Patrimony: John Mason Neale on the Miserere Psalms

Patrimony: John Mason Neale on the Miserere Psalms

 PSALMUS 57 (56)

2 Miserere mei, Deus, miserere mei,
quoniam in te confugit anima mea;

Hugh of S. Victor says well that this is the third Psalm which begins with Miserere — the 51st and 56th having already done so; and this because of our threefold danger from the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. " This," says S. Bernard, " is to me the one source of all my expectations, the one fountain of all promises : Miserere mei, Deus, miserere mei.

PSALMUS 56 (55)

2 Miserere mei, Deus, quoniam conculcavit me homo,
tota die impugnans oppressit me.

1 Be merciful unto me, O God, for man goes about to devour me : he is daily fighting, and troubling me. 2 Mine enemies are daily in hand to swallow me up : for they be many that fight against me, O thou most Highest. We must take the whole Psalm 56, S. Augustine says, but more especially these first two verses, in connection with the title: "When the Philistines took him in Gath;" for Gath, by interpretation is a winepress. And according to that very favorite medieval metaphor, that spices only give out their strength when they are bruised, — as the strings of the lyre require to be strung to their full extent before they can give out their sweetest melody, — so and even more plainly, the grape cannot yield that juice which makes glad both God and man, until it has been exposed to, and so to speak suffered in, the winepress. So Adam of S. Victor:

Parum sapis vim sinapis,

Si non tangis, si non frangis ;

Et plus firagrat quando flagrat

 Tus injectum ignibus.

You have little taste of the power of the mustard,

If you do not touch it, if you do not break it,

And incense smells stronger

When it is thrown into the fire and burns.

PSALMUS 51(5o)

3 Miserere mei, Deus, secundum misericordiam tuam;
et secundum multitudinem miserationum tuarum
dele iniquitatem meam.

How could one pass over this verse without quoting the words of S. Bernard?  Do away mine offenses. How shouldst Thou not, O good Jesus, do them away? How should we not run after Thee ? When we perceive that Thou despisest not the poor, abhorrest not the evil-doer, didst not keep off from the penitent thief, didst allow Thy feet to be kissed by her that was a sinner, didst receive the Syrophe- nician woman, didst accept her that was taken in adultery, in the very act ; didst turn Levi the publican into Matthew the Evangelist ; didst, out of the very spectators of Thy crucifixion, call one who was to be among the very chiefest of Thine Apostles." This is what S. Bernard takes as the in- nermost meaning of our first verse ; and all the saints, and all the holy commentators whom I might reckon up by hundreds, have but repeated, have but diluted, his words ; have but, knowing what they know of the terrible struggle between the new and the old nature — between the first and the Second Adam, said something, each according to his own capability, which might throw some small light on the first verse of the most wonderful of Psalms.