Daily Manna · Day 4 · January 4
The Same Hands
“The LORD will give strength unto his people; the LORD will bless his people with peace.”
Maybe your grip on life has been slipping for months, quietly, while everything looks calm on the outside. If so, a line about strength and peace can sound like a slogan painted on a wall, and that is a fair thing to feel.
So look at what the psalm puts in front of that line. It is a list, and every item in it belongs to one voice. "The voice of the LORD is upon the waters." "The voice of the LORD is powerful; the voice of the LORD is full of majesty." "The voice of the LORD breaketh the cedars." "The voice of the LORD divideth the flames of fire." "The voice of the LORD shaketh the wilderness." "The voice of the LORD maketh the hinds to calve, and discovereth the forests." That phrase comes seven times. The storm moves in from the sea, crosses Lebanon, and goes down into the desert, and everything in its path is either broken open or stripped bare.
Then verse 11 reads like an eighth thing that same voice does. It is the same voice, now doing a different work: giving strength and speaking peace. Notice who receives it, too. This is the language of God's covenant with His own people, and the psalm says it twice: "unto his people," and "his people with peace."
That is the truth to carry into an ordinary Tuesday. The power that tears through a forest does not become smaller or different when it reaches you. It is the same power, turned toward you to hold you up.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year two reading for day 4 is My God, My God (Psalm 22:1).