Daily Manna, Year Two · Day 346 · December 12
Cause Me to Hear
“Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness in the morning; for in thee do I trust: cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; for I lift up my soul unto thee.”
The alarm has not gone yet and you are already awake, running the same circuit you were running at midnight, and the day has begun without your permission.
The man who wrote this line was in worse condition than that, and the psalm says so before it gets anywhere near 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. And he is frightened of being answered too late. Hear me speedily, O LORD: my spirit faileth. This is not a man with a quiet time. It is a man with a deadline. Notice, then, the shape of what he asks for twice. Cause me to hear. Cause me to know. Both are handed over as things he cannot do for himself, which is an odd way to ask for two commodities the modern advice would tell him to generate: feel loved, decide your direction. He puts both on the other side of the table, and the only thing he claims to be bringing is the lifting.
Cause me to hear it, then, this morning, because I cannot manufacture it and I have tried. I do not need the whole day explained. One sentence of your lovingkindness would change the hour I am actually in. Show me the next stretch of road, since the way is yours before it is mine, and hold what I am lifting, because I have nothing else in my hands. Amen.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 346 is Everlasting Covenant Promise (Jeremiah 32:40).