I don’t plan on switching to the new NIV. I’m not opposed to reducing offense when possible, but the price is too high. This blogger says it well:
If I had to name my biggest beef with the new NIV, it would be its frequent decision to reword language that applies to an individual and apply it instead to a plurality such that a third person singular gender-generic masculine pronoun does not have to be used. When preaching or teaching from the Bible, it makes sense to explain gender reference when there might be some uncertainty based on a translation that makes use of gender-generic masculine pronouns. But I don’t like a translation that pluralizes language applied to a “one among many,” as in Psalm 1. It makes more sense to expect and invite readers to correctly disambiguate gender-generic pronouns and other gender-generic language in English – gender-generic masculine language continues to have wide currency among English speakers –it is rarely difficult to do (emphasis mine).
In other words, in the name of avoiding one sin, they commit another. In my estimation, the cure is worse than the disease.
If it’s not clear to you what is meant above, here is a comparison of old and new:
Psalm 1:3 NIV (1984): He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.
Psalm 1:3 NIV (2011): “That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—whatever they do prospers.”
Even worse was the TNIV:
Psalm 1:3 TNIV: “They are like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither— whatever they do prospers.
But the NRSV takes the cake:
Psalm 1:3 NRSV: “They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither. In all that they do, they prosper.”
Unless we dare to open the Message:
Psalm 1:3 (Message): You ‘re a tree replanted in Eden, bearing fresh fruit every month, Never dropping a leaf, always in blossom.
Another issue, particularly in the Psalms, is that some of the masculine singular may not be a reference to godly people but to a specific single man (the Messiah). Translating it in any way other than masculine singular obscures that possibility. But that’s a topic for another time.