From "The Lord Delivers from Trouble" (Psalm 107:23-32)

"As a child I used to play at Halloween as if I were a sailor and go trick or treating down to the sea in ships." So begins Richard Brautigan's story "Trick or Treating Down to the Sea in Ships," one of the stories in his book Revenge of the Lawn: Stories 1962-1970 (1971). Brautigan borrowed the phrase "down to the sea in ships" from Psalm 107:23 in the King James Version of the Bible.


FROM "THE LORD DELIVERS FROM TROUBLE"
from the Bible: Psalm 107:23-32 (King James Version)

They that go down to the sea in ships,
That do business in great waters;
These see the works of the Lord,
And his wonders in the deep.
For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind,
Which lifteth up the waves thereof.
They mount up to the heaven,
They go down again to the depths:
Their soul is melted because of trouble.
They reel to and fro,
And stagger like a drunken man,
And are at their wit's end.
Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble,
And he bringeth them out of their distresses.
He maketh the storm a calm,
So that the waves thereof are still.
Then are they glad because they be quiet;
So he bringeth them unto their desired haven.
Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness,
And for his wonderful works to the children of men!
Let them exalt him also in the congregation of the people,
And praise him in the assembly of the elders.