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Friday 5-6-22 6th. Day Of The Weekly Cycle, Iyar 4, 5782 48th. Spring Day
Day 19 ― Hod of Tiferet: Humility in Compassion
If compassion is not to be condescending, it must include humility. Hod is recognizing that my ability to be compassionate and giving does not make me better than the recipient; it is the acknowledgment and appreciation that by creating one who needs compassion God gave me the gift of being able to bestow compassion. Thus there is no place for haughtiness in compassion.
Do I feel superior because I am compassionate? Do I look down at those that need my compassion? Am I humble and thankful to God for giving me the ability to have compassion for others?
Exercise for the day: Express compassion in an anonymous fashion, not taking any personal credit.
He Knows
Read: Psalm 139:1–5 | Bible in a Year: 1 Kings 21–22; Luke 23:26–56
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You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. Psalm 139:1
Lea was about to start a job as a nurse in Taiwan. She’d be able to better provide for her family, more than she could in Manila, where job opportunities were limited. On the night before her departure, she gave instructions to her sister, who’d be taking care of her five-year-old daughter. “She’ll take her vitamins if you also give her a spoonful of peanut butter,” Lea explained, “And, remember, she’s shy. She’ll play with her cousins eventually. And she’s afraid of the dark . . .”
While looking out the plane window the next day, Lea prayed: Lord, no one knows my daughter like I do. I can’t be with her, but You can.
We know the people we love, and we notice all the details about them because they’re precious to us. When we can’t be with them due to various circumstances, we’re often anxious that since no one knows them as well as we do they’ll be more vulnerable to harm.
In Psalm 139, David reminds us that God knows us more than anyone does. In the same way, He knows our loved ones intimately (vv. 1–4). He’s their Creator (vv. 13–15), so He understands their needs. He knows what will happen each day of their lives (v. 16), and He’s with them and will never leave them (vv. 5, 7–10).
When you’re anxious for others, entrust them to God for He knows them best and loves them the most.
Who can you entrust to God’s care? How can you show your trust in Him in this area?
Father in heaven, though I can’t always be with those I love, I entrust them to Your loving care, remembering that You know them the best and love them the most.
INSIGHT
While Psalm 139 is well known for its description of the greatness of God, there’s a subtle irony in its final verses: “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (vv. 23–24).
In a song that in part celebrates the all-knowing nature of God (His omniscience), the irony is that David asked God to search his heart after acknowledging in verse 1 that He’d already searched and known him.
And in verse 3 he said, “You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.” Perhaps the key point isn’t God’s ability to know, but the psalmist’s willingness to be exposed before Him and His full knowledge.
By Karen Huang|May 6th, 2022
Trust In God Psalm One Thirty Nine:1-5
1 O lord, thou hast searched me, and known me.
2 Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off.
3 Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.
4 For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether.
5 Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me.
Read full chapter
Love, Walter and Debbie
Day 19 ― Hod of Tiferet: Humility in Compassion
If compassion is not to be condescending, it must include humility. Hod is recognizing that my ability to be compassionate and giving does not make me better than the recipient; it is the acknowledgment and appreciation that by creating one who needs compassion God gave me the gift of being able to bestow compassion. Thus there is no place for haughtiness in compassion.
Do I feel superior because I am compassionate? Do I look down at those that need my compassion? Am I humble and thankful to God for giving me the ability to have compassion for others?
Exercise for the day: Express compassion in an anonymous fashion, not taking any personal credit.
He Knows
Read: Psalm 139:1–5 | Bible in a Year: 1 Kings 21–22; Luke 23:26–56
Download MP3
Subscribe to iTunes
You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. Psalm 139:1
Lea was about to start a job as a nurse in Taiwan. She’d be able to better provide for her family, more than she could in Manila, where job opportunities were limited. On the night before her departure, she gave instructions to her sister, who’d be taking care of her five-year-old daughter. “She’ll take her vitamins if you also give her a spoonful of peanut butter,” Lea explained, “And, remember, she’s shy. She’ll play with her cousins eventually. And she’s afraid of the dark . . .”
While looking out the plane window the next day, Lea prayed: Lord, no one knows my daughter like I do. I can’t be with her, but You can.
We know the people we love, and we notice all the details about them because they’re precious to us. When we can’t be with them due to various circumstances, we’re often anxious that since no one knows them as well as we do they’ll be more vulnerable to harm.
In Psalm 139, David reminds us that God knows us more than anyone does. In the same way, He knows our loved ones intimately (vv. 1–4). He’s their Creator (vv. 13–15), so He understands their needs. He knows what will happen each day of their lives (v. 16), and He’s with them and will never leave them (vv. 5, 7–10).
When you’re anxious for others, entrust them to God for He knows them best and loves them the most.
Who can you entrust to God’s care? How can you show your trust in Him in this area?
Father in heaven, though I can’t always be with those I love, I entrust them to Your loving care, remembering that You know them the best and love them the most.
INSIGHT
While Psalm 139 is well known for its description of the greatness of God, there’s a subtle irony in its final verses: “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (vv. 23–24).
In a song that in part celebrates the all-knowing nature of God (His omniscience), the irony is that David asked God to search his heart after acknowledging in verse 1 that He’d already searched and known him.
And in verse 3 he said, “You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.” Perhaps the key point isn’t God’s ability to know, but the psalmist’s willingness to be exposed before Him and His full knowledge.
By Karen Huang|May 6th, 2022
Trust In God Psalm One Thirty Nine:1-5
1 O lord, thou hast searched me, and known me.
2 Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off.
3 Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.
4 For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether.
5 Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me.
Read full chapter
Love, Walter and Debbie
