Daily Manna, Year Two · Day 237 · August 25
Thy Great Mercies
“O my God, incline thine ear, and hear; open thine eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by thy name: for we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies.”
O my God, incline thine ear, and hear; open thine eyes, and behold our desolations. Daniel is asking for a city, and in the middle of the asking he stops to say what he is standing on: for we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies.
Read the whole prayer for who owns what, because that is how it is built. O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him. O LORD, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces. To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him. Then the city, which he will not once call his own: thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain, thy sanctuary that is desolate, the city which is called by thy name. And the reason he finally gives for asking at all is not a need. Defer not, for thine own sake, O my God.
Praying it back is the whole use of having it. Righteousness belongs to you and we have brought none. Mercies and forgivenesses belong to you and we did not lend them to you. The names on the things we are frightened for are yours before they are ours, the church, the family, the work, the country. O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do. And notice what Gabriel says on arrival, with Daniel still mid-sentence: At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth. The answer had already left. Daniel on his knees had no way of knowing that while he was still speaking. Neither do we.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 237 is The Wicked One Cannot Touch (1 John 5:18).