Translation thoughts...

I don't know Hebrew ... and mostly do not care what the original text says.  Okay, I do.  But does the original really matter in my thoughts here??

I have not been able to get the end of Psalm 77 from the King James 1715 Bible out of my mind:  Thy way is in the sea and Thy path in the great water; and Thy footsteps are not known.

Not the different tense that is in the NASB 1977:  Thy way was in the sea And Thy paths in the mighty waters, And Your footprints may not be known.

You see, I think the KJ 1715 is better for God's way still IS with water.  Then ... now ... in the future.  So, when I read Psalm 77 in the KJ 1715, I was left with the thought that God saves through Baptism, rather than merely a remembrance of when He saved His people at the Red Sea.  

The same thought fits with the second part about God's footsteps.  They ARE not known.  Present tense then ... now ... forever.  God's ways are not our own and Christians—living in this fallen world—will never be able to fully understand them.  They are, after all, stewards of the mysteries of God.

I confess the reason I flipped first to Psalm 77 when the Bible arrived from distant shores is verse 10. You see, the most comforting part of verse 10 is missing in the English Standard Version, the favored text of the LCMS.  That has really bothered me.  It would not be altogether untrue to say that I dislike the ESV for the translation of that single verse, for being robbed of its comfort to me.

In the NASB 1977 translation of Psalm 77, the psalmist states:  Then I said, "It is my grief, That the right hand of the Most High has changed." I shall remember the deeds of the LORD;

I read that verse to say that the psalmist realizes that his doubts and questions about God are a product of his grief, of his flesh, not a result of God actually changing toward him.  So, girding his loins, the psalmist deliberately turns his mind away from his flesh to remind himself of all the things that God has done, to remind himself of the Truth.

I was fascinated to see that bit translated in the King James 1715 as:  And I said, This is my infirmity; but I will remember the years of the Right Hand of the Most High.

I read that as acknowledging the weakness of his flesh, the infirmity that he battles.  And, once again, you have the psalmist deliberately turning away from what his flesh is telling him to focus on the Truth.

Maybe I am wrong.

But I have many, many, many infirmities.

I find comfort in reading how another struggled against his.