Psalm 51 (1928 BCP)
Psalm 51 (1928 BCP) is Miserere mei, Deus in the Psalter of the American Book of Common Prayer (1928). It is the Church's great prayer of penitence: a confession that asks not simply for relief from guilt but for cleansing, a renewed heart, restored joy, truthful worship, and the rebuilding of God's people. The 1928 Prayer Book prints the Psalm in the monthly Psalter and gives it a particular liturgical role in the Penitential Office.
Text in the 1928 Psalter
The complete text below was compared word for word with the local 1928 Psalter transcription and with the 1928 Standard Book text, including its characteristic readings “throughly,” “right spirit,” “free Spirit,” “blood-guiltiness,” and “Sion.”
1 HAVE mercy upon me, O God, after thy great goodness; * according to the multitude of thy mercies do away mine offences.
2 Wash me throughly from my wickedness, * and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I acknowledge my faults, * and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight; * that thou mightest be justified in thy saying, and clear when thou shalt judge.
5 Behold, I was shapen in wickedness, * and in sin hath my mother conceived me.
6 But lo, thou requirest truth in the inward parts, * and shalt make me to understand wisdom secretly.
7 Thou shalt purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; * thou shalt wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Thou shalt make me hear of joy and gladness, * that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.
9 Turn thy face from my sins, * and put out all my misdeeds.
10 Make me a clean heart, O God, * and renew a right spirit within me.
11 Cast me not away from thy presence, * and take not thy holy Spirit from me.
12 O give me the comfort of thy help again, * and stablish me with thy free Spirit.
13 Then shall I teach thy ways unto the wicked, * and sinners shall be converted unto thee.
14 Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God, thou that art the God of my health; * and my tongue shall sing of thy righteousness.
15 Thou shalt open my lips, O Lord, * and my mouth shall show thy praise.
16 For thou desirest no sacrifice, else would I give it thee; * but thou delightest not in burnt-offerings.
17 The sacrifice of God is a troubled spirit: * a broken and contrite heart, O God, shalt thou not despise.
18 O be favourable and gracious unto Sion; * build thou the walls of Jerusalem.
19 Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifice of righteousness, with the burnt-offerings and oblations; * then shall they offer young bullocks upon thine altar.
Confession and the mercy of God
The first verses give confession its proper direction. The petitioner neither minimizes evil nor attempts to balance it with merit. He names his offences and appeals entirely to God's “great goodness” and “multitude” of mercies. The Psalm's traditional superscription connects it with David after Nathan's rebuke; the narrative supplies a fitting scriptural context for its unguarded admission of sin.
And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said unto David, The Lord also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die.
“Against thee only” does not deny the injury done to neighbours; David's sin has grievously injured Bathsheba, Uriah, and Israel. It says that every human wrong is finally rebellion against the holy God. Hence the prayer asks for more than acquittal. “Wash,” “cleanse,” “purge,” “create,” and “renew” ask God to make the sinner truthful in the inward parts and fit for restored communion.
Augustine makes this connection between the Psalm's opening mercy and the honesty of confession. His reading does not make sin small; it calls the divine mercy “great” precisely because the wound is deep.
He that implores great mercy, confesses great misery. Let them seek a little mercy of You, that have sinned in ignorance: “Have pity,” he says, “upon me, after Your great mercy.” Relieve a deep wound after Your great healing.
A clean heart and a renewed spirit
Verses 10–12 are the Psalm's centre of gravity. The petitioner asks the Creator for a “clean heart” and a “right spirit”; he does not suppose that inward renewal can be achieved by an external offering or a momentary feeling. “Cast me not away from thy presence” and “take not thy holy Spirit from me” make restoration relational: forgiveness restores the sinner to the God from whom sin alienates.
The New Testament describes repentance in this same Godward way. It is not self-improvement, but a turning to God in the confidence that he acts to remove sin and renew life.
Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.
Augustine's exposition of the hyssop image provides a Christological and pastoral reading of this cleansing. He identifies its lowly, healing character with humility rather than spiritual self-assertion.
You shall be sprinkled with hyssop, the humility of Christ shall cleanse you. Despise not the herb, attend to the efficacy of the medicine.
Contrition, praise, and the people of God
The Psalm's movement does not end with private sorrow. Restored joy opens into witness: “Then shall I teach thy ways unto the wicked.” Opened lips lead to praise, and the broken heart that God does not despise is finally joined to prayer for Sion and Jerusalem. The last verses therefore keep personal repentance and the worshipping community together.
The contrast in verses 16–17 is not a rejection of Israel's sacrificial worship as such. It denies that sacrifice can substitute for contrition. The Prayer Book’s language is deliberately echoed in its Lenten opening sentence: the Church begins Lent not by displaying its penitence, but by acknowledging that the sacrifice God receives is a contrite heart.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
In the Letter to the Hebrews, praise and practical mercy remain inseparable. The apostolic teaching guards against a merely interior penitence: thanksgiving to God bears fruit in doing good and sharing with neighbours.
By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.
Prayer Book use
The 1928 Prayer Book gives Psalm 51 a unique and explicit ceremonial setting. On Ash Wednesday the Penitential Office may follow the Litany, be used with either Daily Office, or be used separately. The rubric directs the minister and people, kneeling, to say this Psalm. It thereby makes Psalm 51 a shared act of repentance, not merely an individual devotional preference.
On the First Day of Lent, the Office ensuing may be read immediately after the Prayer, We humbly beseech thee, O Father, in the Litany; or it may be used with Morning Prayer, or Evening Prayer, or as a separate Office. … The Minister and the People kneeling, then shall be said by them this Psalm following.
John Mason Neale's historical account shows why the Psalm has been so central to the Church's offices. He records the density of its use in the older Gregorian and Sarum tradition, while his account also helps distinguish that history from the specific, more focused American 1928 use.
Remember that, according to Gregorian use, retained in the Sarum, though dropped in the Roman Breviary, it was said in an ordinary week forty-two times.
The American Prayer Book does not reproduce every medieval repetition. It places the whole Psalm in the monthly Psalter on the Tenth Day at Morning Prayer, following Psalm 50 and before Psalm 52; it also gives it the concentrated Ash Wednesday use described above. Both settings teach a corporate pattern: confession receives mercy, asks renewal, returns to praise, and prays for the peace and restoration of God's people.
The Tenth Day. Morning Prayer. Psalm 50. Deus deorum. … Psalm 51. Miserere mei, Deus. … Psalm 52. Quid gloriaris?
See Also
- The Psalter (1928 BCP)
- A Penitential Office for Ash Wednesday (1928 BCP)
- Morning Prayer (1928 BCP)
- Psalm 50 (1928 BCP)
- Psalm 52 (1928 BCP)
- Book of Common Prayer (1928)
External Links
- Psalm 51 in the 1928 BCP Psalter
- The 1928 Penitential Office
- Augustine on Psalm 51
- Neale and Littledale on the use of the Psalms
References
- ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church, According to the Use of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America; Together with The Psalter, or Psalms of David (New York: The Church Pension Fund, 1928), The Psalter, Psalm 51, Miserere mei, Deus, pp. 402–403. "Psalm 51 in the 1928 BCP Psalter"
- ↑ The Holy Bible, Authorized (King James) Version (London: Robert Barker, 1611), 2 Samuel 12:13. "2 Samuel 12:13, KJV"
- ↑ Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 51, §6 (Psalm 50 in the Greek and Latin numbering), trans. J. E. Tweed, in Philip Schaff, ed., Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, first series, vol. 8 (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1888), revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight. "Augustine, Exposition on Psalm 51, §6"
- ↑ The Holy Bible, Authorized (King James) Version (London: Robert Barker, 1611), Acts 3:19. "Acts 3:19, KJV"
- ↑ Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 51, §12 (Psalm 50 in the Greek and Latin numbering), trans. J. E. Tweed, in Philip Schaff, ed., Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, first series, vol. 8 (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1888), revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight. "Augustine, Exposition on Psalm 51, §12"
- ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer (New York: The Church Pension Fund, 1928), The Order for Daily Morning Prayer, Lenten opening sentences, Psalm 51:17. "1928 BCP Morning Prayer: Lenten sentence from Psalm 51"
- ↑ The Holy Bible, Authorized (King James) Version (London: Robert Barker, 1611), Hebrews 13:15–16. "Hebrews 13:15–16, KJV"
- ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer (New York: The Church Pension Fund, 1928), A Penitential Office for Ash Wednesday, p. 60, rubrics immediately preceding “Miserere mei, Deus. Psalm li.” "1928 BCP Penitential Office for Ash Wednesday"
- ↑ John Mason Neale and Richard Frederick Littledale, A Commentary on the Psalms: From Primitive and Mediæval Writers and from the Various Office-Books of the Roman, Mozarabic, Ambrosian, Gallican, Greek, Coptic, Armenian, and Syrian Rites, vol. I, 2nd ed. (London: Joseph Masters, 1868), “The Psalms as Employed in the Offices of the Church,” §52, p. 48. "Neale and Littledale, A Commentary on the Psalms, vol. I"
- ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church, According to the Use of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America; Together with The Psalter, or Psalms of David (New York: The Church Pension Fund, 1928), The Psalter, monthly cycle, Tenth Day, Morning Prayer. "1928 BCP monthly Psalter: Tenth-Day Morning Prayer"