He crowns and surrounds you with lovingkindness and compassion. Psalm 103:4.
But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Titus 3:4-7.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God says:
David sang, Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget none of His benefits.” Psalm 103:1-2. And he sang that My lovingkindness was better than life. Psalm 63:3. And one of the benefits he did not want to ever forget was that I surrounded him, crowned him, compassed him about, with lovingkindness and compassion. Psalm 103:4. And I want you to know this benefit also. “The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth.” Exodus 34:6. “For the LORD your God is a compassionate God; He will not fail you nor destroy you nor forget the covenant with your fathers which He swore to them.” Deuteronomy 4:31.
Today we continue our series “Forget not ALL His Benefits” with Life Lesson No. 4: “He crowns and surrounds you with lovingkindness and compassion.” Look at that Scripture in the language in which it was written, Hebrew, you see two words that I repeat to describe Myself often. Chesed and rachcum (racham). Chesed is a very rich word, hard to translate to any other language. It is the way I describe My love for mankind. I only used it describe My love for you but I could not use it to describe your love for Me yet under the Old Covenant because My Spirit was not in mankind (only on them) as Jesus had not died for your sins and been glorified yet. So under the Old Covenant men’s hearts were not alive towards Me to allow Me to pour My love into their hearts. Even today, for those who have rejected Jesus, their hearts are still hard, alive to sin and dead to Me, and they are unable to walk in this kind of love. It is an unconditional love showing favor, grace, kindness—a love beyond love, a supernatural love, it is who I am. It is closest to the word “agape” in Greek, which is the highest and purest love, and the word “grace” in Greek which means My divine life, skill, ability, forgiveness, mercy, unmerited favor, and power. My servant Paul sums up “chesed” as follows: “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 2:4-7. So you see it is My mercy, My great love, My grace, and My kindness towards you all included in one word, “chesed,” חסד.
I am the God of all comfort. I put My left hand under your head and with My right hand I embrace you. And in My left hand are riches and honor and in My right hand is long life (length of days, which is eternal life). I surround you with favor (My good Will for your life) as with a shield. Psalm 5:13, I surround you with lovingkindness and compassion, I surround you with glory and honor. Psalm 8:5. And the word “surround,” which is also translated “crown,” in Hebrew is the word “atar,” which means to compass all about, surround, and crown in the sense it is from the top of your head as honor to the soles of your feet as a hedge of protection.
And I surround you with My grace, favor, love, compassion, mercy, and kindness from the outside and the inside. I send you friends, companions, helpers, and guides. I filled Naomi’s bitterness with the lovingkindness and compassion of her daughter-in-law Ruth who was a companion and provider for her through My favor and grace. And I filled Ruth’s life with My lovingkindness and compassion by taking her lonely life of exile to one surrounded with the love, care, protection, grace, and favor of Boaz, her kinsman redeemer. And I filled the empty life of Boaz with the virtuous and loyal wife of Ruth, in a marriage covenant that brought forth a great grandson after My own heart, David, and down the line came My beloved Son according to the flesh. The fruit of compassion. Jesus is My compassion reaction for your exile in darkness in which Adam put you all. I sent Jesus to rescue you from darkness and to translate you into His Kingdom where you have found mercy and grace, salvation and peace, where you are never alone again.
JESUS IS THE TANGIBLE APPEARANCE OF MY LOVINGKINDNESS AND COMPASSION AMONG YOU. “But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” Titus 3:4-7. And He baptized and poured into you My promise of a Comforter, a Helper, an Advocate, and an intercessor who is with you, in you and on you forever. The Holy Spirit.
And I will NEVER leave you or forsake you. I have given you Jesus as your great good Shepherd and great High Priest, ever interceding for you, and He is with you and in you ALWAYS. Your hope of glory. And My glory is My goodness, My presence, and My power. I do not just love you from afar. I came to you. I rent the Heavens and came down with My strong arm of compassion to take you up into My bosom, My very heart, to surround you with lovingkindness and compassion. To give you a whole new and fruitful life. To make you My child with your heart alive to Me, your spirit lit with anointing oil, and your eternal life assured. And I share My thoughts with you by My Spirit in you. And He guides you to all truth and leads you in the way you should go. And He witnesses with your spirit that I am your loving Father and testifies to your spirit that your sins and offenses I remember NO MORE.
And I send you those who will be godly friends to you. I sent Timothy to Paul and Paul to Timothy and they became lovingkindness and compassion to one another, loving each other as I loved them and running together to the goal of their high calling in Christ, cheering each other on and encouraging one another with the encouragement I give. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” 2 Corinthians 1:3-4. And when Paul came to Rome as a prisoner for preaching the gospel, I sent believers to receive him, “And the brethren, when they heard about us, came from there as far as the Market of Appius and Three Inns to meet us; and when Paul saw them, he thanked God and took courage.” Acts 28:15. I send you encouragers. When Elijah felt all alone in serving Me and so discouraged he asked Me to take his life, I sent him Elisha to serve at his side like a son and finish the work I had given Elijah to do. And Elisha received the great comfort of a father in Elijah who mentored him to succeed him as the prophet of Israel and he received a double portion of the spirit on Elijah, the spirit of miracles and prophecy. And even in Heaven, those who are one family with you in Me, for all are alive for Me, are surrounding you as a cloud of witnesses cheering you on as you fight the good fight of faith and run your race.
And when you are in material need, in My compassion and lovingkindness I send you all you need and an abundance for good works. My servant Paul spoke thus to the church at Corinth as he collected an offering for the believers in Jerusalem who were facing a famine, “at this present time your abundance being a supply for their need, so that their abundance also may become a supply for your need, that there may be equality; as it is written, “He who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little had no lack.” 2 Corinthians 8:14-15. And he would also tell the church at Philippi when they sent him supplies to continue his ministry, “But I have received everything in full and have an abundance; I am amply supplied, having received from Epaphroditus what you have sent, a fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God. And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Now to our God and Father be the glory forever and ever. Amen.” Philippians 4:18-20.
And if there are no people around who can supply for you I rain down manna from Heaven, as I did for My people in the desert for forty years. And when they wanted meat out in that barren place, I had the quail fly in, with the help of a strong wind on My part. And when they needed water, I gave it to them out of the rock.
And I had the ravens fly in meat and bread morning and evening for Elijah until I sent him to a widow who needed supplies too, and I multiplied her flour and oil to feed her and all her household, and not just for a day or two but for over a year and a half.
When the widow of the guild prophet under Elisha was in dire financial need, I gave her the provision she needed miraculously through a Word I gave My prophet Elisha for her and she obeyed and got not only enough to pay the husband’s debts but a surplus for her and her sons to live on.
My lovingkindness and compassion turned water into wine to save a wedding party so that the newly marrieds and their families had no embarrassment. And when My Son looked with compassion upon the hungry crowd that was going without food to hear His Words, My compassion reaction was to multiply the few loaves and fish there to feed thousands till they were well satisfied, and there were twelve baskets full left over.
And I am your refuge and your fortress, your healer and your provider. When Paul’s eyes were blinded by the light emanating from My risen Son, I sent Ananias to lay his hands on him and heal him. And I sent Peter and John to the beautiful gate of the Temple to bring lovingkindness and compassion to a man crippled from birth so that he leapt up and walked. My loving eyes are on you day and night. I tell you that I am your Father, your good Father, who gives you good things, and that you are My child.
I have created the angels as ministering spirits serving you who are heirs of salvation and I have given them charge over you to guard you in all your ways. I cover you with the shadow of My hand and My faithfulness is a shield and a bulwark around you. I encircle you on every side. I speak Words of comfort to you. I am at your side to comfort you and lead you out of dark valleys of the shadow of death.
But above all I so loved you that I gave you My Son to be your everything. “But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:37-39.
And My apostle Paul wanted you all to know and experience My lovingkindness and compassion, the unfathomable riches of Christ, “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom the whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:14-19.
I love you. I surround you, crown you, compass you about, with My lovingkindness and compassion. You have nothing to fear. YOU can do all things through Him who strengthens you. Philippians 4:13. Jesus is My lovingkindness and compassion.