Psalm 119 (P is for Ayin)

Poor and vulnerable people
Have found a champion in me.
So, don’t leave me in the grasp
Of those who would abuse me.
Proud and pretentious people
Are out to get me.
Make sure your servant gets good
Instead.
Perceiving nothing at all,
My eyes have given out.
Where is your salvation?
Where is your promised righteousness?
Pity me.
I need it.
I need a life reordered by your wise words.
Pay your servant with wisdom.
I want the understanding
That only comes from your directions.
Postpone no longer.
Get busy, Yahweh!
Your laws are getting shredded!
Precious and beautiful,
I love your laws more than gold,
More than piles of pure gold.
Paths that lead away from you
Make me furious,
Because your precepts are so, so good.

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1

Lynell Zogbo on April 29, 2019 at 1:38 pm

I think you mean more than A pile of gold
2

Pete Santucci on April 29, 2019 at 2:22 pm

As always, you’re right on the money. Thanks for the catch. And I’ve been thinking a lot about your dislike of inserting modern images into the Psalms. Your point is well taken. I’m torn though. Because English has become such an abstract language over the past century or so, I’ve tried to use as many concrete images as possible to return the psalmists’ poetic language to tangible, physical expressions. I hate the need to do so, but as Americans live more and more in their minds and abstract feelings because of screen-based technology, the need to reconnect prayer and theology and discipleship to the created world becomes more and more pressing. At the same time, over-modernizing disconnects the text from the ancient world in which the poems were written. So, where I can, I’ve kept certain Hebraisms, such as “cut a covenant” instead of “make a covenant,” since the making of a covenant included the cutting of flesh. And “make” is another of our abstracted words, whereas “cut” is still fairly physical (even though that word has some abstract uses as well). I wish I could sit in on your classes and hear what you and your students say about this struggle.

Psalm 119 (P is for Ayin)

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