ipline could not but react
healthfully on the mind of the penitent. The penitent would arise from
his prayer with a more spiritual conception of the relationship existing
between himself and his god. Not appealing for any material benefits for
the time being, but concerned only with appeasing the divine wrath, the
single burden of his prayer "that the heart of the offended god might be
'at rest'" would be marked by an intensity all the stronger for being at
least comparatively pure of grosser associations.

All these features combined serve to make the penitential psalms the
flower of the religious literature of Babylonia. The productions not
only represent the highest stage which religious thought reached in the
Euphrates Valley, but, in a certain sense, constitute the only
productions in cuneiform literature that have a permanent literary
value.

We find these compositions marked by a third feature which, however, as
we have already seen, is not peculiar to them,--the dialogue form. In
order to bring about a reconciliation with an angered god, three
personages were necessary in the drama,--the god, the penitent, and,
thirdly, the priest, acting as mediator between the sinner and his
deity. The deity, according to Babylonian notions, could not be
approached directly, but only through his chosen messengers,--the
priests. This idea of mediation, as against the immediate approach, was
so pronounced as to lead, as we have seen, to the frequent association
with a god of a second divine personage,--his son or his
servant,--through whom the petitions of mankind were brought to the
throne of grace.[468] The priest was similarly conceived as the
messenger of the god, and, by virtue of this office, endowed with a
certain measure, at least, of divine power. He was, in the full sense,
the god's vicar on earth,--his representative, who could, as we saw in
the Ishtar hymn, speak in the first person on behalf of the god.[469]
The more manifest mission of the priest, however, was to intercede on
behalf of the mass of mankind. Accepting the sacrifices offered by the
laity, it was he that secured their gracious acceptance on the part of
the deity. It was the priest, as we have seen, who instructed the
individual to pronounce the magic formulas that would be appropriate to
his case; and just as in the incantation texts the priest accompanied
the recitation of the formulas with an appeal of his own, so in the
penitential psalms, he stoo