Eugene Peterson's book A Long Discipleship in the Same Direction is a set of meditations on the pilgrim psalms. In chapter 2, Peterson explains Psalm 120, showing that it is the Psalmist's decision to renounce the way of the world and follow the Lord's way. And when we repent, we renounce the world's value system--its ideas of success and prestige and power.

The whole history of Israel is set in motion by two ... acts of world-rejection, which freed the people for an affirmation of God: "the rejection of Mesopotamia in the days of Abraham and the rejection of Egypt in the days of Moses." All the wisdom and strength of the ancient world were in Mesopotamia and Egypt. But Israel said no to them. Despite the prestige, the vaunted and uncontested greatness, there was something foundationally alien and false in those cultures ... Mesopotamian power and Egyptian wisdom were strength and intelligence divorced from God, put to wrong ends and producing all the wrong results.

. . . Repentance, the first word in Christian immigration, sets us on the way to traveling in the light. It is a rejection that is also an acceptance, a leaving that develops into an arriving, a no to the world that is a yes to God.

"Holy and merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart and mind and strength. We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We have not forgiven others as we have been forgiven. Accept our repentance, O God, and let your anger depart from us. In your mercy forgive what we have been, help us amend what we are, and direct what we shall be, so that we may delight in your will and walk in your ways, to the glory of your name."

The Worship Sourcebook, qtd. in Haug & Walker, Journey to the Cross

"The prophet Joel warned Israel to 'rend your heart, not your garments' (Joel 2:13). One commentator summarizes the point like this: What was needed was not ritual alone, but the active involvement of the individual in making a radical change within the heart and in seeking a new direction for one's life. What was demanded was a turning from sin and at the same time a turning to God. For the prophets, such a turning or conversion was not just simply a change within a person; it was openly manifested in justice, kindness, and humility.'"

Haug & Walker, Journey to the Cross