Verse of the Day for July 10

Count the verbs in verse six. O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker. Each one goes lower than the last. Worship, then bow, then kneel, until the body is close to the ground.

Pressure pushes the other way. It tightens the shoulders, lifts the chin, makes us stand guard over our own lives. The psalm suggests that the answer to being pressed down is to go down willingly, before the one whose hands formed the dry land.

The reason given is gentle. We are the sheep of his hand. Not only of his field, of his hand, close enough to be carried.

Then the verse breaks off: To day if ye will hear his voice. The psalm goes on to warn against hardening the heart as Israel did in the wilderness, when the pressure of thirst made them quarrel with God. Pressure can harden a person or it can bend one. Today is when that is decided.

If the pressure is a hospital bill, or a manager waiting for your answer, find somewhere for two minutes, a stairwell, a quiet corner, and lower yourself. Kneel if you can. Let the body say what the mind is too tight to say.

Going low before God is not defeat; it is relief.

Today, while the pressure is on, keep your heart soft enough to hear him.