Psalm 53
For the Chief Musician. To the tune of "Mahalath." A contemplation by David.
The foolish will say in their heart,
There is no God under the sun.
They're evil and vile, depraved in their guile;
there's none that are good, no not one.
From heaven, God looks down below
upon the entire human race;
to see with his eyes if any are wise,
if any seek after God's grace.
But everyone's turned their own way;
together, corrupted, as one.
And God is resigned that he'll never find
a good one among them bar none.
Will those who love evil not learn?
They eat up my people like bread.
Their lips are profane: take the LORD's name in vain,
yet pray not in God's name instead.
But they will be panicked with fear,
where fear is unknown and unnamed.
Your foes' bones, by God, are scattered abroad,
for they'll be rejected and shamed.
That Israel's salvation would come
by way of Mount Zion's lone voice!
When God, he alone, will bring back his own,
let Jacob and Israel rejoice!
The foolish will say in their heart,
There is no God under the sun.
They're evil and vile, depraved in their guile;
there's none that are good, no not one.
From heaven, God looks down below
upon the entire human race;
to see with his eyes if any are wise,
if any seek after God's grace.
But everyone's turned their own way;
together, corrupted, as one.
And God is resigned that he'll never find
a good one among them bar none.
Will those who love evil not learn?
They eat up my people like bread.
Their lips are profane: take the LORD's name in vain,
yet pray not in God's name instead.
But they will be panicked with fear,
where fear is unknown and unnamed.
Your foes' bones, by God, are scattered abroad,
for they'll be rejected and shamed.
That Israel's salvation would come
by way of Mount Zion's lone voice!
When God, he alone, will bring back his own,
let Jacob and Israel rejoice!
Psalm 14 and Psalm 53 are nearly identical. I didn't make that connection back when I wrote the former last fall.
The differences begin with how they were addressed. They were both written by David, but Psalm 53 was set to the tune of "Mahalath". So, both had similar lyrics but were sung to different tunes.
The second difference is in how the name of God is used. Psalm 14 uses "the LORD" (or, Yahweh) in four of the seven places "God" is mentioned; whereas, Psalm 53 uses "God" (or, Elohim) in all seven of those instances.
The third difference is that Psalm 14:5-6 is combined into one verse in Psalm 53:5 with some major word/theme variation.
All in all, I began this poem with the thought of changing a few words and rewriting one verse altogether. Easy, right? At the time, we were preparing for our daughter and her family to stay with us for a week and spent the week before working late into the night painting our deck, finishing up a bathroom renovation, preparing a neglected and unused bedroom in the basement, etc. So, I didn't do any writing for over a week during that time and her visit.
Finally, I took my two sons, my daughter and son-in-law to Cedar Point (a roller coaster amusement park) one day. At sixty-one, as my desire for roller coasters has dropped dramatically, I let the others do their own thing and was left on my own for much of the day. In the midst of 22,000 people rushing around me, I finally had the time to work on that solitary verse I had to write and work on the other tweaks as well.
The differences begin with how they were addressed. They were both written by David, but Psalm 53 was set to the tune of "Mahalath". So, both had similar lyrics but were sung to different tunes.
The second difference is in how the name of God is used. Psalm 14 uses "the LORD" (or, Yahweh) in four of the seven places "God" is mentioned; whereas, Psalm 53 uses "God" (or, Elohim) in all seven of those instances.
The third difference is that Psalm 14:5-6 is combined into one verse in Psalm 53:5 with some major word/theme variation.
All in all, I began this poem with the thought of changing a few words and rewriting one verse altogether. Easy, right? At the time, we were preparing for our daughter and her family to stay with us for a week and spent the week before working late into the night painting our deck, finishing up a bathroom renovation, preparing a neglected and unused bedroom in the basement, etc. So, I didn't do any writing for over a week during that time and her visit.
Finally, I took my two sons, my daughter and son-in-law to Cedar Point (a roller coaster amusement park) one day. At sixty-one, as my desire for roller coasters has dropped dramatically, I let the others do their own thing and was left on my own for much of the day. In the midst of 22,000 people rushing around me, I finally had the time to work on that solitary verse I had to write and work on the other tweaks as well.
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