Daily Manna · Day 287 · October 14
Mercy Holds You Up
“When I said, My foot slippeth; thy mercy, O LORD, held me up.”
You know the sound you make when your foot slips. It is not even a word. It happens on black ice, or on the top step in the dark, and your body knows you are falling before your mind has caught up.
This psalm is built from lists, and it is worth reading them as lists. Early on, it lists what the proud were doing: "They break in pieces thy people, O LORD, and afflict thine heritage. They slay the widow and the stranger, and murder the fatherless." Then comes the charge that stings most: "Yet they say, The LORD shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it." They are accusing God of not paying attention.
Later the psalm answers with a second list, and this one is all about the writer himself: "When I said, My foot slippeth; thy mercy, O LORD, held me up. In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul." And a few verses on: "But the LORD is my defence; and my God is the rock of my refuge." That is three things. He is caught as he falls. He is steadied when his mind is racing. And he is given solid ground to stand on afterwards. Notice that he cried out while he was still slipping, before he hit the ground. And notice which part of God's nature shows up. Justice had every right to let the fall finish, yet it was mercy that came, and mercy got there before he landed.
You might pray it this way: Lord, I have called many of those catches luck, like the night I nearly sent that message, or the week I nearly walked out. Thank You for the ones I never noticed, which are probably most of them. My thoughts are loud again tonight, so I am asking for the second thing on the list as much as the first. Hold me up, and be my ground.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year two reading for day 287 is No Man Could Number (Revelation 7:9).