Illustration: VULTUS CHRISTI
“The Miserere”
(Psalm 50).
Sung by: The Tallis Scholars.
Musical Director: Peter Phillips.
Available on YouTube at
Psalm 50, "The Miserere", occurs at Lauds every Sunday and weekday. John Mason Neale calls it: “The Psalm of all Psalms; that which of all inspired compositions has, with the one exception of The Lord’s Prayer, been repeated oftenest by The Church.”
Saint Thomas says that in the numbering of The Psalms, this Psalm is The Fiftieth, and this is the Number of Jubilee as is described in Leviticus 27, in which a remission of all debts was made, whence this number agrees with this Psalm in which he treats of full remission of sins.
Psalm 50 is, then, a Psalm of Jubilee, that is, of the remission of all past debts and the beginning of a new life.
One sees the significance of Psalm 50 at the beginning of the day.
