Happy are they who know good and do good.
Their love for the good feeds them continually.
They are like trees planted near the river,
whose roots go deep and wide.
They thrive, bear fruit in season, and
weather drought without wilting.
Those who are not so grounded
will blow around like dry leaves in the wind.
Root yourself in Good, and live.
The Psalms are much on my mind these days. And, with that I think of Christine Robinson.
The Reverend Christine Robinson retired a few years ago, after serving for 29 years as the senior minister of the First Unitarian Church of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Previously she served the UU Fellowship of Columbia, SC. She remains active in ministry by guest preaching, consulting, leading board retreats and the like.
I should add, I think of her as one the shining examples, not only of our UU clergy, but of the possibilities of depth following a way to genuine depth through the Unitarian Universalist life.
Somewhere along the line she took to reflecting on the psalms. And then out of that, producing her own adaptations of them. She did all of them. The full collection is available at a blog site, gathered as Psalms for a New World .
She completed the project with Psalm 11, posted on March 15th, 2012. They’ve remained there since, waiting for the curious heart.
Personally I’m fond of reading them along side the two Buddhist adaptions by Stephen Mitchell and Norman Fischer. (Neither, sadly, but understandably complete collections)
They open doors into this ancient collection of Hebrew hymns, accessible to a new generation.
Try them. You might find it worth your time…
(and, at absolutely no extra charge, Bobby McFerrin’s 23rd Psalm)
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