God makes their dreams come true.
Bilious and bloated, they gas, "God is gone."
Their words are poison gas,
fouling the air; they poison
Rivers and skies;
thistles are their cash crop.
God sticks his head out of heaven.
He looks around.
He's looking for someone not stupid—
one man, even, God-expectant,
just one God-ready woman.
He comes up empty. A string
of zeros. Useless, unshepherded
Sheep, taking turns pretending
to be Shepherd.
The ninety and nine
follow their fellow.
Don't they know anything,
all these impostors?
Don't they know
they can't get away with this—
Treating people like a fast-food meal
over which they're too busy to pray?
Night is coming for them, and nightmares,
for God takes the side of victims.
Do you think you can mess
with the dreams of the poor?
You can't, for God
makes their dreams come true.
Is there anyone around to save Israel?
Yes. God is around; God turns life around.
Turned-around Jacob skips rope,
turned-around Israel sings laughter.
Their words are poison gas,
fouling the air; they poison
Rivers and skies;
thistles are their cash crop.
God sticks his head out of heaven.
He looks around.
He's looking for someone not stupid—
one man, even, God-expectant,
just one God-ready woman.
He comes up empty. A string
of zeros. Useless, unshepherded
Sheep, taking turns pretending
to be Shepherd.
The ninety and nine
follow their fellow.
Don't they know anything,
all these impostors?
Don't they know
they can't get away with this—
Treating people like a fast-food meal
over which they're too busy to pray?
Night is coming for them, and nightmares,
for God takes the side of victims.
Do you think you can mess
with the dreams of the poor?
You can't, for God
makes their dreams come true.
Is there anyone around to save Israel?
Yes. God is around; God turns life around.
Turned-around Jacob skips rope,
turned-around Israel sings laughter.
This version Psalm 14 is from Eugene Peterson's 'The Message'. For other photo interpretations of Psalm 14 just head over to City Daily Athens by clicking here.
4 comments:
Where did you find these girls in the desert?!
"The Message" really helped me when I was trying to understand the N.T.
But when Gene Peterson goes modern with the Psalms, it is very jolting to me.
He really does make the message of the psalm clear and strong and memorable, I must admit.
I knew from the first two lines this had to be "The Message"....My favorite of this translation is the last verse. I'm of two minds about The Message....I like it, but I prefer something closer to the original Hebrew or Greek words most of the time. However, it is always very interesting to read as a companion to the other!
How very incredible an entry !
Thank you for 'bleaching me mind'. A deep bow in respeced of his writing. The picture is indeed amazing !
Please have a good start inot the new week and please join again soon.
daily athens
The Message! Yes I go back and forth with it too but every now and then there is a phrase that catches me such as this one. What I always need to remember that The Message is not a translation but one man's retelling or version of the Bible. Sometimes I don't always agree with his interpretation but other times he makes it crystal clear.
Anyway, this photo was taken in the Sinai along the road. Ironically, they wanted to know if we had lipstick that we could give them. Such is a bedouin girl's dream, or any girls dream I guess.
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