Abstrakt: | In the reservoir of prayers and church songs, Psalm 51, briefly titled The Miserere
Psalm or „Prayer of Repentance”, has the role of being the most important and popular
penitential psalm. Among the many translations of this psalm special meaning was given
by the poetic paraphrase of Franciszek Karpiński, which begins with the verse: Bądź
mi litości™, Boże nieskończony („Have mercy on me, O God”). In the last two centuries
many melodies were composed for this translation. The melody, published for the first
time in 1878 in Krakow in the Spiewniczek of Rev. Jan Siedlecki, gained a prominent
place in songbooks and in oral tradition. Since then, this melody has, with minor changes,
been consistently reprinted several times up to the present. The free translation of The
Miserere Psalm was also used for a few other songs of penitential character. Among them
are psalm songs which in structure and melodic pattern are based on Gregorian psalm
tones. The main theological value of the teaching contained in Psalm 51 consists not only
in its penitential character. This Psalm also expresses a trustful prayer for forgiveness
and beseeches God’s help in conversion. |