Psalms — Chapter 50

MISERERE MEI DEUS. Lapide: The title "Miserere" comes from the opening word — the greatest of the penitential psalms, the "queen of psalms" as Lapide calls it following Augustine. Historically: David composed this after the prophet Nathan rebuked him for the adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of Uriah (2 Sam. 12). Literally David's prayer; tropologically the prayer of every sinner. Allegorically it prefigures Christ assuming the voice of sinful humanity in the Incarnation. Lapide: "Secundum magnam misericordiam tuam" — the measure of the mercy asked corresponds to the measure of the divine mercy itself, not to any human standard. We do not ask for a small pardon proportionate to a small sin; we ask for mercy as great as God's own heart.