O God, be mercyfull to me, Accordynge to Thy great pitie; Washe of, make clene my iniquite: I knowlege my synne, and it greveth me Agaynst The, agaynst The only Have I synned, which is before myne eye: Though Thou be judged in man’s syght, Yet are Thy wordes founde true and ryght.
ii.
Beholde, I was all borne in synne, My mother conceaved me therin: But Thou lovest treuth, and haste shewed me Thy wysdome hyd so secretly. With fayre ysope, Lorde, sprenkle Thou me; Washe Thou me clean; so shall I be Whyter than snowe: cause me reioyse, Make my bones mery, whom Thou madest lowse.
iii.
Lorde, turne Thy face from my wickednesse; Clense me from all unryghteousnesse: A pure harte, Lorde, make Thou in me, Renewe a ryght spirite in my body: Cast me not out away from The, Nor take Thy Holy Goost from me; Make me reioyse in Thy savynge health, Thy myghty Spirite strength me for my wealth.
iv.
Thy waye shall I shewe to men full of vyce, And enstructe them well in Thy service; That wicked men and ungodly May be converted unto The. O God, O God, my Savioure, Delyver me from the synne of murther: My tonge shall reioyse in Thy mercye; Open my lippes, and my mouth shal prayse The.
v.
Thou wylt have no bodely offrynge; I thought them els to The to brynge. God’s sacrifice is a troubled spirite; Thou wylt not dispise a harte contrite. With Sion, O God, deale gently, That Hierusalem walles may buylded be: Then shalt Thou delyte in the ryght offrynge, Which men shall with theyr calves brynge. Erhart Hegenwalt (1524) Tr. Bishop Myles Coverdale1 .
The hymn, “Erbarm’ dich mein, O Herre Gott,” a translation of Psalm 51, was published in the Enchiridion Oder eyn Handbuchlein (Erfurt, 1524) and in Johann Walther’s Wittenberg Hymn-book in the same year, in the latter with the melody supra. The author of the hymn, Erhart Hegenwalt, appears to have been a student and graduate of Wittenberg and a contemporary of Luther and Walther there.