Cause Me to Hear

You are sitting on the edge of the bed with one sock on. The house is still dark, and the worry you went to sleep with was waiting for you when you woke. The day has started before you were ready for it.

The man who prayed today's verse was in a worse place than that, and his psalm says so plainly before it gets anywhere near the morning. "The enemy hath persecuted my soul; he hath smitten my life down to the ground; he hath made me to dwell in darkness, as those that have been long dead. Therefore is my spirit overwhelmed within me; my heart within me is desolate." He has already asked God not to put him on trial: "enter not into judgment with thy servant: for in thy sight shall no man living be justified." He is also afraid that help will come too late: "Hear me speedily, O LORD: my spirit faileth." This is a man in real trouble, and he knows that time is short.

So look at how he asks. He asks for two things, and he puts both of them in God's hands: "Cause me to hear" and "cause me to know." He cannot make himself hear God's lovingkindness, and he cannot work out the right road on his own, so he asks God to do both. Most advice today would tell him to manage those things himself, to make himself feel loved and to decide his own direction. He hands both to God instead. What he brings is his trust, "for in thee do I trust," and his own soul, held up to God like an open pair of hands: "for I lift up my soul unto thee."

Lord, cause me to hear it this morning, because I cannot make it happen myself, and I have tried. I do not need the whole day explained. One word of Your lovingkindness would change the hour I am in. Show me the next stretch of the road, because the way is Yours before it is mine. I trust You, and I lift my soul up to You, because I have nothing else to bring. You are faithful, and I am counting on You to answer. Amen.

Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 346 is Everlasting Covenant Promise (Jeremiah 32:40).

All 365 readings in Daily Manna, Year Two