The Twenty-Thissird Psissalm

“The Lord is all that, I need for nothing. He allows me to chill. He keeps me from being heated and allows me to breathe easy. He guides my life so that I can represent and give shouts out in His Name.

And even though I walk through the ‘hood of death, I don’t back down for you have my back. The fact that He has me covered allows me to chill. He provides me with back-up in front of my player-haters and I know that I am a baller and life will be phat.

I fall back in the Lord’s crib for the rest of my life.”

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This is a rephrasing of the 23rd Psalm from the “HipHopEMass”. Trinity Episcopal Church in Bronx, NY has translated the liturgy into hip-hop vernacular for weekly HipHopEMass Celebrations.

Very interesting…..

See my friend Dale’s blog for his comments after attending a local event sponsored by his church.

I’ve always been a proponent of “translating” the truth into language that speaks to the culture here and now, but I have to admit, I laughed out loud when I read this because my first thought was “this is ridiculous!” That made me start wondering what was behind my contempt. Am I becoming the person who cries foul when the drum set slides its way onto the platform? The one who is okay with guitar in worship as long as it’s an acoustic guitar and not - God forbid - an ELECTRIC guitar. I wondered where you draw the line. Then I wondered, should there be a line? When does a translation no longer say what was intended? How would we know when that happened?

I’m going to stop or else my head’s going to explode. Okay, your turn. What do you think?