(Paraphrase)
September 25, 2025
When I was in seminary, we were taught to dig into a text not only for its meaning in its time but also for its meaning and importance in our own day. What does a particular text have to say to our congregation on a given Sunday?
One way we were taught to do this was by paraphrasing the passage. Putting it in our own words. When we did so, it helped us understand how the text was still speaking to us.
This month, I have paraphrased four different psalms, one for each Thursday. These are paraphrases more than exact translations. They are closer to an impressionist painting than a polaroid picture. I encourage you to read the original text and then my paraphrase. Where do you think I got it right? Where have I strayed from the usual meaning of the text?
Then, I invite you paraphrase the psalm yourself. How close do you think you got to the original intention of the psalmist? How much did you have to change it before it spoke to your heart?
The opening verse of today’s psalm is often used in hymns, usually to express longing for God. I always thought of it as rather beautiful and a touch romantic. But after reading it through and putting it in my own words, I think of it as more about desperation than simple desire. It doesn’t express the feelings of someone who longs for God the way we might long for an old flame. Rather, the psalmist longs for God with the passion of someone dying of thirst in a desert. Is that how we long for God?
I thirst for God. I am as parched as a wild deer, racing through the woods, desperate to escape the hounds and the hunters. Where are you, God? Is there no safe place we can meet?
I spend my days wiping away tears, too depressed to eat. Everyone around me asks, “Why so sad? Don’t you trust God?”
Pouring out my heart in prayer, I remember an earlier time, a time when I would joyfully go to church and worship God. I would join with my sisters and brothers in faith, joyfully singing hymns of praise.
What is wrong with me? Why am I so sad? Buck up! Trust God! A time will surely come when I will praise the Lord, my Savior.
Yes, I am depressed. But still I will make a point of remembering what God has done, from the fertile valleys all the way to the barren mountain tops.
The deep oceans murmur with God’s love. The waterfalls roar out God’s love. I have been drenched by the waves and breakers of God’s love for me. In the daytime I see the signs of God’s love. At night, God’s love song sooths me to sleep.
I say to God, the firm foundation of my life, “Where are you? Am I so unimportant you have forgotten me? Why are you leaving me in tears? Don’t you know all my enemies have ganged up against me? They’re taunting me, ‘Where’s your God now?’” I am so exhausted my body is aching to death.
Why am I so glum, so disturbed? I will put my hope in God for, despite my misery, I am convinced a day is coming when I will joyfully praise the Lord, my Savior and my God.
