If you’re reflecting on the seven deadly sins with me, and praying with the Penitential Psalms to overcome them, notice how well this week’s Psalm 38 expresses our experience with envy: “thy arrows have sunk into me” (vs 2); “my wounds grow foul and fester” (vs 5); and “Lord, all my longing is known to thee” (vs 9).
Week 3: Psalm 38 — “From the sin of ENVY, O Lord, deliver me…”
At what point does longing cross over to envy?
Everyone has longings, for things we don’t have. Sometimes we want things that others have, that we do not, and covet them. When our focus jumps from the thing to the person who has it, envy is born.
Envy lies in the void between her having and my lacking. If she did not have it, I would not mind. But now that she does — I feel lesser, somehow. I am losing out. I am diminished.
Envy eats away at the soul. It erupts in gossip. In harm-wishing. In rejoicing over another’s misfortune. And it hurts us to the core. Someone once said that nurturing envy is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die.
“Envy” by John Goddard, c. 1640. Public Domain.
Chaucer wrote that envy is the worst of sins: “for in truth, all other sins are at times directed against one special virtue alone. But envy takes sorrow in all the blessings of his neighbor” (“Parson’s Tale,” 488-489).
In verse 10 of Psalm 38, which is the Penitential Psalm we read for this intention, the psalmist moans that “the light of my eyes—it also has gone from me.” Maybe Dante had that in mind when he described in his Purgatorio how the envious are purged: they weep through eyes sewn shut with iron thread. They cannot envy because they cannot see, and they must rely on one another: something that is incompatible with envy.
The envious must learn to love.
Examine your heart
To prepare for an examination of conscience, read about envy in the biblical stories of Cain and Abel (Genesis 4) or King Saul and David (1 Samuel 18). Then read James 3:13-18 to learn more about the fruits of envy and its antidote. Offer up your own tendency to envy as you pray with Psalm 38:
“From the sin of envy, O Lord, deliver me…”
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- Download instructions here: Praying-the-Penitential-Psalms-download.pdf
- Read my reflection on Psalm 38 here.
- Up next: Week 3, Psalm 51 — “From the sin of Wrath, O Lord, deliver me…”
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FIND GRACE IN THE PSALMS AS YOU CONTINUE YOUR LENTEN JOURNEY
I encourage you to reflect on the Penitential Psalms many times during Lent. Maybe as you sit before the Lord in adoration, before you go to confession, or in your daily prayers. And may your heart open wide to the graces Christ has for you!
© 2025 Sarah Christmyer. Adapted from a series on the 7 Deadly Sins that appeared on this website during Lent 2014.
Thank you for this reflection, Sarah.