_Singing Psalms and Politics_ (Vol. viii., p. 56.).--One instance of the
misapplication of psalmody must suggest itself at once to the readers of
"N. & Q.," I mean the melancholy episode in the history of the Martyr King,
thus related by Hume:
"Another preacher, after reproaching him to his face with his
misgovernment, ordered this Psalm to be sung,--
'Why dost thou, tyrant, boast thyself,
Thy wicked deeds to praise?'
The king stood up, and called for that Psalm which begins with these
words,--
'Have mercy, Lord, on me, I pray;
For men would me devour.'
The good-natured audience, in pity to fallen majesty, showed for once
greater deference to the king than to the minister, and sung the psalm
which the former had called for."--_Hume's History of England_, ch. 58.