The Psalms can be a natural source for our personal prayers for us all year, but especially during Lent. Meditating on a psalm text by reading it slowly and letting the images rise to the surface of our minds is a wonderful way to make space for God during this season of reflection and preparation.
This week, I wanted to highlight Miserere mei, Deus, a beautiful setting of Psalm 51 by composer William Byrd (c. 1520 – 1623). Byrd was a Roman Catholic composer in England, under Queen Elizabeth I and King James, when Catholics were an oppressed minority in the country. He set a number of Latin psalm texts that speak to the difficulty of that time. Psalm 51 is the famous psalm we sing on Ash Wednesday: Have mercy on me, O God, according to your kindness; in your compassion, blot out all my sin. William Byrd described the process of writing the music while praying with the psalms, saying, “I have found that there is such a power hidden away and stored up in those words that…all the most fitting melodies come as it were of themselves and freely present themselves when the mind is alert and eager.”
Enjoy this musical reflection on Psalm 51 as you ponder the words in your heart. May they become a Lenten prayer for all of us as they were for William Byrd.