Thursday, February 02, 2006

Does this happen to you?

Okay, it gets light earlier, so the sun wakes me up. I've been making a habit of reading a Psalm out loud (because I learned from Beth Moore that the spoken word has more power) as my first thing, so I keep my NIV by the bed.

This morning's Psalm was #33. I sat there, read it out loud. I was moved to read it in the RSV, which is the Bible I've owned since my confirmation back in 7th grade, which has notes, underlinings, dates, etc, and of course, the required multiple pieces of paper, old church bullitens, etc. Oh, and it's got clear tape down the side where it was falling apart five years ago. I've heard some people send their Bibles to get re-bound.


Anyways, I looked at it in the RSV and thought, "Did I just read that?" The RSV has more poetry, and of course I had circled a few verses. (Apparently it is also called the English Standard Version.)

Psalm 33 in the RSV (note circled text: vs 19, vs 20-22). Props to the good folks at Biblegateway.com who know how to lay out the text the way I want it and give me the option of a commentary!

The stuff that lives in my Bible: top, my transcription of Joel 2:25 on the envelope of a letter from my friend Kelly. (I think I collect them: I have at least 3 Kelly's in my life, all Godly women.)
Beauty shot of Isaiah 54-Isaiah 56. Highlighted are 54:17, 55:11, and 55:8 (I am God and you are not!) Most dated verse (8 references) is 54:11: "O afflicted one, storm-tossed, and not comforted, behold, I will set your stones in antimony, and lay your foundations with sapphires."
A little humor: "Mr T.: I pity the plant..." (notes on verse Jonah 4:10: "And the LORD said, "You pity the plant; for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night, and perished in a night.") I never ever saw even one episode of the A-Team but all my Mr. T. "I pity the fool" references come from Chandler Bing, most notably where Joey gave him a bracelet as a gift.

2 comments:

--erica said...

This one is for me today Sarah!

20
Our soul waits for the LORD;
he is our help and our shield.
21
For our heart is glad in him,
because we trust in his holy name.
22
Let your steadfast love, O LORD, be upon us,
even as we hope in you.

Joke said...

This may be a Catholic thing or maybe it's an Iberic thing, but my grandmother would have been HORRIFIED (like, OJ Simpson-getting-a-subpoena-horrified) to see that sometimes people write on their Bibles.

I had a software SOMETHING that allowed me to "write" on my computer-version of my Bible translation of choice. Generally, for just reading/study I like the NAB (which is everyone's second favorite translation) but for reading out loud, I gotta go with D-R (or, KJV, if you're Protestant) because, frankly, the language is more transcendent to me.

I can't say I'm a big fan of the NIV, since I've caught it in a few paraphrases and some mistranslations of the original Greek. (Not that I retain much of the little Greek I took wa-a-a-a-ay back when.)

Where was I going with this?

-J.