ChosenRebel's Blog

Read Psalm 38

God’s words are authoritative. Mine are not. Sometimes however, trying to put God’s word’s in our own “paraphrase” can be helpful at getting to a deeper understanding of God’s authoritative standard. In the following lines I have tried to rephrase “the feeling and passion” of God’s word. I hope it is helpful to more than myself.

Suggestion: Read your Bible alongside of my interpretive rendering. Let these words take you back to His. His are always more important than mine but by his grace perhaps mine will give some light to your heart.

All of us need Help. All of us need somebody. All of us can lose our way and need a rescue not only from time to time but, more importantly, for all eternity. David wrestled with that need. In this psalm he cries out to God asking for forgiveness, relief, rescue and protection. You can too in your time of need.

Another offering for the Poetry Project

I Deserve the Harshest Rebuke

A Psalm of David, for the Memorial Offering
[Reimagined by a struggling man]

¹  I deserve the harshest rebuke, but Lord, please hold your hand.
——- I won’t survive the heat of your righteous anger.
²  I’ve been here before, 
….     and your hand is too heavy for me to bear.
³  There is nothing left in my body. 
…..    I’m worn out from your discipline;
… and there is no strength left
…..    because of my sin.
⁴ My sins have covered my own head
          and I’m fighting for breath in a grave I dug myself.
⁵  My spirit is a foul and corrupted thing
….     and its all because of my own stupidity. 

⁶  I am broken and bent;
  …    and all day I weep behind tearless eyes.
⁷  My whole body is wracked by the emptiness of my spirit,
…      and there is no energy for anything. 
⁸  I am feeble and crushed;
….     I groan like a timber about to break.

⁹  You know O Lord;
         my groaning isn’t hidden from you.
¹⁰  My heart throbs; but I can’t move,
…..    and the light of my eyes——–it’s gone.
¹¹  No one wants to be around me,
…..    and I don’t blame them. 
¹²  But there are others who see my weakness
….     and see opportunity to hurt me even more, 
…..    they meditate on new tricks and traps to play on me.

^13-14  But despite it all, I can endure;
….     l can keep my mouth shut.

¹⁵  You are the one for whom I wait;
. …    it is you, O Lord my God, who will defend me.
¹⁶  I have failed you in so many ways so many times,
.        Don’t let my failures allow those who oppose me
.        to gloat in such a way that they reject you!

¹⁷  For I am ready to fall and be forgotten,
…..    and my pain over my foibles and faults are ever before me.
¹⁸  I confess it all to You;
….     and I am sorry for my sin.
¹⁹  But my foes are vigorous and mighty,
.         they are self-righteous in all their interpretations
….      and as a result they depise me wrongfully.
²⁰  Those who render me evil for good
….     accuse me because I do not follow their counsel.

²¹  Do not forsake me or them, O Lord!
….     O my God, be not far from us!
²²  Make haste to help my enemies to become my friends,
.        and keep me from bitterness,
….     O Lord, my salvation!

Side note: John Lennon always said that he thought the Beatles did the song Help (I need somebody) with too fast a tempo. I think he was right. Too bad we never got to hear a slower version from the “Fab Four.”

Go to Psalm 39  Tomorrow
.                            Surely Every Man is a Mere Breath