Daily Manna, Year Two · Day 233 · August 21
If Thou Shouldest Mark
“If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?”
We keep our own accounts, and we keep them kindly. Things get written off. The bad week goes down as tiredness, and the sharp words at the table as being provoked. The running total stays manageable, because we are the ones holding the pen.
"If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?" The Hebrew word for mark means to watch over and keep, the way someone keeps a careful record. The question is left hanging, and nobody's name is put forward to answer it. What comes next is stranger than relief: "But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared." Forgiveness comes first, then a holy fear, and the psalm does not explain how they fit. It simply waits: "I wait for the LORD, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope."
So put the pen down for a while and be quiet before Him. The psalm closes on its hope: "with the LORD there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption."
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 233 is Good Tidings to the Meek (Isaiah 61:1-2).