"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 assaults 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 God. 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.
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.