In your best movie voiceover, “In a world where finding encouragement can be next to impossible.” Do you ever feel that way? The nightly news will try to end on a high note, but the majority of their broadcasts are negative. You go to work, you listen to your coworkers complain about, well, everything. You get home, and you hear complaints from your family, and the emails you open are bills.

I decided to reread the book of Psalms this year. But this time, I am reading it from The Message. I read an article the other day where the author ran this version into the ground. Yes, it is a translation, paraphrased from the original language into modern English. I like it, though. I have really enjoyed The Psalms, especially Chapter 119. It is so relatable to how we live today. In the Psalms, I have found encouragement.

I was inspired to try my hand at writing a modern-day Psalm.

See me, Lord. Here, praising your name.
For I am nothing without you.
When I follow your ways, my life works out.
In your word, I find wisdom.

You are right. Love is a better way to live.
And it is better to ask you, ‘O Lord, to revenge my enemies.
May they find you in the midst of it all,
and turn from their wicked ways.

I enjoy it when I have opportunities to show your love to others.
It delights my soul. Especially when they know it’s from you.
And there is no greater joy than when they accept you.
When they begin to fall in love with you as I have.

Help me, Father, to keep my heart pure.
To respond to others with pureness and love.
Guide me to know what is on your heart,
as I work to write words that will help others.

All to you, “O Lord, and to your glory!
May your name be famous in all the earth.
Only in you is all hope, encouragement, and happiness.
Only in you is an authentic life.
Psalms 1:1-5 (MBV) (Mark Brady Version)

My life right now is a real call to “walking by faith.” It is taking longer than expected for God to answer my prayers. My cry for help. My need for his blessings to be poured out. God called April and me to do something this past January that has been a big step of faith. Each day without seeing his reward for our faithfulness and obedience to Him is another day of fear, nervousness, and anxiety IF WE ALLOWED.

April and I talk about the challenge. We pray. We encourage and remind each other of God’s faithfulness to his children. We read scriptures that help us and also encourage us. Today was one of those days, and Psalms 31 was one of those chapters, so I am sharing it with you.

Psalm 31 (The Message)

31 ^1-2I run to you, God; I run for dear life.
    Don’t let me down!
    Take me seriously this time!
Get down on my level and listen,
    and please—no procrastination!
Your granite cave a hiding place,
    your high cliff nest a place of safety.

^3-5You’re my cave to hide in,
    my cliff to climb.
Be my safe leader,
    be my true mountain guide.
Free me from hidden traps;
    I want to hide in you.
I’ve put my life in your hands.
    You won’t drop me,
    you’ll never let me down.

^6-13I hate all this silly religion,
    but you, God, I trust.
I’m leaping and singing in the circle of your love;
    you saw my pain,
    you disarmed my tormentors,
You didn’t leave me in their clutches
    but gave me room to breathe.
Be kind to me, God—
    I’m in deep, deep trouble again.
I’ve cried my eyes out;
    I feel hollow inside.
My life leaks away, groan by groan;
    my years fade out in sighs.
My troubles have worn me out,
    turned my bones to powder.
To my enemies I’m a monster;
    I’m ridiculed by the neighbors.
My friends are horrified;
    they cross the street to avoid me.
They want to blot me from memory,
    forget me like a corpse in a grave,
    discard me like a broken dish in the trash.
The street-talk gossip has me
    “criminally insane”!
Behind locked doors they plot
    how to ruin me for good.

^14-18Desperate, I throw myself on you:
    you are my God!
Hour by hour I place my days in your hand,
    safe from the hands out to get me.
Warm me, your servant, with a smile;
    save me because you love me.
Don’t embarrass me by not showing up;
    I’ve given you plenty of notice.
Embarrass the wicked, stand them up,
    leave them stupidly shaking their heads
    as they drift down to hell.
Gag those loudmouthed liars
    who heckle me, your follower,
    with jeers and catcalls.

^19-22What a stack of blessing you have piled up
    for those who worship you,
Ready and waiting for all who run to you
    to escape an unkind world.
You hide them safely away
    from the opposition.
As you slam the door on those oily, mocking faces,
    you silence the poisonous gossip.
Blessed God!
    His love is the wonder of the world.
Trapped by a siege, I panicked.
    “Out of sight, out of mind,” I said.
But you heard me say it,
    you heard and listened.

²³Love God, all you saints;
God takes care of all who stay close to him,
But he pays back in full
those arrogant enough to go it alone.

²⁴Be brave. Be strong. Don’t give up.
Expect God to get here soon.

May you be encouraged as well in what you are going through.

“Thank you, God, for your Word that you gave us.”