Psalm 144 — The Yeti Version

Jesus, you’re the main character! The author of history.

This one was a fun one. The original start of this psalm written by David is translated by the English Standard Version as “Blessed be the LORD.” This sounds epic but no one — not even the most bible saturated people I know — speak like this! Most biblical language is adopted by christian circles but not this language. What does it even mean? Phrases like “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted” (from Matthew 5) make sense because we intuition that God will somehow bless/help the people who seem to be unfortunate. But the LORD? Who would bless or help him? The following sentences describe positive attributes of God so it seems likely to me that the author is getting at how great and worthy God is — so worthy that the author hopes that people recognize and support his cause. So what would be the modern equivalent for that in our language? ‘Jesus is great — I hope people see that’ lacks the power of the somewhat archaic translation. I decided to take the angle of thinking of modern equivalents of the positive attributes described, and what popped into my head were fictional characters that convey similar epic meaning to me. Then this sort of snowballed into me making modern references for many of the verses in this psalm — twelve of them in fact. This was really fun for me, and I believe it also demonstrates the point that all authors use phrasings, idioms, and cultural references that the reader should take time to ponder why the author used them. For David, this means alluding in verse five to God’s descent from Mount Sinai in the book of Exodus and alluding to the covenantal promises of God at the end of the psalm. For me, you get Monte Python, Elf, and modified song lyrics from John Mark McMillan, lol. Basically this psalm goes like ‘God is a deliverer, deliver me, deliver our people.’ There is a beautiful but somewhat unexpected statement about men and women in verse twelve, so be on the lookout for that. You may also notice that verse three is similar to verse four in Psalm 8.

Jesus is my Mr. Miyagi, my Ho Yinsen.

He is my Samwise Gamgee, my William Wallace, my Kelsier.

Jesus, you’re the main character! The author of history. Why do you take notice of each of us?

Our lives are so short, so brief. Like snowflakes landing on my mittens, we land on this earth and disappear.

Come down from your mountain, your high rise apartment, and show me the god I know that sparks.

Light a flame, start a tempest — anything to scare them away.

Holy hand grenade, deus ex machina me out of this mess.

They sit on a throat of lies. Their fakes!

When you get me out of this, God, I’m going to break out the guitar and write you a song about this.

About you being like the order of the white lotus, orchestrating the rise and fall of kingdoms and protecting the vulnerable.

I’ve been taken, be my Liam Neesan. Those people, might I remind you, sit on a throne of lies.

I hope one day us persecuted people of faith will have lived long enough to see our sons be life-givers and our daughters strong pillars of society.

To see an era of financial and agricultural abundance.

To see life thriving without pain, struggle, stress, or loss.

I might not live to see that day, but how great it will be for those who will. How great it is to have a god like ours!