Psalm 105. Lines 1 and 2 of this Psalm are inscribed on the pulpit in which Baxter, the great Puritan divine, preached. "He was one of the greatest of preachers, patient alike under the lifelong pains of disease and thirty years of almost incessant persecution. He so transformed his parish of Kidderminster that on the Lord's day there was no disorder to be seen in the streets; but you might hear a hundred families singing psalms, and repeating sermons as you passed through them."
Psalm 107. One of the earliest Scottish reformers, Wishart, was a preacher of remarkable power. At one time, hearing that [{504}] the plague had appeared in Dundee, he hastened there, and preached his first sermon in one of the gates of the city. Its text was from Psalm 107: "He sent his word, and healed them." Alexander Duff was the first Scotch missionary to India. On his way out, in 1830, the ship in which he sailed was wrecked at the Cape of Good Hope. The passengers and crew escaped to a small island, but all their possessions were lost. Duff's Bible and Book of Psalms were among the few things that drifted ashore; and, while passengers and crew kneeled on the sand, Duff read Psalm 107. It is said that the loss of all things except the Word of God made a profound impression on Duff, who was for many years a most devoted and valuable worker in India.
Psalm 114 is used in Dante's Divine Comedy, where he gives a picture of a boat, on which are seen a hundred spirits, singing together Psalm 114. (Purgatorio, Canto II. 11 40ff.) Milton translated this Psalm into verse when a student at Cambridge, at the age of 15.
Psalm 116. At the famous relief of Lucknow in the Indian Mutiny, a soldier known as "Quaker Wallace" went into the fight quoting the Scotch version of this Psalm. Lines 27 and 28 were chosen as one of the texts from which Bernard preached the Crusade.
Psalm 117. The shortest Psalm. This is the Psalm which Cromwell sung on the battlefield after his victory at the battle of Worcester.
Psalm 118. Luther said of it, "This is my Psalm, my chosen Psalm. I love them all; I love all Scripture; . . . But this Psalm is nearest my heart, and I have a familiar right to call it mine. It has saved me from many a passing danger, from which not emperor nor kings nor sages nor saints could have saved me. It is my friend; dearer to me than all the honors and power of the earth." Curiously enough, it was also the favorite Psalm of the emperor of the time, Charles V. This Psalm was sung by the soldiers of the Prince of Orange, King William, when he landed in England. It was sung as they stood upon the beach, and thus the landing was made a religious service. In the words of lines 45 and 46 Queen Elizabeth expressed her relief from the feeling of danger, at the news of the death of Queen [{505}] Mary, her bitter enemy. When Charlemagne entered Rome he was hailed by the people with lines 51 and 52. So all through Christian history the Psalm has lent itself to use as celebrating triumph and success.
Psalm 119 is an alphabetic Psalm, in sections consisting of eight couplets, and each couplet of the same section beginning with the same letter. The sections follow in the order of the Hebrew alphabet. It is the most elaborate alphabetic Psalm, there being several others where each verse begins with a successive letter. It is also the longest Psalm in the book. Still another peculiarity is that every verse contains a reference to the law of God. It is a Psalm greatly loved by many people. William Wilberforce, the great opponent of slavery, said at one specially busy time that he found great comfort in repeating the 119th Psalm. Ruskin, who learned it in his boyhood, later writing of it, notes how the sense of delight in the law of God runs through it all. Henry Martyn committed it to memory. David Livingstone learned it in Sunday school at the age of nine. The names of those who have found delight in this Psalm would make a very long list and be representative of many different vocations.
Psalm 121. This Psalm was read by David Livingstone with his family on the morning when he started for his first mission tour to Africa. A later missionary, James Harrington, on his journey into Africa, repeated this, which he called his "Traveling" Psalm, every morning.
Psalm 122. James Hogg, the Scottish poet, is said to have learned this Psalm before he knew his letters. The Bible was his only book in boyhood. This Psalm was used in the Huguenot wars as the Huguenot's chant of victory after battle.
Psalm 126. Robert Estienne, a French printer of the Reformation time, who was very influential in giving the Bible to the people, says that often in his controversies he found strength in this Psalm.