Psalms for Turbulent Times - Psalm 51: Have mercy on me, O God

Psalm 51[1]

¹   Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love;
    according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.
²   Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
³   For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
⁴   Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight,
    so that you are justified in your sentence
    and blameless when you pass judgment.
⁵   Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me.
⁶   You desire truth in the inward being; 
     therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.

⁷   Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;      
     wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
⁸   Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have crushed rejoice.

⁹   Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
¹⁰ Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.

¹¹  Do not cast me away from your presence,
      and do not take your holy spirit from me.
¹²   Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit.
¹³   Then I will teach transgressors your ways,  and sinners will return to you.

¹⁴   Deliver me from bloodshed, O God, O God of my salvation,
      and my tongue will sing aloud of your deliverance.
¹⁵   O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.

¹⁶   For you have no delight in sacrifice;
      if I were to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased.
¹⁷   The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit;
       a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
¹⁸    Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; rebuild the walls of Jerusalem,

¹⁹    then you will delight in right sacrifices, 
        in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; 
        then bulls will be offered on your altar.

This psalm tugs at the soul. It has a wooing comforting quality even as it peels back the stark nature of the human condition. For its comfort lies not just in the truth that our hearts are sinful, but that even so we can sing with gladness of God’s goodness.

Singfulness (not a word) and sinfulness come together. A song of the soul teaches truth and makes us whole because of God’s saving grace.

Some years ago I sang the beautiful and extraordinary Allegri setting of this psalm with the New English Orchestra and Singers in the Dom at Salzburg. ‘Miserere Mei, Deus’ [Have mercy on me, O God] was composed in the 1630s for the exclusive use of the Sistine Chapel during the Tenebrae services of Holy Week.  Its notation was a closely guarded secret. Until, so it is said, the young Mozart heard it when he was 14, remembered it note for note and then later wrote it down – the secret was then out for all choirs to perform! Mozart was baptised at the Dom the day after his birth in Salzburg. Singing this psalm in that cathedral will always have that connection for me.

The high-soaring reach of the treble or soprano lifts the soul into the unadorned truth – that God is merciful and there is no sin so great which cannot be redeemed.

I was trawling through YouTube for an English recording of this Latin masterpiece and came across this English version recorded by the Choir of Kings College Cambridge. In doing so I also came across the responses of various people to the psalm. Here is a selection of their thoughts:   

My six-year-old little boy asks for this every night, we call it the 'secret song' I watch his sweet little face as he falls asleep and feel such a loving ache in my heart as this song plays.

There is seriously something wrong with a person to not like this, religious or not.

When I was a little girl, about six, I would put this on the record player when my parents were out. It is nice to hear it without the scratches. Thank you.

I'm a pagan with Christian origins, and the melody (I do not understand the lyrics) speaks to my soul.

Even being an atheist myself, I can't stop listening to this.

I am sorry God

Well I am Muslim girl and my favourite music is church music it relaxes me and gives me a beautiful vibes ... I love Christian people and I wish all the best for them we are all created by One God and we shouldn't allow anything to separate us .. please brothers and sisters stay strong and healthy in the current crisis 🙏🙏 we love you so much ❤❤

Of religion I know nothing, but I know for certain that I am human when I listen to this.

I’m a 21yo dude, studying sound engineering and preparing for a "music history" exam. Why the **** am I crying?

I am a biker ... but this actually moves me to tears

I am lying in bed in hospital with cancer… this takes my fear of death away.

History is littered with mistakes. One commentator suggests that history is in fact a long list of mistakes complete with names and dates.[2] The story of the Hebrew bible is full of these mistakes – some tragic. These include David’s adultery with Bathsheba, his murder of her husband Uriah and the death, soon after childbirth, of their first son.[3] It is this litany of sins which, tradition tells us, was the prompt for the writing of Psalm 51 by David after he had been confronted for his sins by the brave prophet Nathan.

The Poor Man had nothing but one little ewe lamb

What opens up David to his actions and helps him have the courage to ask God for mercy? A subtle and heart-breaking story told by the prophet:  “There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor. The rich man had very many flocks and herds; but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb, which he had bought. He brought it up, and it grew up with him and with his children; it used to eat of his meagre fare, and drink from his cup, and lie in his bosom, and it was like a daughter to him. Now there came a traveller to the rich man, and he was loath to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the wayfarer who had come to him, but he took the poor man’s lamb, and prepared that for the guest who had come to him.” Then David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man. He said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die;  he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.” Nathan said to David, “You are the man!”[4]

Psalm 51 is an experiential psalm. It is not a theoretical exploration of forgiveness. Like all this genre of Hebrew poetry, it drags up from the dregs of human experience, the truth of sorrow and shame. It also provides a transformational framework for forgiveness. This psalm’s penitential nature puts kings and paupers, powerful and meek, on the same level ground.

The capacity to truthfully face our own faults (and their consequences) is made possible when we know that beyond the fury and righteous anger lies compassion and a fierce commitment to a powerful grace which characterises God. God has a fierce commitment to blot out our transgressions, to wash us thoroughly, give us a new start, to help us learn wisdom from our mistakes and to be kept close (not cast off).  We who learn this through experience then have a song to sing to others. The best and most powerful witness to God’s love is the one who has experienced it for real.

St Paul knew Psalm 51. He had his life turned around by the experience of God’s love on the road to Damascus. He then went on to write some of the most profound theological reflections on the grace of God found in the Scriptures of the Christian Tradition. I end with some of Paul’s most inspiring thoughts on what it is to be touched by grace. It could be said that these verses are also a wonderful reflection on Psalm 51.10.13:

So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.[5]   

Psalm 51, whether set to the haunting phrasing of Allegri’s Misere Mei or slowly read as a penitent person, opens me up to hope and God’s eternal promise of grace as well as the great joy of being reconciled not only to our weakness but, above all, to God’s gentle strength.  

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[1] New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

[2] A Witney Brown, quoted in my New Interpreters Bible Commentary, Vol IV, p887

[3] 2 Samuel 11-12

[4] 2 Samuel 12.1-8

[5] 2 Corinthians 5.17-20