Daily Manna, Year Two · Day 209 · July 28
Not Unto Us
“Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth’s sake.”
Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth's sake. It is said twice over, the way a person repeats something they are frightened of getting wrong. And the reason offered has nothing to do with modesty. The glory goes to the name because of what the name is: thy mercy, and thy truth.
The psalm counts what God is, against a wall of statues. But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not. The catalogue ends in a verdict on the sculptors. They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them. You come to resemble whatever you have been asking for help.
So hear the psalm's own blessing spoken over you, since it arrives before the reader has asked for anything. The LORD hath been mindful of us: he will bless us. He will bless them that fear the LORD, both small and great. Ye are blessed of the LORD which made heaven and earth. Small and great is the phrase to keep, because it means the blessing is not rationed by size. Go into today blessed by the maker of heaven and earth, and put the glory back where the psalm puts it.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 209 is A Pillar in the Temple (Revelation 3:12).