MIDRASH TEHILLIM
1.....(16.8)
I have placed the LORD always before me;
Rav taught, In making a blessing a man is required to say, Blessed are You, O LORD, for a blessing where the LORD's name is not mentioned is no blessing.
שִׁוִּ֬יתִי יְהֹוָ֣ה לְנֶגְדִּ֣י תָמִ֑יד כִּ֥י מִֽ֝ימִינִ֗י בַּל־אֶמּֽוֹט
Shivvisi adonai lenegdi somid ki mimini bal-emmot
I have placed the LORD always before me; He is at my right hand; I will not falter.
1.....(16.8)
I have placed the LORD always before me;
Rav taught, In making a blessing a man is required to say, Blessed are You, O LORD, for a blessing where the LORD's name is not mentioned is no blessing.
1.
Now I have set the LORD always before me, at my own level, for I shaall be moved no more from Him, Who is my Right Hand.
[שִׁוִּ֬יתִי] (Shivvisi)
[שָׁוָה] (shavah) - to be even, to smooth out, to even out
There are those who labor under the delusion that God must be conceived of as Someone Who towers far above earthly affairs and Who thinks all things terrestrial to be far below Him. “But as for me," says David, "my conception of Him is very different. I have perceived His presence on the level of my own earthly existence; I no longer seek Him in the heights but I have set Him before my eyes in everything I do on earth. Nothing here below is so small or insignificant that God would be indifferent to it. Whatever I am, whatever I wish to accomplish, lies clearly before His eyes. I shall hold fast to this conviction forever, and shall never again allow myself to succumb to even one moment of weakness.”
Tzava'at Harivash (2-3)
SHIVITY - I have placed the LORD always before me;
Shiviti is an expression of hishtavut (equanimity):[1] no matter what happens, whether people praise or shame you, and so, too, with anything else, it is all the same to you.
This applies likewise to any food: it is all the same to you whether you eat delicacies or other things. For [with this perspective] the yetzer hara is entirely removed from you.
Whatever may happen, say that “it comes from [God], blessed be He, and if it is proper in His eyes…”. Your motives are altogether for the sake of Heaven, and as for yourself nothing makes any difference.
This [sense of equanimity] is a very high level.
[1]
Shiviti is related to the root-word shaveh - equal. The notion of equanimity is a fundamental principle in the pursuit of authentic religiosity and piety.