Father Winston, is this your thirtieth birthday tonight? Oh, what a day. Now, let us finish with Psalm 51 tonight, Norman.

[01:05]

I hope you have a book. I only have Latin and Sri Vajrakana here, and an English translation. But... I'll read it in English so that you can follow it. So that is the title. I'll just repeat so that we get into the whole thing. Again, the song of David when Nathan the prophet came unto him after he had gone into Bathsheba. So after that was the situation, as I reminded you of, and that kind of gives the setting to the psalm, and also indicates the way in which we understand this, one of the key psalms, really, of the Scripture, the Miserator.

[02:10]

It is the situation of a man, David the King, to whom Nathan, certainly with that parable of the rich man, the poor man, the rich man taking the little lamb away from the poor man, certainly Reveals, opens to David's eyes, brings about the sudden awakening, the inner realization of where he stands at this moment before God. There is that confrontation. which in Holy Scripture is, as you know, at that very place in the second book of Samuel, expressed in that one sentence, I have sinned before you, O Lord. That I have sinned against the Lord. I against the Lord. So that is the basic realization, certain realization.

[03:19]

The eyes are opened. The inner, one can say, sanctuary of the heart has been entered into. And that was the general context in which we spoke about this psalm. Now comes then the first, the invocation, which right away, as invocations very often do that, you know, is one epitheton, one, what is it, one predicato, I mean, predicato of God after the other. Be gracious unto me, show me your favor, O God. Show me your friendship. Show me the compassion of a mother. That are these three terms. Be gracious, miserere me. Be gracious is the Jewish. That is ranan, keset, and racham.

[04:20]

These three basic terms in which the love of God to us descends upon us as the favor of the Lord as the friendship of the companion and as the compassion of the mother. That are the three ways. And these three ways are invoked here. Be gracious unto me, O God, according to thy mercy, according to the multitude of thy compassions. Blot out my apostasy. Blot out my apostasy. So that is the opening verse of this beautiful psalm. man as a sinner facing God but facing his mercy. And then it comes, then comes the wash me for thee, ump you slav me.

[05:23]

You know, that is the other thing. Here this is a cry of the heart, of the human heart, directed to the heart of God. Therefore it's absolutely Emphasis in every word. Amplius lava me. Florally wash me from my iniquity. Cleanse me from my sin. All that is mine. My transgression, my iniquity, my sin. I know my transgression and my sin is ever before me. That is the depth of the acknowledgement of the confession. The sin opens up, as it were, the depth of the self of the one who has sinned. That is the deepest self of the sinner that speaks here and cries here.

[06:29]

And then, that is, if you want the terminus aquo, then comes the terminus adquem, that is the other one, the partner. This is a dialogue. My eye, the eye of the sinner, the ego of the sinner, is directed towards the thou of God, the Lord. Against thee and thee only have I sinned. Against that, the realization is God, God, against whom I have sinned. I have done that which is evil in thy sight. But you see, this concentration and this recognition of the fact that sin is an act, in which man is, let us say, in the deepest way himself. And that this act is directed against the great other self, the thou of our creator.

[07:39]

That is the basic, let us say, mood, the wisdom of the sun, the light of the sun. but the fact that the depth of the sinful eye cries to the depth of the merciful heart of God that cannot but bring light into the darkness of the sinner, recognizing that I in my deepest self have sinned and therefore I am guilty of death. but that this sin is directed against God, the Creator. The potter, as they say in Holy Scripture, the one who has made this vessel of clay, is at the same time a source of light. And therefore, that thou mayst be justified when thou speakest, and be in the right when thou judgest.

[08:48]

See, there comes light into this darkness from the very acknowledgement that it is God against whom I have sinned. And he said, therefore, through my sin, I'm thrown back completely on myself, upon myself. That was the first way this sin was characterized in the psalmist, apostasy. So I'm thrown back on myself. But still the mercy of God makes it possible that I cry to Him and therefore that I see Him. The one against whom I have sinned is God. God is the Creator. The Lord of life and death, I have offended him. Therefore, judgment comes from him. But that again, you know, right away kindled in the heart of the sinner a hope, a new light.

[09:56]

Because this judge is a judge that judges with a heart. It's a living person. the one who has created us out of love, and therefore also may restore us out of love. So there is that first dawn of a hope that comes up. Through the realization, it is against God that I have sinned. Therefore, his is the reaction then, and only from him can come the solutions. He is the one who judges them. How will he judge? Now then comes in Psalm 7, again, you know, the reaffirmation and even the, let us say, more radical acknowledgement. For I behold, behold, again, an expression of surprise, a new knowledge.

[11:02]

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Sin is for man not only, consists not only in this or that concrete deed. It's not a matter of casuistry. It's a matter of the basic position that he has in this state of fallen nature in relation to God as Creator. I was brought forth in iniquity. And in sin did my mother conceive me. But then again, you know, this realization of the radical character of sin in man, at the same time leads to another. Behold, again, you know, that surprise over a new gnosis, a new cognition. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward path.

[12:06]

Make me therefore to know wisdom in my inmost heart. It's the translation here in Corinth. Make me then know wisdom in my inmost heart. Show me then, as we said before, the counsel of your wisdom, which is the triumph of your love over human sin. That is the center of biblical faith. And that is what the sinner alludes to here. And then it comes out of that, out of this sudden recognition, there is in the depth of God's heart the answer of his wisdom to the sin of his disobedient child. And then out of that comes then the petition, purge me, purify me, sprinkle me with thistle,

[13:12]

and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness, that the bones which thou hast crushed may rejoice. There is that appeal, the appeal to the creative goodness of God. Sprinkle me with his sons, the beginning. I shall be clean. Wash me, i shall be whiter than snow the absolute faith in the creative power of god's loving wisdom make me to hear joy and gladness that judgment which again joins me to the community of the saints as we had seen before Because joy and gladness is in the Hebrew antiquity always the joy and gladness of the feast. It cannot be without community. The community and belonging to the community, to the people, that is the wholeness of the individual, the one who is excommunicated from the people, also dries up, as it were, is crushed down into his bones.

[14:30]

So, hide thy face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. And then that initial petition now is intensified in a second, we can say, wave of petitions. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. See, the depth of the acknowledgement of one's own sin and sinfulness, general sinfulness, addressing itself to the heart of God leads to this. How can one say basic, absolute, comprehensive, complete petition? Create in me, bara, as we said last time, a word which is used only of God's creative power in the first chapter of Genesis.

[15:40]

Create in me a clean heart, O God. and the new, a steadfast spirit within me. A steadfast spirit, we saw what that means, the firm and constant, stable union with God, which the messianic time then realizes later. Restore unto me the joy of thy Son. Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. The Holy Spirit is that which unites us to God. Holiness is that which reigns in God's inmost sanctuary, say, in the sanctuary of his heart. Holiness is what fills the temple as the place of God's presence. Holiness is, but also affects and characterizes the people, the people that is called to serve in the sanctuary.

[16:49]

So holiness, the Holy Spirit, is the bond of union with God which makes us members of his family and which enables us to live in his presence. Therefore cast me not away from thy presence and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, and let a willing spirit uphold me. Spiritus Principales. We declared that the last time. The Spiritus Principales, the spirit of the prince. That means the spirit of the nobleman. The essence of the nobleman is that he is ready at any time to give his own life for the protection of his people. and do that with a willing heart. That are the valiant ones of Israel who with their free flying hair enter into the battle and they offer themselves for the salvation of the whole.

[18:02]

That are the princes, that means those who are the public defenders of the people. Today, the soldier, the one who wears the uniform, is in that way in the service of the whole. Hence, therefore, this willing spirit, the spirit of absolute dedication, the spirit of sacrifice, that spirit which in the highest degree has been shown in the Lord Jesus, the Milis Christus, Christ the soldier who carries the cross. devotes himself to the salvation of his people by dying the one for the many. And this spiritus principalis, that is the highest degree of the spirit, that give to me this spirit of self-dedication, of self-consecration. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall return unto thee.

[19:08]

and this happens to me, then I have a message to those who are in the same condition in which I am. The sinners, the criminals, as it is in Hebrew, and the hard-hearted, the tough ones who are hardened in their sinful ways, and sinners shall return unto thee. This spirit in me enables me then to break the hard crust of sin and of hatred of God wherever I find it. Deliver me from libera medi sanguinibus. It's here usually translated, deliver me from blood guiltiness. but desanguinibus, libera me desanguinibus, may simply also mean, and that's what it in fact means very often in Holy Scripture, we don't mean simply premature death.

[20:18]

Deliver me from premature death. You remember that David in this scene with Nathan, When the judgment was announced to him as an answer to David's confession, I have sinned against the Lord. His guilt has taken away from him, but punishment is not. the punishment still will happen. And the punishment is the premature death of his beloved child, of his successor, the child of David and Beth. And as you know, that death also then happens and it hits David in the depth of his heart

[21:19]

You know how he fasts, how he implores the God's mercy. Still the child dies. And then suddenly he's seeing the God's judgment. He feasts as it were. David again enters into the joy of his salvation. and his second child is born to him and that child is that Solomon that child is called God's darling and that is Solomon that means the the king of peace or Israel so that's the in the two children of David the one that is killed and the other one that is lifted up to the throne Because we, as Christians, we see in that the fate of Christ himself. This is the moment where David's sin abounds.

[22:21]

And where David's sin abounds, there also mercy abounds. But a mercy which is not, let us say, against justice, but a mercy which works in and through justice, And therefore we have in David's case, we have the death of the one child and the exaltation of the other child. The New Testament, and that is again the characteristic what separates the Old Testament of the New Testament. In the New Testament, death and life are united in one person. That is, of course, never the case in the Old Testament. But what is divided, death and life in the Old Testament, is united in the New Testament in one person of Christ, who dies and rises.

[23:25]

He is therefore, let us say, both children of David in one person. Deliver me from this premature death, O God. thou God of my salvation. So shall my tongue sing aloud of thy righteousness. You see, the victory over death initiates the todah, that means the thanksgiving. So shall my tongue sing aloud of thy righteousness. O Lord, open thou my lips. This song of thanksgiving is, again, God's gift. Open thou my lips, and my mouth shall declare thy praise. The everything, the new beginning, that new beginning is only based on the grace and mercy of God. From him comes the initiative.

[24:27]

He opens the lips of the sinner. Open thou my lips, the verse with which we begin every day at Matins and Vigils. For thou delightest not in sacrifice, else would I give it. Thou hast no pleasure in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise. That is the end of the original psalm. And as you know, there are then many speculations, especially also on the Protestant side, that this is one of these mighty prophetic protests. You know, they always think about things in terms of protesters. Typical German trait.

[25:34]

But isn't that, you know, it completely depends, you know, on what one understands here. One could understand that very well completely in the framework of the Old Testament theology of sacrifice. The Old Testament had no sacrifice which would in any way say blot out real guilt against God, true guilt against God. A sin against God, committed as the Old Testament says with a high hand, is mortal. Even in our terminology we still speak there of mortal sin. Such a mortal sin just as it deprives in our Christian life the Christian from approaching the altar, either offering gifts, today that is less strongly emphasized, but also in receiving from the altar, receiving from the altar the gift of Holy Communion.

[26:46]

So also in the Old Testament, a sin committed with a high hand, and that's of course the sin that David committed, has no sacrifice to atone for it. Absolutely not. That doesn't exist in the Old Testament in Judaism. Sin offerings, you know, may be offered for sin. Sin is, of course, in the Old Testament a much more comprehensive concept than it is in the New Testament. In the Old Testament, anything that is not in order is a sin. And therefore, sin can be also ritual uncleanness, anything like that. And so, in this way, The sin offerings in the Old Testament are only for external uncleanness, but not really for what we would call today sins, you know, in the full sense of the word.

[27:49]

A sinner cannot offer sacrifice in the temple. That's impossible. So therefore in that way also this here Thou delightest not in sacrifice, that means never in a sacrifice which is offered by a man who is in sin. Else would I give it. Thou hast no pleasure in burnt offering. Burnt offering is not an answer to this kind of status in which the sinner of the psalm finds himself. The sacrifices of God, no, I think it's here, Sacrificium Deo, sacrifice to God are, for the part of the sinner, a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O Lord, thou will not despise.

[28:56]

That is a brilliant answer. That's it. Instead of in the framework of the Old Testament, it's absolutely nothing new. that is the teaching of the old testament therefore it's not such a tremendous you know that here at this moment you know i mean luther and the whole glory of the reformation has been miraculously anticipated but it's it's uh this thing you know which is there which is alive you know if the whole, let us say, concept, spirit of the Old Testament is not in that way an externalism that tries with magic means to get into the possession of a merciful God. That is not the case. So especially not in this height, you know, in which here, of course, in this depth,

[29:59]

in which David, in the recognition of his sin, finds himself, and in that specific relation of God, which the acknowledgement of his sin opens to him. The real, true acknowledgement of his sin is to David the opening of his way to God as God. into the innermost sanctuary of the heart of God. That's the whole message of this psalm. And therefore, the external apparatus of the ritual, of the temple ritual, is not designed for that. And every Jew knows that. But here is something deeper. That, of course, that depth, which breaks open here in David, that is in the Jewish, which will open on the Day of Atonement, the Day of Atonement, the Yom Kippur.

[31:06]

There these sins, the sins of the heart, are brought solemnly and with a contrite heart before the throne of God as the judge. That's the meaning of the Day of Atonement. And this here is the spirit of the Day of Atonement which speaks in these. Sacrifice to God. to God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. Just as before, you know, always, of the depth of the recognition of the sinfulness and of the apostasy, gloriously and victoriously dawns the reality of God's forgiveness of God's wisdom, so also here a contrite heart, God's thou wilt not despise.

[32:11]

That is faith in God's mercy as the one who loves Israel, who loves the broken heart. Then comes the last verse, 20 and 21, and that is then, as everybody recognizes, is a later addition. By the way, I could just, by way of adnotation, you know, call your attention here. For example, somebody like Kissane, you know, is, you know, Signor Kissane, there are certain two volumes on the Psalms. And he refers this thing possibly to the situation of the exile. Oh, if that is right. No, I don't think it's necessary to do that. But in the exile, as you know, Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed. And Monsignor Kissin says, and that is the situation here. Thou delightest not in sacrifice.

[33:13]

else would I give it. Time has no pleasure in burnt offering. Why does he say that? Because the temple is destroyed. Now, in some way I doubt it, you know, because for the Jewish people and the sacrificial idea, in some way the sacrificial offering, that old ritual, in the temple, continued in the exile, not at the very place, but in the sacred book. Therefore, by reading the book of Leviticus, that same ritual of the temple was, as it were, spiritually reenacted, and always in that way was considered as staying with Israel, and in that way as continuing spiritually. The then 20 and 21 is as people recognize is a later addition.

[34:18]

Now again, you know, some people, and naturally I'm very kind of a great misgivings, but that is always, you know, the way in which modern Critics consider this thing. They transfer their own position into the antiquity. And so they construct then that a rabbi who read this, that thou believest not in sacrifice, was terribly upset by it, but what he read there. And he thought that if that would get among the people without a correction, it would do much harm to, because he was, and that's always, you know, all these wonderful construction, he had that famous priestly spirit, you know. So it was a man with a priestly spirit who read the Psalm Miserere, and he couldn't quite swallow it, you know.

[35:24]

And therefore he adds at the end, you know, a nice little, how would you call it, grave, a legal grave. And there is 20 and 21. Do good in thy favor unto Zion. Build thou the walls of Jerusalem. See, it's all compacted. Then wilt thou delight in the sacrifices of righteousness, in burnt offering and whole offering, and then will they offer bullocks upon thine altar. So that was then, of course, if the thing is in the exile, you know, then on one hand, you know, it's easily true. was made, you know, this psalm, in the time of the exile, would be easy maybe to explain, well, yeah, this is here, the sacrifices now are not being offered in the temple, but we hope for the building of Jerusalem, and once Jerusalem is built, then we also can again at the same spot, you know, offer our sacrifices.

[36:32]

Now, That is, I think, in reading these verses, it's always good, I think, to have, you know, this here is, I wouldn't, I mean, deny that this here is an addition. The only thing, you know, that I would be very hesitant to acknowledge is that there is, let us say here, an evident correction on the part of the legal spirit, you know, against the prophetic spirit. Let us say, one would say, it's another modern word of the Catholic spirit against the Protestant spirit. So it was an inquisitor, Jewish one, who found this not quite in order and therefore added it to this kind of medicine for the more scrupulous minds. But as I said, one can understand verse 18 and 19 completely out of the very sacrificial legislation of the Old Testament.

[37:45]

The sacrifice, an offering of a sacrifice, is not the answer to mortal sin. Let's put it that way. But that is completely common doctrine in the Old Testament. But, of course, what is possible here and there is always, you know, the eye of every psalm, that means the ego, the person of the singer of the psalm, is indeed, and that is the reason why the psalms become the song of the community of Israel. The book of Psalms is a community book, community prayer. The word I, I, I is repeated a thousand times, but it does never mean only the isolated individual. But in every individual Jew is also represented the whole of the people. That is an essential feature of the Old Testament and of the Semitic spirit.

[38:47]

The whole, that those two are never separated, they always are included in one another. so that this year is twenty and twenty one is an addition in the community spirit in which this song is sung and in which the pouring out of the heart of the individual singer is the pouring out and has become the pouring out of the heart of the whole people and the heart of the whole people truly driven out of their own country, delivered into the hands of the sanguines, into the hands of the enemies of the holy people, and therefore hear at the end then that word of hope of resurrection. Thou in bona voluntatetur, in thy good will, in thy favor,

[39:51]

Build the walls of Jerusalem. What was before is the voice, as it were, of Jerusalem destroyed, of the one who sits on the ruins of the Holy See. Do good in thy favor unto Zion. Build thou the walls again of Jerusalem, and then... The sacrifice, the delight of the temple will again take place. Thou delight in the sacrifices of righteousness. That is, the sacrifices of righteousness, the sacrificia justitiae, which are incompatible even with, let us say, external sin of uncleanness. Those sacrifices which require, let us say, the integral and holy Israelite as a priest. And there are the sacrifices which we call Ola, that means sacrifices of greater surrender to God.

[41:00]

Sacrifices which mean, have the spiritual meaning of making a completely new beginning on a higher level. Intensification of surrender to God. And there is the bird offering, or the Ola, and there are the whole offerings, Kadil, and these whole offerings, which really mean, the Ola means a new, one can say, a new upward, a rising, of the whole heart of the offering Israelite, and the kalil being the surrender of all one's possession to the glory of God. That is the meaning of the kalil. Mincha, for example, is a whole offering. But that represents, the mincha represents the possessions of the Israelites.

[42:05]

So that's what he gives, you know. In the Olar, he gives his heart. It's a sursum corda. A new hire, a new attempt at sanctity. Hence the whole offerings, the so-called holocausta, the complete surrender of what belongs to one, of one's possession. Then will they offer... Bolochs, upon thine order. Bolochs, upon thine order. The steer is always the symbol of the Israelite as servant of God, who works the aboda, the servitio divino, the opus Dei, in the fullness of his life.

[42:57]

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