a psalm for ash wednesday

University Hill Congregation continues the practice of inviting the congregation to share in hosting scripture throughout Lent. This year I have been assigned Psalm 51 ...

I remember when I first truly encountered Psalm 51. Rabbi Martin Cohen was team teaching with me in VST’s summer school. The course was called “Reading in Each Other’s Light.” Each day in class we read scripture over one another’s shoulder. On Tuesday we each chose a Psalm central to our tradition. I selected Psalm 22 - “My God, why have you forsaken me”. Martin chose Psalm 51. Here, he taught us, lies the heart of the Hebrew scripture. Here is the Psalm read by all Jews on the holiest day of the year - Yom Kippur - the Day of Atonement. 

I wondered why I had rarely encountered Psalm 51. Then I noticed that following the lectionary means one hardly ever reads this central Psalm in worship. It is, however, always read on Ash Wednesday. Alas, this had not been a day regularly kept in my United Church upbringing. It turns out that the 51st Psalm holds a special place in Christian tradition as one of the seven penitential psalms. It is also the source of the haunting setting of "Miserere Mei" by Allegri that was memorized and transcribed by a teen-age Mozart in the Sistine Chapel.

Since that day with Martin I have grown to cherish this Psalm of aching repentance. It is set on David’s lips in the midst of his debilitating guilt (II Samuel 11-12). It reminds me of the Prodigal Son burdened by shame as he returns home. This is the song in the Bible’s hymn book intended for those weighed down by wrongdoings. This is the Psalm for us to sing and to pray in light of the stories unearthed by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Psalm 51 is a crucial prayer for those who find themselves struggling to break free of all manner of addiction and the damage it has led them to inflict on themselves and others.

Psalm 51 begins by naming the truth about God who is full of “steadfast love” and “abundant mercy”. Then it acknowledges that to wrong another person is to break faith with God. Sin not only breaks human relationships, it breaks relationship with God. Confessing this brokenness is crucial. Now the penitent wait before God, praying for a “clean heart”, a new beginning that can only created by the God of amazing grace. This is the starting place of Lent, the place where we are ready to meet Jesus - the One who calls us into a new life on the other side of forgiveness.

Prayer: “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love … Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.”