The Psalm Project: Psalm 3

Pamela Glasgow | The Psalm Project

Psalm 3

Adapted from a Mizmor of David

When he bolted from before the face of Absalom, his son

 

YAHUAH mah-rabab tsar

 

O, Self-Existent One—

YAHUAH!

How my adversary has increased!

Like raindrops,

Accumulating,

Building,

Growing into a flood,

Multiplying into thousands, nay!

Ten thousands!

They pitch tents against me.

They rear up offenses.

They press me into a narrow place.

Affliction!

Anguish!

Tribulation!

I am shot through with arrows!

 

They crowd together,

Rank upon rank,

Plenteous in number—

Elders, captains, mighty ones—

They boast,

They publish reports,

They declare to my nephesh,

To my vitality,

To the living, breathing essence

Of my self:

There is no Yasha(Yeshua) in ALOHIM!

 

[Selah: A Dramatic Pause in the Music]

 

YAHUAH,

Shield of scaly crocodile hide,

The Defense and Splendor of Israel,

You exalted my head.

 

I proclaimed

The Self-Existent One,

The Eternal

YAHUAH

With my voice.

He heeded.

He answered.

He sang in response

From the Sacred Place,

His Set-Apart Mountain.

 

[Selah: A Dramatic Pause in the Music]

 

Like one ravished by a lover,

I cast myself down, exhausted;

I slept.

Startled, I woke

To keep watch.

YAHUAH supported me

When I wavered.

 

I will not dread,

Even if the thousands

Become ten thousands

And these multiply into millions,

Even if troops, nations, peoples,

Array themselves

To encircle my dwelling

Or encompass me about

Like an angry horde.

 

Arise, YAHUAH!

Confirm by decree,

Yasha!

Preserve,

Avenge,

Rescue.

ELOHAI,

Smite these murderers!

Wound my foes

Upon the jawbone,

Crush and destroy

The front teeth

Of the morally wrong,

The guilty and condemned.

 

YASHUAH!

Self-Existent One,

YAHUAH!

Upon the tribes of Israel

Your prosperity!

 

[Selah: A Dramatic Cessation of the Music]

Pamela Glasgow

The Psalm Project represents my desire for a deeper understanding of the Word of YAHUAH. It is not a mechanical translation, a one-word-for-word exchange from Hebrew to English. We have those. This is is a lyrical adaptation of the many possibilities hidden in the Hebrew, arranged with consideration for the poetic and musical intent of the original writer. I pray you are as enriched in the reading as I was in the transcribing.

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