Our daughter was born two months early and needed life saving surgery within 48 hours of being born. She was our firstborn and we thought we were going to lose her.
I still remember the doctors giving us a side room in the hospital while our daughter was on a life support machine. Everything felt so fragile. We had no idea if she would live. In the side room, we prayed and read Scripture. The Psalm we landed on was Psalm 121. It was a Psalm that had meant a lot to Dorothy when she lost her father about 10 years earlier and God spoke to us so powerfully through His Word in the hospital.
God reassured us that he was the one who made heaven and earth! That’s pretty reassuring isn’t it. What a privilege to talk to the one who made heaven and earth and to know He is the one who will help us. It’s natural when you are in hospital to look to the doctors to fix everything, but as I looked at my daughter on the life support machine, and the doctors around who seemed so healthy by comparison, I realised that they were just as much being sustained by the LORD who made heaven and earth.
And what a comfort to know that the LORD doesn’t slumber or sleep! The doctors got tired and had to change shifts, but the LORD didn’t. When you are in hospital you are often awake at times that others aren’t, what a comfort to know that night or day, the LORD is there to talk to.
The Psalm promises not only that the LORD is the one who made heaven and earth, and is always awake and watching over His people, but also that He will keep and protect His people from all harm. Dorothy and I had both lost parents to cancer by this stage, and so we knew the Psalm was not promising healing from every disease. What could the Psalm mean when it promises the LORD will keep his people? I think there is a clue in the last word – forevermore. For those who belong to Jesus there is a promise that the LORD will keep us from all evil and will keep our lives even through death.
We did not know if our daughter would live, but we knew the LORD was watching over us all the time, working for our good. We knew, and still know, that we are on a journey, our true home is with the Lord in the new heavens and earth. A place secured by the Lord Jesus who will keep us forever! But while we wait for that day and face troubles that Paul describes as light and momentary, what a joy to know the Lord who made heaven and earth cares for us, and is watching over us day and night.
Light and Momentary Troubles 
Leave a comment