this after all:  this sacrifice, this offering, this sign of a grateful spirit, this is a blow against the devil.  For this Job was crowned and celebrated...^[16]

It is interesting to note that psalm 110 (111) does not mention hardships specifically, but that God is great in all his works.  For verse 3, “confession and majesty are His work,” St. Chrysostom writes, “Each of the visible realities, in fact, is sufficient to prompt the observer to thanksgiving, to  hymnody, to praise, to giving glory.”^[17]All things “both darkness and daylight, famine and feast, desert and wilderness, fertile fields and productive....” can bring a man to thanksgiving if he has discernment.^[18]  These words of St. John and Blessed Augustine can be used together with the psalms for those of us or friends in distress.  They can be used to teach one to say even as St. John did at the time of his death in bitter exile, “glory to God for all things.”

         These two psalms are only a sampling of the many examples of the term exomologesis as confession of praise and thanksgiving, and how the Fathers viewed this.

Exomologesis as Confession of Sin and Praise

         While exomologesis is used in psalm 117 as a confession of praise from the first verse,^[19] in verse 19 we find, “Open to me the gates of righteousness; I shall enter through them and confess to the Lord.” (ps. 117:19).^[20]  St. John sees this as for those who are being cleansed from sin by discipline:

The gates are opened to those being disciplined, to those putting away their sins.  The one who is disciplined can say with confidence, Open to me the gates of righteousness.  The statement is to be taken anagogically (a spiritual or mystical interpretation), in fact, and understood as the gates of heaven, which are closed to the wicked, on which you have to knock with virtue, with alsmgiving, with righteousness.  This is the Lord’s gate; the righteous shall enter through it (v. 20)  There are gates of death, there are gates of  destruction, there are gates of life, there are gates that are narrow and tight.  For this very reason, that there are many, he mentions the distinguishing characteristic of the Lord’s gate, adding, This is the Lord’s gate:  the others are not the Lord’s.  And what is the distinguishing characteristic?  That through it the disciplined enter, the straightened.  It is narrow and tight, you see; if it is tight, the straightened pass through it – as the gate to destruction is wide and roomy.^[21]

Here we have seen an example of how the word exomologesis or its verbal form can be used differently in a single psalm; to mean either confession as praise or confession as a confession that leads to praise.  Indeed some translations (Holy Transfiguration Monastery’s translation of this psalm) has the end of verse 19 as “give thanks” while Chrysostom writes “confess” for HTM’s “thanks.”  Both are correct and the meaning does not change when looked at from the perspective of the fathers.  This is clearer when one looks at other commentary on other psalms which carry the sense of confession being one of confessing sins which leads to confession of praise.

         In Psalm 99 (100) we are given another psalm which explicitly is interpreted in the superscription as a psalm of confession by the early Church writer Cassiodorus^[22] and by Blessed Augustine.^[23] The HTM translation uses “Thank-Offering” in the superscription.  This, again, can fit in with the views of the Fathers concerning exomologesis.  Cassiodorus gives verse 4 as “Enter his gates to confess him, his courts with confessional hymns Praise ye his name.”^[24]  With a similar image as the gates of psalm 117 Cassiodorus says, “The Lord’s gates are humble repentance, sacred baptism, holy charity, almsgiving, mercy and other commands by which we can attain His presence.  So the prophet urges us first to enter the gates of the Lord’s mercy by means of this humble confession.”^[25] This image is quite like the narrow gates of righteousness described by St. Chrysostom “on which you have to knock with virtue, with alsmgiving, with righteousness.”^[26] Cassiodorus looks at the end of the verse with the phrase, “with confessional hymns Praise ye his name” following the entrance of the gate as maintaining the proper order of confession of sin followed by confession of praise. “An appropriate order is preserved:  first he offers confession, and his love now untroubled follows.”^[27] One cleanses herself from sin by confession; and her confession becomes one of joy, thanksgiving and praise.

         Similarly, in psalm 91 (92), the order of confession of sins preceding confession of praise is in St. Jerome’s interpretation (as well as Blessed Augustine).  Psalm 91 begins: “It is good to give praise unto the Lord, and chant unto Thy name, O Most High, to proclaim in the morning Thy mercy, and Thy truth by night, on a psaltery of ten strings, with an ode upon the harp.”(HTM LXX ps. 91:1-2).  St. Jerome says of these opening lines, “The psalmist did not say that it is good to sing and after that to confess; but note the order; it is good to confess, and it is good to sing.  First repent and wash away sin with your tears; then sing to the Lord.”^[28] 

          Cassiodorus writes that the proclamation of God’s mercy in the morning denotes the joy of God’s goodness and mercy since the morning denotes joy and the night, signifying sadness, is when hardships afflict us, and we endure the burden of our sins.  We should rightly proclaim the praise of God at both times.^[29] The Church’s day begins at sunset and morning follows evening in that order. Thus the sorrow of sin is followed by the joy of forgiveness and praise.

  Conclusion: Psalm 50

         Perhaps no other psalm epitomizes the act of confession better than Psalm 50.  Ironically, the word “confession,” appears nowhere in the psalm.  Since the psalm is a confession, it may not need to.  It is not an exhortation for others to confess.  The “Miserere,” as the psalm is known, is the psalm of confession and repentance. St. Athanasios the Great from his Letter to Marcellinus, tells Marcellinus which psalms to chant for which purpose.  He says that Psalms 11 and 16 show confidence in prayer, “and in the Fiftieth, how it is speaking the proper words of his own repentance.”^[30]  St. Athanasios continues, “You have sinned, and being ashamed, you repent and you ask to be shown mercy.  You have in Psalm Fifty the words of confession and repentance.”^[31]

         Almost every service of the Church has psalm 50 as a constituent part whether chanted aloud for all to hear or chanted quietly by the priest or deacon during the censing of the Church building..  Although not often used during confessions today, Psalm 50 is a part of that rite.  By using the interpretation of the fathers concerning exomologesis  as both confession of sin and confession of praise, or more importantly confession of sins preceding confession of praise, we are given a tool to help  us understand this most important of Psalms.

The Text of Psalm 50 (Holy Transfiguration Translation):

Have mercy on me, O God, according to Thy great mercy; and according to the multitude of Thy compassions blot out my transgression.

 Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I know mine iniquity, and my sin is ever before me. Against Thee only have I sinned and done this evil before Thee, that Thou mightest be justified in Thy words, and prevail when Thou art judged. For behold, I was conceived in iniquities, and in sins did my mother bear me. For behold, Thou hast loved truth; the hidden and secret things of Thy wisdom hast Thou made manifest unto me. Thou shalt sprinkle me with hyssop, and I shall be made clean; Thou shalt wash me, and I shall be made whiter than snow.

Here we have a very straightforward confession of sinfulness (“for I know mine iniquity”) with a confident hope of redemption.  Let’s look more closely at a couple of words in this passage that can also help us in our confession of sin and praise. First let’s briefly look at the word for mercy.  In Greek the word for mercy has the same root as the word for olive oil (Eleison, elaion).  So when we think of asking for God’s mercy, whenever we say “Lord have mercy” we can think also of the various uses the scriptures and the Church has for olive oil.  It is in the oil of gladness, in the Chrism which anoints us and is the gift of the seal of the Holy Spirit.  It is the anointing of priests and kings in the Old Testament. Asking for mercy is not just the juridical cry of “don’t blast me, Lord!”  It is the cry of a soul saying, “make me holy, make me one of the royal priesthood, give me joy, and give me the Holy Spirit to dwell within me!”  Perhaps one of the greatest images in the use of olive oil comes from the parable of the Good Samaritan in which the Samaritan man pours oil and wine into the wounds of the man who was beaten by robbers.  The oil softens the wounds the edges of the wound keeping them from becoming hard which would prolong or hinder the healing time.  The wine cleans the wound.  Blessed Theophylact sees in the oil the gentleness of Christ’s teaching which heals us, and the wine is the sharpness of his teaching which prods us to virtue.  One can also see the oil as the humanity of Christ (and his sometimes non-ascetic life) and the wine is his divinity which could not be borne alone by us if it were poured directly into our wounds....the humanity had to temper the divinity for us to be healed.  For St. Theophylact the Samaritan is an image of our Lord Himself binding our wounds of sin by His humanity and His divinity.  I think one could also see in the oil and the wine the sharpness of our repentance and the soothing mercy of the Lord’s forgiveness (and as a side note for this conference, this parable is told immediately before the passage in Luke about Martha and Mary...coincidence?  You be the judge).  Now for the second word... It is interesting to note that the word for “wash” in verses 2 and 7 is not the word used for bathing the body, as one would think in reading the Englsih, but it is the Greek term for washing clothes.  The Hebrew term is also the one used for washing clothes.  Considering that clothes were washed by being beaten or trampled, this is quite an interesting entreaty.^[32](look a the footnote)

 Thou shalt make me to hear joy and gladness; the bones that be humbled, they shall rejoice.

We have been humbled and now we will rejoice.  Perhaps the humbled bones are due to the type of washing they have received.

Turn Thy face away from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from Thy presence, and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation, and with Thy governing Spirit establish me.

Again here we see the seeking of restoration of joy and praise after confession and repentance.

I shall teach transgressors Thy ways, and the ungodly shall turn back unto Thee.

The result of confession and repentance is the ability to restore another sinner to communion with God.

Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God, Thou God of my salvation; my tongue shall rejoice in Thy righteousness. O Lord, Thou shalt open my lips, and my mouth shall declare Thy praise.

Here the connection of forgiveness of sins after confession leads to rejoicing and praising God.

For if Thou hadst desired sacrifice, I had given it; with whole-burnt offerings Thou shalt not be pleased. A sacrifice unto God is a broken spirit; a heart that is broken and humbled God will not despise.

Cassiodorus says concerning the broken and humbled heart (he uses contrite for broken), “Contrite means sorely afflicted by the toils of repentance; humbled, that is, before God, so that the heart which had been proud through arrogance became devoted through holy confession.”^[33]  We can also bring to mind what St. John said concerning exomologesis in psalm 110, “God looks for nothing as much as this after all:  this sacrifice, this offering, this sign of a grateful spirit, this is a blow against the devil.”  The psalm concludes.

Do good, O Lord, in Thy good pleasure unto Sion, and let the walls of Jerusalem be builded. Then shalt Thou be pleased with a sacrifice of righteousness, with oblation and whole-burnt offerings. Then shall they offer bullocks upon Thine altar.

Admittedly this has been only a cursory attempt at analysis of Psalm 50; a short example of how it could be used to exemplify the Fathers’ teaching on confession, exomologesis.  Indeed there are many more psalms that could have been used for analysis which employed exomologesis (8 psalms) or more commonly its verb form e0comologe/omai (44 total psalms).  So we can see just by this arithmetic that confession as praise and or repentance....both two sides of the same coin...is an important part of the book of Psalms.  There are 150 psams and about one third of them concern this topic.  It is my hope that this little presentation has opened up the psalms for you a bit more.  More importantly, I hope it has made you want to unburden yourself from any sins that may weigh heavily upon you.  It may be painful at first, but the cost of that pain is more than made up for by the joy of freedom.  Christ wants to heal us all.  St. John Chrysostom writes:

“Such is the love of God for mankind that He never rejects genuine repentance, but even if someone were to go beyond the limit of evil and desired to return from there to the way of virtue, He would receive and approach him doing everything to guide him to his former condition.  In fact, He is still more loving:  for even if one did not show all repentance –even the very least – He would reward him much for the little repentance shown.

         It is not He who ever turns away from us, but rather we who detach ourselves from Him.

         If you have sinned and fallen, rise, arise please.  For the good and loving Master who was put to shame by your sin is beside you and does not reject cohabitation with you.

Give Him you hand.” (Chryssavgis p. 26)