Daily Manna · Day 188 · July 7
Soul Waiting on God
“Truly my soul waiteth upon God: from him cometh my salvation.”
Most of us keep a backup plan for God.
I do, and I would not have chosen that word for it. A second option held warm in case the first does not arrive in time, or at all. The savings. The person who would take the call. The exit already mapped in case this church, this marriage, this job goes the way I am afraid it will. None of that is imprudence, and all of it becomes something else the moment I notice I am resting on it.
The psalm's first word gives the game away. Truly is ak in Hebrew, an emphatic particle meaning only, and it is used six times in this short psalm: he only is my rock; my soul, wait thou only upon God. He is not saying God is his best option. He is saying God is his only one, and he keeps saying it, the way a man does when he is arguing with himself and losing ground. And the word behind waiteth is silence. My soul is silent toward God. Not because nothing is happening, but because the negotiating has stopped.
Verse eight tells you what to do with the plan you would rather keep quiet: trust in him at all times, pour out your heart. And immediately after: trust not in oppression, and if riches increase, set not your heart upon them.
So pray it as it stands.
God, you know what I would reach for first if this went wrong. Let me name it instead of hiding it: the money, the person, the exit. I am not pretending I do not have one. I am asking that it stop being my rock. Make my soul quiet toward you, and let me leave the decision unmade one more day. Amen.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year two reading for day 188 is Tell The Children (Psalm 78:7).