Kiwi Psalms

We've been having fun with our current series Hydroponic Christianity - looking at the book of Acts and the growth of the church. One fun feature (apart from the highly entertaining Troy Manure's "Dig This") has been the Kiwi Psalms. A good idea to use Chris Grantham's Kiwi Bible, became a great idea when we discovered there weren't that many Psalms in his new authoritative translation. So we started writing them ourselves. First up, was Rhett Snell, former blogger, currently having an extended period of RL existence - a champion effort which makes the blogging world's loss easier to bear (actually someone recently commented how much more time they have since Rhett paused in his blogging...) Here is his masterful Psalm 130:

When I’m not feeling that flash I call out to you, God
God, hear my voice
Listen up and help me out
I’m having a whinge; but I need your help!

If you, God, kept a record of my stuff-ups
I’d be up the creek without a paddle
But with you there is forgiveness
And so I respect you heaps

I hang out for God, I’d spend yonks waiting for him
His words are straight-up, aye (not like Winston)

Like I said, I hang out for God, I’d spend yonks waiting for him
More than Waikato waits for a quarter-final
More than Aucklanders wait in traffic

So, Israel, trust this God, eh?
He doesn’t pack a sad; he always loves us and that’s choice
With him there’s redemption; the full deal!

He’s gonna sort out Israel
And redeem them from all their stuff-ups.

This was followed up by Sarah Snell with her up-to-the-minute rendition of Psalm 47 - you can read her version here . Someone asked me whether I liked them and I said, "Yeah, No, It's pretty choice I reckon."

This week we're doing Psalm 89 and the quest is on for someone to write an excellent Kiwi paraphrase? Will it be you? If you want to have a go then email me bj@cession.org.nz - we aren't looking for the whole thing but key verses include - 1-8, 46-48...