I am carrying things from how I was raised, and people tell me I need to forgive my parents. I cannot even work out where to start.

“When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up.”

David writes as a man who knew what it was to be overlooked in his own family, left out with the sheep while his brothers were paraded in front of the prophet. The line about a father and mother forsaking is not a general complaint about bad parents. It is an admission that the people meant to hold you sometimes do not. What follows it is not bitterness but a claim that God picks up what they dropped.

“Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing.”

Peter writes to scattered believers who were being treated badly by people they could not simply walk away from, including inside their own households. His instruction not to return evil for evil goes one step further and tells them to bless instead, which in that culture meant actively wanting good for someone. He is realistic that this is a decision made against the grain, not a feeling that shows up on its own.