Very Present Help

Picture two people in the same town, an hour apart. One is a woman standing in a grocery store aisle. She has just been told something over the phone, and she has not moved since. The other is a man sitting in his driveway. In a moment he has to walk into the house and be a father for the next four hours, and he can barely feel his hands.

Today's verse gives them different things, and it does that on purpose: "God is our refuge and strength." A refuge is something you get behind when fighting is not possible. That is for the woman in the aisle, who can do nothing at all about the news she has just heard. Strength is for the man in the driveway, who has to walk in and be a father whether or not he feels ready. One verse meets two people with two different needs, and it serves both of them.

The last phrase of the verse is even stronger in Hebrew than in most English. It says, in effect, that God is a help in troubles who is very much found. His help is close at hand and already there. You do not have to wait for it to be sent from somewhere far away.

And the psalm does not pretend the trouble is small. Read on, and it speaks of a time "though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea." Nobody writes that about a hard few months at work. The promise is that God is present in the middle of the collapse. It never promises the collapse will not come.

So ask for the one you need, and be as specific as the psalm is. You might pray, "God, I cannot fight this. Be the refuge I hide behind. Cover me tonight, and let me stop replaying it for an hour." Or you might pray, "God, I have to walk in there with nothing left. Be my strength for the next four hours. I am not asking to feel it." And if you honestly cannot tell which one you need, tell Him so. He knows, and He is very present to give it.

Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year two reading for day 132 is Better Than Sacrifice (1 Samuel 15:22).

All 365 readings in Daily Manna