Daily Manna, Year Two · Day 76 · March 17
Said Out Loud
“Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.”
Psalm 20 was said out loud by a crowd, to one man, on the day he left for a war.
Read the whole of it and the shape is unmistakable. The LORD hear thee in the day of trouble. Grant thee according to thine own heart. The LORD fulfil all thy petitions. Five straight verses in the second person, a congregation standing in front of a king with an army drawn up behind him, praying at him where he can hear it.
Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God. That is the crowd's line, and they say it before anything has happened. Then, still before the fighting: They are brought down and fallen: but we are risen, and stand upright.
A crowd, a man leaving, and a sentence handed to him for the road. Somebody near you is going out this week into something they cannot control. The line was written to be said to them by people standing close enough to be heard.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 76 is The Comforter (John 14:26).