The Bible Story Part 337

_Psalm 130_. One of Luther's best known German hymns is founded on this Psalm-- "Aus tiefer Noth schrel Ich zu dir."

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Beza died repeating lines 5 and 6, and it was one of the sustaining influences of Bunyan in his spiritual struggles with himself.

_Psalm 136_. Milton's hymn, written when a student at Cambridge, at the age of 15, is founded on Psalm 136--

"Let us with a gladsome mind Praise the Lord for he is kind, For his mercies aye endure, Ever faithful, ever sure."

_Psalm 144_ was used by Bernard as a text from which to preach a crusade to win Jerusalem from the Saracens. Lines 10 and 11 have been used, both in England and in France, as a motto on the face of sundials. "Man is like to vanity. His days are as a shadow that pa.s.seth away."

_Psalm 145_ is the base of Gerhardt's hymn--

"I who so oft in deep distress."

Milton has paraphrased it in _Paradise Lost_, Book XII, 11, 561-6, beginning--

"Henceforth I learn, that to obey is best."

Augustine's _Confessions_ begins with lines 5 and 6 of Psalm 145. Carey, who was not only a great missionary, but a great linguist and a great botanist, prefixed Psalm 145, lines 19 and 20, to his edition of Roxburgh's _Flora Indica_. Lines 25 and 26 are inscribed in Greek over the portal of the Mohammedan mosque at Damascus; a relic of the time, thirteen hundred years ago, when it was a Christian church. William Law chose this Psalm for a morning hymn.

_Psalm 147_. "Afflavit Deus," the motto on the coins struck in England to commemorate the victory over the Spanish Armada was taken from the lines: "He sendeth out his word and melteth them: He causeth his wind to blow, and the waters flow."

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_Psalm 148_. St. Francis' famous Canticle of the Sun is founded on this Psalm.

_Psalm 150_. This final Psalm was a sort of doxology, written to close the book of Psalms. It expresses what is the central thought of the book--praise to G.o.d. The Benedictine Monks in the Middle Ages were accustomed to sing this Psalm during the casting of their bells, while the metal was cooling. Two missionaries to the Slavs in Eastern Europe wished to construct an alphabet and translate the Bible into the Slavic language. It was referred to Pope John in 879 A.D. He sanctioned it on the basis of the last two lines of the Psalms. The alphabet was made, and is the basis of that used by the Russian, Bulgarian, Roumanian and other Slavonic languages to this day; while the translation is the basis of that used by the Russian church.