Orlando Gibbons enjoyed a spectacular launching of his career. He began singing at age 12, was appointed organist for the English Royal Chapel of King James I in 1605 at only 22, and was subsequently hired as organist for Westminster Abbey itself in 1623. Though he died of apoplexy only two years later, Gibbons was among the foremost musicians known of his age. It only made sense, then, that when the Dean of Westminster Abbey wanted a funeral composition he turned to Gibbons. The Dean, one Dr. Maxey, was on his deathbed in the year 1618 when he summoned Gibbons; Maxey dictated to the composer the particular verses he wanted set, and Gibbons left him (and the world) the verse anthem Behold, thou hast made my days.

The verses chosen by Dr. Maxey come from the Psalms, and all have resonances with the deep penitence of the Anglican burial service. The opening verses, from Psalm 39:5-6, bemoan the transitory and uncertain character of human life, in which a man "walketh in a vain shadow," and "heapeth up riches and cannot tell who shall gather them" (Brahms would turn to the same text centuries later in his German Requiem). Maxey and Gibbons continue prayerfully, with the verse Psalm 39:7, acknowledging that our only hope is in God. The third and final passage (Psalm 39:12) beseeches that same God to hear our prayers, and spare us before we all "go hence, and be no more seen."

Gibbons sets this series of texts with characteristic formal elegance and almost madrigalian gestures. Formally, he chose to set the text as a verse anthem, which alternates solo singing (with intimate viol accompaniment) and choral refrains; thus, he creates a physical alternation of solo prayer and corporate affirmation. His vocal writing for the countertenor soloist almost tends to be an understatement, but it contains a large number of affective gestures. For instance, the transitory nature of life echoes throughout in the sudden rests Gibbons places in the middle of vocal lines (after "as nothing," "every man living," "heapeth up riches," etc.). In madrigalian spirit, he causes the melodies to rise precipitously on "heapeth up," and the harmonic structure to flail downward on "O spare me a little, that I may recover my strength." Finally, however, the prayer is not that of a single individual, but all who witness the human condition: the choir ends strongly homophonic.

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