This morning I was listening and
meditating on Bach’s Cantata # 113 (English title: Lord Jesus Christ, O highest good). In some ways it is a replay of
Psalm 38 which we discussed on Tuesday, but with an even stronger and more
positive ending. A cantata is a work which usually begins with a Chorale (Hymn)
and then goes on through many different parts (arias, recitatives, combinations
of voices and soli) before coming to its conclusion.
What we’re interested in here is
the text: it begins with lamentations that echo Psalm 38 for me:
Lord Jesus Christ, O highest good,
O fountain of all grace,
behold how in my emotions
I am weighed down with sorrows
and have many arrows in me,
that in my conscience endlessly
pierce me, a poor sinner.
Have mercy on me burdened so,
take them
out of my heart,
since you have atoned for them
on the wood with deathly agonies,
so that, for great woe,
I might not perish in my sins,
nor eternally despair.
Tough stuff, isn’t it? I
particularly like the way he turns to the cross to remind himself that all is
not lost, and that Jesus Christ has indeed saved him from despair. (As we
should also).
The consoling sections are
equally powerful:
Jesus takes sinners to Himself!
Sweet word of comfort and life!
He grants true rest to the soul
and calls comfortingly to each:
your sin is forgiven.
The Savior takes sinners to Himself:
how sweetly this word rings in my ears!
He calls: come here to Me,
you who are weary and burdened,
come here to the fount of all grace.
I have chosen you to be My friends!
At this word I will approach You
like the repentant tax-collector,
and with humbled spirit pray “God, be
merciful to me!”
Ah, comfort my foolish will
and make me, through Your spilled blood,
pure of all sin,
then, like David and Manassas,
when I embrace you
constantly in love and loyalty
with the arm of my faith,
I shall be henceforth a child of heaven.
Translation © Pamela Delial
A good meditation for this Year of
Mercy. It is a shame that these cantata texts are not better known, because
they speak to the deepest core of the human heart, very much like the psalms.
God bless you!
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