Trouble

Psalm 50 reads like a courtroom scene. God calls "to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may judge his people." And the man who wrote it worked in the very place where the people worshipped.

Asaph was one of the chief singers David appointed to lead worship before the Lord. So day after day he stood where the sacrifices were offered, and he watched the whole operation: the smoke, the crowds, the schedule, and how smoothly it all ran. God gave this psalm to that man, and the charge in it is startling, because the worship had not stopped. God says so directly: "I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices or thy burnt offerings." The system was running well. Then God asks what He would want with their bulls, since "every beast of the forest is mine." He even says, "If I were hungry, I would not tell thee." Later in the psalm He turns to people who recite His laws while they hate to be taught.

Right in the middle of all this, with no warning, God makes an offer: "And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me." Asaph had spent his life watching people bring God things He did not need. Now he writes down the one thing God really asks for, and it is like a phone call from somebody in trouble.

Perhaps you have spent two months handling it yourself. You have a spreadsheet, a plan B, and a low, sick feeling you have decided is normal for someone your age.

So call on Him. Thinking it over on the drive is not the same as calling, and neither is writing about it. Ask Him in plain words for what you need. Then decide now, while it is still unanswered, who you will tell when the answer comes, because the second half of that verse matters as much as the first and it does not happen by accident. God has promised, "I will deliver thee," and He is waiting for you to ask.

Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year two reading for day 37 is That Ye May Know (1 John 5:13).

All 365 readings in Daily Manna