Over the past year or so I've found myself occasionally looking up passages in The Message translation of the Bible, just to see how they're worded. Often I find it brings out a new aspect, or just makes the words appear more 'real' to me. I especially like reading the psalms in the message, it's so poetic. Take the psalm I read earlier for example, psalm 8:
Psalm 8
A David Psalm
God, brilliant Lord, yours is a household name.
Nursing infants gurgle choruses about you;
toddlers shout the songs
That drown out enemy talk,
and silence atheist babble.
I look up at your macro-skies, dark and enormous,
your handmade sky-jewelry,
Moon and stars mounted in their settings.
Then I look at my micro-self and wonder,
Why do you bother with us?
Why take a second look our way?
Yet we've so narrowly missed being gods,
bright with Eden's dawn light.
You put us in charge of your handcrafted world,
repeated to us your Genesis-charge,
Made us lords of sheep and cattle,
even animals out in the wild,
Birds flying and fish swimming,
whales singing in the ocean deeps.
God, brilliant Lord,
your name echoes around the world.
The psalms are incredible. I think what I really love about reading the psalms is that the writers are so open about their emotions and feelings towards God. I guess humans haven't really changed since the psalms were written, and God certainly hasn't. I wonder, if David had written this psalm in english, today, which translation would be closest to his words? At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter to me - I figure you use whichever translation God can best teach you through, beit old King James or the Word on The Street.
Psalm 8
A David Psalm
God, brilliant Lord, yours is a household name.
Nursing infants gurgle choruses about you;
toddlers shout the songs
That drown out enemy talk,
and silence atheist babble.
I look up at your macro-skies, dark and enormous,
your handmade sky-jewelry,
Moon and stars mounted in their settings.
Then I look at my micro-self and wonder,
Why do you bother with us?
Why take a second look our way?
Yet we've so narrowly missed being gods,
bright with Eden's dawn light.
You put us in charge of your handcrafted world,
repeated to us your Genesis-charge,
Made us lords of sheep and cattle,
even animals out in the wild,
Birds flying and fish swimming,
whales singing in the ocean deeps.
God, brilliant Lord,
your name echoes around the world.
The psalms are incredible. I think what I really love about reading the psalms is that the writers are so open about their emotions and feelings towards God. I guess humans haven't really changed since the psalms were written, and God certainly hasn't. I wonder, if David had written this psalm in english, today, which translation would be closest to his words? At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter to me - I figure you use whichever translation God can best teach you through, beit old King James or the Word on The Street.
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