Daily Manna · Day 257 · September 14
Gentleness Makes Great
“Thou hast also given me the shield of thy salvation: and thy right hand hath holden me up, and thy gentleness hath made me great.”
Think back over this week, and you can probably remember being handled roughly. You may also remember a time you were rough with someone else, in the kitchen or on a phone call. If you let yourself, you can still hear how it sounded.
Most of the time we are hard on people because we are in a hurry. Being hard feels faster, and in the short run it usually is. That is why we keep choosing it, and why the sharp sentence is out of our mouths before the gentle one is ready.
David did not write this psalm from a quiet life. Its heading says he sang it on the day the LORD delivered him from all his enemies and from Saul, and the psalm is full of fighting. Enemies are chased and fall, and David says "a bow of steel is broken by mine arms." Here he is counting up what made him who he is, and his list begins where you would expect: "Thou hast also given me the shield of thy salvation: and thy right hand hath holden me up." Then comes the last item, which nobody would guess from the first two: "thy gentleness hath made me great." The Hebrew word carries the idea of humility, of God stooping down to the size of the person He is helping. David says that is what turned a shepherd boy into a king.
God has not changed the way He works. Think of the place where you know you are still impatient and sharp. The patience God is spending on you there this morning is the same patience that made David, and in time it will make you gentle too.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year two reading for day 257 is Him That Hath No Helper (Psalm 72:12).