Part 336 (1/2)

_Psalm 45_. It is said that the coronation ceremonies of English monarchs are founded on this Psalm--the oil of gladness, the sword, the crown, the sceptre, the throne.

_Psalm 46_. The best known paraphrase is Luther's vigorous version--

”A mighty fortress is our G.o.d.”

In times of discouragement he would often say to his friend Melancthon, ”Come, let us sing the 46th Psalm.” Cromwell also often turned to it, and his speech at the opening of his second Parliament was in part an exposition of this Psalm. At the beginning of the Indian Mutiny, on the Sunday after the troops of Havelock first learned of their danger, he chose, instead of the Psalm of the day, this Psalm for their encouragement. ”On the foundation of sure confidence, gained from a reading of many Psalms, John Wesley built up, by means of his intense energy, his organizing genius, and his {500} administrative capacity, the mighty movement that still bears his name. It was with the words of the Psalms that he met the approach of death. Gathering his remaining strength into the cry, 'The best of all, G.o.d is with us,' he lay for some time exhausted. One of the bystanders wetted his parched lips. 'It will not do,' he said, 'we must take the consequence, never mind the poor carcase.' Pausing a little, he cried, 'Thy clouds drop fatness,' and soon after, 'The Lord of hosts is with us; The G.o.d of Jacob is our refuge.' Throughout the night he was heard attempting to repeat these beautiful words from Psalm 46. The next morning he was dead.”

_Psalm 51_ was the favorite prayer of Sir Thomas More, the English Catholic, who was as much a martyr for religion and liberty as ever any man of English blood. It was his last prayer, repeated kneeling on the scaffold where he was beheaded. Lady Jane Grey also repeated it on the scaffold, as soon after did her father, the Duke of Suffolk, who also suffered death for his Protestant faith. So did Egmont, executed in Brussels at the command of the infamous Duke of Alva. Carey, the first English missionary to India, desired the first four lines to be the text of his funeral sermon. Shakespeare uses lines 11 and 12 in the King's speech in Hamlet--

”Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens To wash it white as snow?”

Lines 19 and 20 were repeated by the great English teacher, Thomas Arnold, on his deathbed, while Teresa, the Spanish Catholic saint, died repeating lines 15 and 16. Lines 21 and 22 serve as the motto of Michael Angelo's picture of Savonarola. Few Psalms have been more on the lips of holy men of all ages than the 51st.

_Psalm 68_ was the favorite Psalm of the Emperor Charlemagne. It was used by the friends of Savonarola at the crisis of his career. A Franciscan friar, whom he had angered by his preaching, challenged him, after the custom of the Middle Ages, to prove his preaching by the test of fire. One of his friends accepted the challenge for him, and on the appointed day headed a procession which marched through the streets of Florence, singing Psalm 68. The challenger did not appear; and the crowd, with the usual bad logic of crowds, {501} turned against Savonarola. Two days later he was thrown into prison, and torture and death ended the scene. This Psalm was the battle hymn of the Huguenots, in the form of a verse translation into French by Beza, a great scholar of the Reformation. Battle after battle was entered to the sound of this splendid song. At one battle, that of Courtras, a young courtier in the opposing army saw the Huguenots kneel as they sang. ”See,” he said, ”the cowards are afraid. They are confessing.”

”When the Huguenots behave thus, they are ready to fight to the death,” replied a veteran from the ranks. Cromwell opened his Parliament with a speech expounding this Psalm. Lines 1 and 2 were the text of the sermon at the service held by the Russians of Moscow in 1812 to give thanks for the retreat of the French from Moscow.

Cromwell's ”Ironsides” sang this Psalm at the decisive battle at Dunbar, when, the mists arising from the valley, they charged and broke the enemy's ranks.

_Psalm 72_ was the favorite Psalm of Athanasius, the greatest figure at the Nicene Council in 325 A. D. ”Against all a.s.saults upon thy body,” he says, ”thine estate, thy soul, thy reputation, against all temptations, tribulations, plots and slanderous reports, say this Psalm.” The familiar representation, in picture, song and story, of the three Wise Men from the East at the Cradle of Christ as three kings, is based on the kings mentioned in lines 18 and 19.

_Psalm 77_. Bishop Hooper, a prisoner for conscience's sake in England in 1553, wrote to his wife to read Psalm 77, because of the great consolation which it contained for those who are in anguish of mind.

Catholics as well as Protestants found comfort in it.

_Psalm 80_ was the first of nine Psalms, translated by Milton into English verse in 1648. Lines 10 and 11 underlie Elizabeth Barrett Browning's ”The Measure,” stanza 2.

_Psalm 84_. Lines 21 and 22 were the words that called Thomas Aquinas from his life in the world to a monastic career. They came to him as the voice of G.o.d. Paula, a holy woman of the early church, died with the words of this Psalm on her lips. Carlyle, in one of his writings, strikes a note of courage and demand for work, with the joyful confidence of the last two lines.

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_Psalm 85_ Lines 15-17 are the keynote of Book III. of the Imitation of Christ. Langland's _Vision of Piers Ploughman_ is full of allusions to the Psalms, as when Righteousness kisses Peace (Psalm 85, line 21).

_Psalm 86_. In ”Rizpah,” Tennyson has a beautiful use of lines 30 and 31.

”And read me a Bible verse of the Lord's goodwill toward men-- 'Full of compa.s.sion and mercy, the Lord,' --let me hear it again; 'Full of compa.s.sion and mercy--long suffering.'”

_Psalm 87_. The motto of the University of Durham in England is taken from line 1. Lines 2 and 3 are the motto of Augustine's great work, ”The City of G.o.d.”

_Psalm 90_ was the favorite Psalm of the Emperor Charles V., of the Reformation period. It has had its place in the burial service of the Church of England since 1662. Newman's _Dream of Gerontius_ uses a part of this Psalm as a chant of the souls in purgatory. Its solemn strains have very often been used in the church to recall men to the thought of the permanence of G.o.d and the fleeting life of man.