Miserere mei, Deus

The great psalm of repentance, prayed by the Church every Friday.

David wrote it after Nathan confronted him over Bathsheba and Uriah — after adultery and murder, in other words. It is the prayer of a man with no defence left, and the Church has made it her own: it is prayed every Friday at Morning Prayer, on Ash Wednesday, and at the bedside of the dying.

The Psalm

Have mercy on me, O God, according to Thy great mercy.
And according to the multitude of Thy tender mercies
blot out my iniquity.

Wash me yet more from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin.
For I know my iniquity,
and my sin is always before me.

To Thee only have I sinned, and have done evil before Thee,
that Thou mayest be justified in Thy words,
and mayest overcome when Thou art judged.

Thou shalt sprinkle me with hyssop, and I shall be cleansed;
Thou shalt wash me, and I shall be made whiter than snow.

Create a clean heart in me, O God,
and renew a right spirit within my bowels.
Cast me not away from Thy face,
and take not Thy holy spirit from me.

Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation,
and strengthen me with a perfect spirit.

O Lord, Thou wilt open my lips,
and my mouth shall declare Thy praise.
A sacrifice to God is an afflicted spirit;
a contrite and humbled heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise.

About This Psalm

The text is Psalm 51 in the Hebrew numbering, Psalm 50 in the Greek and Latin, given here in the Douay-Rheims translation. It is the fourth of the seven Penitential Psalms.

Notice what it does not do. It offers no excuse, blames no circumstance, and bargains for nothing. It asks to be washed, and then it asks for something stranger and larger — a new heart, since the old one has proved unreliable. That is what repentance is for.