While preparing my sermon for our service at Bethel A.M.E. this weekend I was looking at various translations of the scripture texts we’ll use. We don’t use a contemporary reading at Bethel, and at Redeemer we’ll read the Psalm from the Prayer Book, but this translation of Psalm 40 seemed too good not to share. Enjoy– and don’t keep the good news of God’s love to yourself!

Psalm 40:1-11 (paraphrased by Jim Taylor)

1 I believed I could make it on my own.
But I slipped and fell.
I sank into a morass of my own making.

2 God heard my cry.
God lifted me out of the mire
and set me safe on solid ground.

3 Like any addict who quits,
I must talk about what has happened to me.
Like a robin at dawn,
I must sing God’s praises to the skies.
I will risk being a bore;
If just one person hears me,
my work has not been wasted.

4 Too many today chase false gods;
They try to multiply their own gains.

5 But the richest returns come from God.
You can’t begin to count your blessings!

6 God does not want us to wear frowns or long faces;
God wants us to find childlike joy in shining drops of dew,
in whispering pine needles, in warm mud between the toes.

7, 8 Our delight becomes one with God’s;
Our personalities blend.

9 So I will not keep silent;
I will proclaim my good news privately and publicly.

10 I cannot keep it to myself.

Yours in faith,
Cynthia