For more information on the translation by Carl F. Burke, click here.
God Is for Real, Man - 1966
Psalm 23
The Lord Is Like My Probation Officer…
Psalm 23
The Lord is like my Probation Officer,
He will help me,
He tries to help me make it every day.
He makes me play it cool
And feel good inside of me.
He shows me the right path
So I'll have a good record,
And he'll have one too.
Because I trust him,
And that ain't easy,
I don't worry too much about
What's going to happen.
Just knowing he cares about
Me helps me.
He makes sure I have my food
And that Mom fixes it.
He helps her stay sober
And that makes me feel good
All over.
He's a good man, I think,
And he is kind;
And these things will stay
With me.
And when I'm kind and good
Then I know the Lord
Is with me like the Probation Officer.
Proverbs 6:16-19
There are six things that are
No go with God:
1. Shifty pincers
2. Con artists
3. Hands that are always
Beating up on someone
4. An operator who thinks up a job
5. A stool pigeon
6. A cat who stirs up trouble.
These kind of guys are "no go" with God.
Mark 10:17-22
The Rich Creep Has It Hard
The Story of the Rich Young Man (Mark 10:17-31)
One day a rich creep
Came fast lamming it up to Jesus.
He said,
"Hey, good man,
What I gotta do to live forever?"
Jesus says,
"Why ya call me 'good,' man?
Only God's good.
You know You're not supposed to steal
Or rub out or lie."
"Ya, I know," says the rich creep,
"But I still ain't got it."
But Jesus still likes the creep
So he tells him,
"Get rid of all your apartment houses
And 'rent-a-trucks'
And give lots of money to the poor.
"Then you will be happy
And come on back
And join my gang."
The rich creep says,
"Ah, no, ya don't,"
And does a slow lam out of there.
Treat Me Cool, Lord - 1968
Psalm 3
Hear Me When I Yell
Psalm 3
Seems like everybody is against me, God,
And people saying, "He ain't no good anyway
And nobody can do nothin' for him."
But, God, I hope you will stick by me
And hold me up when the going gets rough
And hear me when I yell for you.
On account of I'm sure
You will stick by me when I sleep
And when I'm awake
Then I won't be scared of nothin' nor nobody
No matter how many they is against me.
Deliver me, God,
'Cause I know you can bust 'em right in the face
If they bother me
And knock out their teeth
If ya have to.
We know you don't hafta very often
And we're glad.
'Cause we need your good luck more.
Psalm 90
You Been Around a Long Time
Psalm 90
God, you been around a long time
Even before hills and
Trees and stuff like that
You just always been God.
You make and bust men
And tell them where to go
A thousand years is nothing to you.
You can take care of bad guys
Just like they never was,
Or didn't last even a day.
We can get hurt if you get mad
And we just can't hide anything from you.
We know you check us out real good-like.
So even if we get to join the Golden Ages
You still know us
And even that just ain't much time with you
And they is gone too.
So, God, teach us to wise up
And get groovie.
Then, God, help us to hope you have pity on
us—
And we will know your love is around in the
morning.
Help us to get happy real soon.
And let everything go pretty good
From now to forever.
God Is Beautiful, Man - 1969
Genesis 4:9-12
Pretty soon he hears God saying, "Hey, Cain, man, where's your brother?" But Cain ain't admittin' nothin'. So he says, "I dunno. Whadda ya think I am, his babysitter or somethin'?" Now God's gettin' kinda mad about this too 'cause he knows that Cain's tryin' to give him a con job. So he says, "Listen, man, I know what's goin' on. You killed your brother and I'm gonna put a hex on you for doin' that. Now—get lost!"
Matthew 6:9-13 - The Lord's Prayer
Here's the way to do it—
God up in heaven
We know even your name is great
We hope your kingdom will get here
And everybody will do what you want
them to do—just like they do up there.
We hope we'll have enough to feed the whole
family.
We is sorry if we hurt anyone
or they hurt us we'll forget it
Don't make things rough for us
and watch over us
'cause everything is yours
and man, are you great
With all kinds of wonderful things about you.
