THE WORLD’S MOST popular book of poetry is not by Shakespeare, Dickinson, or Keats. It’s the biblical book of Psalms. Martin Luther said that the Psalms were “a Bible in miniature.” The 150 poems collected in the Book of Psalms are at the heart of Jewish worship and have influenced Western music, language, and literature for centuries. Even Jesus quoted a Psalm, number 22, when he said, “Why have you forsaken me?” What do you know about the collection of poems that Saint Augustine once called “the language of devotion”?
1. Who wrote the Psalms?
2. What is the most popular Psalm?
3. Which Psalm is known as the De profundis?
4. In Psalm 137, the psalmist asks for a blessing for what grim act?
5. What do the Psalms have to do with rosary beads?
6. Biblical bonus question: Pete Seeger adapted the words and the Byrds made it a hit. But what biblical book inspired the pop classic “Turn, Turn, Turn”?
ANSWERS
1. In ancient tradition, the Psalms were attributed to King David. The text credits David with seventy-four psalms; twelve are credited to his son Solomon. But modern scholars agree that the collection has multiple authors and was written over long periods of time.
2. It is generally agreed that Psalm 23—which begins “The Lord is my shepherd”—is the most familiar and most widely quoted Psalm.
3. Psalm 130, whose first words are, “Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord.” The title De profundis has been used by many poets, including Federico García Lorca, Charles-Pierre Baudelaire, and C. S. Lewis. Oscar Wilde also wrote a long letter from prison to his former lover under the title.
4. The famous Psalm 137, which begins with the words “By the rivers of Babylon,” ends: “Happy shall they be who take your little ones and dash them against the rock!”
5. The 150 beads of the rosary correspond to the number of Psalms and are traced to a time when monks recited the Psalms each day.
6. The Old Testament Book of Ecclesiastes, chapter 3, which begins: “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.”