Very Present Help

Two people, an hour apart, in the same town. One has just been told something over the phone and has not moved since. The other has to walk into a room and be a father for four hours and cannot feel his hands.

The psalm hands them different things, and it does that on purpose. God is our refuge and strength. A refuge is what you get behind when fighting is not an option, and that is for the woman in the aisle, who can do nothing whatever about what she has just been told. Strength is for the man in the driveway, who has to walk in and be a father for the next four hours whether or not he can feel his hands. Two people, two needs, one verse, and it refuses to serve only one of them.

The last phrase is blunter in Hebrew than English usually renders it: a help in troubles, very much found. Located. Available. Not dispatched from elsewhere on request.

And the psalm does not pretend the trouble is manageable. Read on and the earth is being removed and the mountains carried into the midst of the sea. Nobody writes that about a difficult quarter. This is a promise of God's presence inside collapse, not a promise that the collapse is cancelled.

So ask for the one you need, and be as specific as the psalm is. God, I cannot fight this. Be the thing I get behind. Cover me tonight and let me stop running it on a loop for an hour. Or: God, I have to walk in there with nothing left. Be strength in me for the next four hours; I am not asking to feel it. And if you honestly cannot tell which of the two you are, say that, and let him decide which you get.

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