The Complete Jewish Bible CJB
The Message Bible MSG
1 A prayer of Moshe the man of God: Adonai, you have been our dwelling place in every generation.
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God, it seems you've been our home forever;
2 Before the mountains were born, before you had formed the earth and the world, from eternity past to eternity future you are God.
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long before the mountains were born, Long before you brought earth itself to birth, from "once upon a time" to "kingdom come" - you are God.
3 You bring frail mortals to the point of being crushed, then say, "People, repent!"
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So don't return us to mud, saying, "Back to where you came from!"
4 For from your viewpoint a thousand years are merely like yesterday or a night watch.
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Patience! You've got all the time in the world - whether a thousand years or a day, it's all the same to you.
5 When you sweep them away, they become like sleep; by morning they are like growing grass,
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Are we no more to you than a wispy dream, no more than a blade of grass
6 growing and flowering in the morning, but by evening cut down and dried up.
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That springs up gloriously with the rising sun and is cut down without a second thought?
7 For we are destroyed by your anger, overwhelmed by your wrath.
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Your anger is far and away too much for us; we're at the end of our rope.
8 You have placed our faults before you, our secret sins in the full light of your presence.
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You keep track of all our sins; every misdeed since we were children is entered in your books.
9 All our days ebb away under your wrath; our years die away like a sigh.
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All we can remember is that frown on your face. Is that all we're ever going to get?
10 The span of our life is seventy years, or if we are strong, eighty; yet at best it is toil and sorrow, over in a moment, and then we are gone.
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We live for seventy years or so (with luck we might make it to eighty), And what do we have to show for it? Trouble. Toil and trouble and a marker in the graveyard.
11 Who grasps the power of your anger and wrath to the degree that the fear due you should inspire?
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Who can make sense of such rage, such anger against the very ones who fear you?
12 So teach us to count our days, so that we will become wise.
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Oh! Teach us to live well! Teach us to live wisely and well!
13 Return, ADONAI! How long must it go on? Take pity on your servants!
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Come back, God - how long do we have to wait? - and treat your servants with kindness for a change.
14 Fill us at daybreak with your love, so that we can sing for joy as long as we live.
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Surprise us with love at daybreak; then we'll skip and dance all the day long.
15 Let our joy last as long as the time you made us suffer, for as many years as we experienced trouble.
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Make up for the bad times with some good times; we've seen enough evil to last a lifetime.
16 Show your deeds to your servants and your glory to their children.
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Let your servants see what you're best at - the ways you rule and bless your children.
17 May the favor of Adonai our God be on us, prosper for us all the work that we do -yes, prosper the work that we do.
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And let the loveliness of our Lord, our God, rest on us, confirming the work that we do. Oh, yes. Affirm the work that we do!
Complete Jewish Bible Copyright 1998 by David H. Stern. Published by Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.