Good morning, First Methodist Midland church family! Last week, began daily staff devotionals on the Psalms of David and David’s life. I am one who really likes the book of Psalms! I was glad that Pastor Melissa was honest last week about not really liking them, and you may share this opinion. For me, Psalms is my go-to place when I’m not sure where else to turn first in the Bible. 
 
The collection of Psalms in the Bible gives a place for every emotion – lament and praise, joy and sadness, gratitude, anger, bitterness, and deep regret. It’s ALL there!  This is comforting to me because it’s like giving permission for these emotions – that there’s a place for them. We sometimes want to hide some of these emotions that we view as less desirable, but the Psalms, and particularly David and the stories of his life, show us that it is good to admit them before God so he can work with us on them. If you didn’t get a chance to watch Jim Collett’s devotional yesterday – you should! It is excellent! He talked about pouring out our souls before God so He can help us move on from there.
 
In my last video staff devotional, I talked about an experience of God’s presence during illness when my husband Daniel and I were living in Guatemala for two years. The Psalms of David immediately bring to mind for me another experience during that time that I’d like to share with you today. While that first experience of extreme sickness occurred shortly after arriving in Guatemala, this experience took place after we had been living there for about a year and a half.
 
On New Year’s Day 2008, Daniel and I were in a clinic at a hospital in Guatemala City. I was thinking that I likely had developed pneumonia again. Imagine our surprise and great confusion when after a blood test the doctor came with the results and told me “Congratulations”! That was the way we found out that I was expecting a child.
 
Daniel and I had been married for six years at that point and very much wanted to have children. I had miscarried with our first, so while this new was very exciting, we also received it with a great deal of caution and wondering. The road during the next few months wasn’t an easy one. There were some issues with the pregnancy, so my doctor, in an abundance of caution, put me on five weeks of bed rest. When you are lying in bed for five weeks, it is hard to keep your mind from filling with fears – constantly wondering what was going to happen with that little life inside me.
 
As I mentioned at the beginning of this devotional, Psalms is my go-to place when I don’t know where else to go. So as I was lying there one day, I started reading the Psalms. I was reading the very familiar Psalm of David – Psalm 139. I love that my Bible titles this Psalm: “The Inescapable God.” This Psalm would probably rank among the most familiar Psalms, at least parts of it. You have probably heard the parts about “I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made” or “you knit me together in my mother’s womb”. It’s a great Psalm, and these parts would have been appropriately meaningful to someone expecting a child, but these weren’t the parts of it that stood out to me. What leaped off the page that day were verses 5 and 6: “You hem me in, behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.” 
 
I imagined the hem on a piece of clothing and this visual was so comforting to me. I imagined that little life inside of me safely enclosed in God’s hands – like material that is folded over and stitched together to make a hem.  It wasn’t a guarantee that this life was going to make it and that I would one day see and hold him or her, but it was a strong reassurance that helped me to surrender – whatever happened with that life, it would be okay because he or she was held in God’s hands.
 
It wasn’t long after that day that I received an email from my sister in law on January 27, 2008. What do you know, she said….
 
“I ran across this verse the other day and you came to mind: Psalm 139:5 – You hem me in before and behind; You have laid Your hand upon me. When I read that I envisioned your baby in your womb because this is the passage that talks about how we are fearfully and wonderfully made, so this is my prayer for Baby Harris!” 
 
That was like the exclamation point on it and how God uses other people to speak in our lives sometimes. It was as if He was saying, in case you are doubting that you heard me the first time, yes, I gave you this verse. Cling to it. I haven’t stopped holding your child.
 
There’s some powerful things in that and we would need many more devotionals to cover them all but let me just say as an aside – when you feel the prompting of the Holy Spirit – God’s bringing someone to mind: to pray for them, share a verse with them, a word of encouragement, maybe something physically you need to share with them  — do it! You may be their answer to prayer. That is such a wonderful and amazing part about God allowing us to be used in His work and about the body of Christ coming together!
 
Back to the story, I did cling to that verse and in August of 2008 our amazing son, who is now almost twelve, arrived into our lives. He is a constant reminder of God’s wonderful gifts!
 
Psalm 139:5 is now part of my son’s identity and I hope he always knows that God has hemmed him in behind and before and God’s hand is upon him.  
 
Let us pray – Thank you God for the gift of your Word. I pray that we would all remember today that we are hemmed in and can rest in the assurance that your hand is upon us. Amen.