Choosing a translation

Lifting up my eyes unto the hills on day one.

I wanted to learn the fifteen Psalms off by heart.  I don't know much scripture off by heart, but he bits that I do I often find very helpful.  My plan was to walk with them - literally.  I have a plastic waller that you hang around your neck with your map inside to stop it getting wet.  On day one I had the map on one side and a large-print of Psalm 120 on the other, so that I could walk with it and learn it as I walked.  I succeeded!

If I am to learn something, I can do without the language being clunky.  The Psalm from the section that already mostly knew off by heart was Psalm 121 "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help?"  That's the King James version (with one tiny change in puctuation as I mentioned in an earlier blog!)

I can remember that because of the poetry of it.  I looked through some different translations and took the beginning of Psalm 121 as my test couplet:


King James Version (KJV)
“I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help?”
New King James Version (NKJV)
“I will lift up my eyes to the hills—From whence comes my help?”
New International Version (NIV)
“I lift up my eyes to the mountains—where does my help come from?”
English Standard Version (ESV)
“I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come?”
New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
“I lift up my eyes to the hills— from where will my help come?”
New Living Translation (NLT)
“I look up to the mountains—does my help come from there?”
Christian Standard Bible (CSB)
“I lift my eyes toward the mountains. Where will my help come from?”
The Message (MSG)
“I look up to the mountains; does my strength come from mountains?”

I decided that for my purposes here, the NKJV kept the poetry of the KJV without the clunky thees and thous, wherefores and witherwhohowsoevers, but will keep also referring to The Message because I am less interested in scholarly accuracy than the human heart of the Psalms - and I think Peterson has a gift for discovering the heart of the Psalms in his language.  So I will learn the NKJV versions but also quote The Message versions.



Comments

  1. Gordon Woods10 June 2025 at 11:00

    I bet you know a number of Psalms by heart in metrical form already - The Lord's my Shepherd (23), Ye gates lift up your heads on high (24), Our God, our help in ages past (90) for a start.

    ReplyDelete
  2. thebish10 June 2025 at 13:30

    True! none of them being Psalms of Ascent, though...

    ReplyDelete

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