Upheld

A man slips and falls hard on the ice in a parking lot. The first thing he does is look around to see who saw. Then he gets up too fast, waves away the woman coming over to help, and walks to his car with his hip already stiffening.

This verse names two kinds of people, and it names them separately: "The LORD upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all those that be bowed down." Falling is sudden. It happens at a moment you can point to: a certain hour, a foolish choice. The feeling that comes with it is usually shame. Being bowed down is slow. It is how a person stands when a weight has pressed on them long enough to change their shape, and the feeling that comes with it is more like exhaustion. The Hebrew words are different, and the psalm gives each one its own verb. The fallen are held up, and the bent are lifted.

Neither one is graded. The psalm does not ask how either person got there, and it does not attach a condition to the help. Notice, too, where this line sits. Psalm 145 is a song of praise written as an alphabet poem, its verses beginning with the letters of the Hebrew alphabet in order, and the whole poem lists what God is like. This verse is simply one of those entries. So holding up people who are on the floor is not an emergency measure for God. It is part of His character. The verse sits between "Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom" in verse 13 and His care for "every living thing" in verses 15 and 16.

Lord, it is the same failure as last time, and that is the part that stings. We had promised ourselves, and we meant it. Some of us fell this week. Some of us have been bent over for years and cannot remember standing up straight. You have a word for each of us. We are not going to wait until we feel able to get up. Hold us up, lift us, and help us do the next ordinary thing in front of us while You do it. Amen.

Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year two reading for day 84 is Whose Decision (Joel 3:14).

All 365 readings in Daily Manna