Justin Appel

Dear Friends,

As today marks the beginning of our Lenten journey, I would simply like to share the text of Psalm 51, that emblematic psalm on the theme of repentance, and James MacMillan’s setting of it in Latin:

Have mercy upon me, O God,
After thy great goodness;
Do away mine offenses.
Wash me throughly from my wickedness;
And cleanse me from my sin.
For I acknowledge my faults;
And my sin is ever before me.
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.
Behold, I was shaken in wickedness;
 And in sin hath my mother conceived me.
But lo, thou requires truth in the inward parts;
And shalt make me to understand wisdom secretly.
Thou shalt purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
Thou shalt wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Thou shalt make me hear of joy and gladness;
That the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.
Turn thy face from my sins;
And put out all my misdeeds.
Make me a clean heart, O God;
And renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from thy presence;
And take not thy holy Spirit from me.
O give me the comfort of thy help again;
And stablish me with thy free Spirit.
Then shall I teach thy ways unto the wicked;
And sinners shall be converted unto thee.
Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God,
Thou art the God of my health;
And my tongue shall sing of thy righteousness.
Thou shalt open my lips, O Lord;
And my mouth shall show thy praise.
For thou desirest no sacrifice, else would I give it thee;
But thou delights not in burnt-offerings.
The sacrifice of God is a troubled spirit;
A broken and contrite heart, O God, shalt thou not despise.
O be favorable and gracious unto Sion;
Build thou the walls of Jerusalem.
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.
—Psalm 51

Yours in Christ,

—Justin