Daily Manna, Year Two · Day 238 · August 26
Waiting for News
“He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the LORD.”
"I just want to know, either way." Anybody who has waited for a result has said something like that, usually in a hallway, to somebody who cannot do a thing about it.
Picture two people in that hallway. One has her phone face up on her knee, and she keeps checking the screen even though nothing has changed. The other put his phone in his coat an hour ago and has not looked at it since. Ask either of them what they are afraid of, and neither will say the illness. They will say the not knowing, and the not knowing is exactly what this verse is about: "He shall not be afraid of evil tidings." Tidings are simply news.
The promise is narrower and steadier than it sounds. Nothing here promises that the news will be good. Psalm 112 is an honest poem. In verse eight the man stays unafraid "until he see his desire upon his enemies," so he still has enemies. In verse ten, the wicked are watching and gnashing their teeth. What is offered is a person who can hear bad news without falling apart, while the news itself stays what it was.
Where a heart like that comes from is the real point, and you only see it by reading the psalm before this one. Psalms 111 and 112 are a matched pair. Both are alphabet poems, with each line starting on the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and both open with "Praise ye the LORD." Psalm 111 says of God, "his righteousness endureth for ever," and "the LORD is gracious and full of compassion." Psalm 112 says of the man who fears Him, "his righteousness endureth for ever," and "he is gracious, and full of compassion." The second poem hands the first poem's words about God to a person, one phrase at a time, on purpose.
So the heart that is "fixed, trusting in the LORD" is borrowed from God's own character, and the original is printed one page earlier for you to check. Whatever news comes down that hallway, the One your heart is fixed on does not change, and that is why you can wait in peace.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 238 is Blessed Are the Merciful (Matthew 5:7).