43- Encouragement from Psalm 139

Transcript:

This is episode 43. And today I want us to spend some time in God’s word. Let me start by reading this passage:

13 For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother's womb.
14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.

17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 If I would count them, they are more than the sand.
I awake, and I am still with you.

Without me saying where those verses are found, there’s a good chance you already knew that they come from Psalm 139. What a precious psalm! Especially to a mama who’s carrying a baby in her womb. What a comfort to know that the Lord is working inside you to knit that little one together. The shape of his nose. The color of her hair. That little personality quirk that may or may not be obvious from day one.

But there’s a double blessing in these verses because not only do they apply to the little one growing inside your tummy, but they also apply to YOU. You are fearfully and wonderfully made, intricately woven together. Prepared by God to be just the right mama for this little baby. God also specially designed a woman’s body to grow and birth a baby.

Sometimes it’s comforting to know that baby is safe inside your belly – growing - and sometimes it feels scary not being able to see what’s going on. This Psalm is a reminder that even when we can’t see, God sees: Verse 15 says, “My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret”… then in verse 16, “Your eyes saw my unformed substance.” God has his eyes on you and your baby. God is good and you can trust Him. I wish I could say that means smooth sailing with no difficulties along the way but unfortunately in a fallen world we can’t guarantee that. Some pregnancies are really hard. Birth does not always go the way we want it to go. But regardless of how hard or easy your pregnancy or birth is, God remains good. He is with you in the difficulty or the ease. He sees you and your baby and He cares for you. If you want to meditate on that more deeply, I encourage you to spend some time in Psalm 23 as well as psalm 139. In the devotions I offer in my full course, we spend a week walking through the 23rd psalm.

Today, let me encourage you to go back and read over verses 13-18 of Psalm 139. Think about how those verses point to God’s sweet intimate love for you and your baby. He sees you and your baby. He cares for you.

In this sin broken world, we can be so thankful that God does not abandon us in the good times or the difficult ones. And He made a way for things to be made right. For His creatures, us, to be reconciled to Him and overcome sin. And He did it through a little baby, born to a woman. Jesus, the GodMan. His perfect life, undeserved death, resurrection from the dead, and ascension to heaven where He is with the Father even now, makes all the difference in the world. If you don’t know Him or have questions about how that makes any difference, please reach out to me, I’d love to talk with you more about that.

Before I finish today, I want to go back and look at the beginning of this psalm – verses 1-12

O Lord, you have searched me and known me!
2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
3 You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways.
4 Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.
5 You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is high; I cannot attain it.

7 Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your presence?
8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
9 If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
10 even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light about me be night,”
12 even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is bright as the day,
for darkness is as light with you.

When I think about these verses in the context of pregnancy and childbirth, a few things come to mind. There are so many unknowns during this season – especially if this is your first child, but even if it’s not. If you’re waiting for labor to start on it’s own, that’s a BIG unknown. Will the baby come early or late? Will it go fast or be a long labor? Will there be complications? Can I handle it? Will I be a good parent? How do you change a diaper? How do you bathe a baby? The words of this psalm are comforting in light of all these & other unknowns. You don’t know but God does. He is acquainted with all of your ways. Even before you say or do anything, He knows. He is not surprised, even when you are. And this psalm says in verse 5, “You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.” That is an indication that He is always there, helping you, protecting you, guiding you. Another way I like to say it is that God equips us to do the things He gives us to do. Mama, He’s given you this baby and He has equipped you to give birth. He will help you do it. He will hem you in, behind and before, and lay His hand upon you as you go through this pregnancy and as you birth that baby – no matter what your birth ends up looking like, He will walk you through it: vaginal birth or cesarean; spontaneous labor or induction; few interventions or many; no pain meds or an epidural; long labor or short…

The next stanza is even further assurance of this truth. Let me read it again:

7 Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your presence?
8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
9 If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
10 even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light about me be night,”
12 even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is bright as the day,
for darkness is as light with you.

In the first stage of labor, there are several phases that a woman’s body goes through in the process of the cervix opening up and each one gets a little harder. It’s not called labor for nothing. Transition is what we call the last and most intense phase. It’s important to remember that even there, as you move through the different stages of labor, as you move into active labor and then into transition and on to pushing, God’s hand can lead you, His right hand can hold you. There is no place you can go from His Spirit or flee from His Presence – neither transition, nor the operating room. If things start to feel overwhelming now or when you’re in labor, it can feel like the darkness will cover you but this psalm reminds you that God’s got you, mama, and the darkness is not dark to Him. The night is as bright as the day. You can lean into Him and trust Him to carry you through. He is your anchor as the waves of contractions build, or as fear mounts, and He is your light when things feel dark.

I encourage you to take some time to pray through these verses today. Maybe even pick a portion of them to start to commit to memory so you can recall these truths more easily when you’re in labor.

Let me close us with a prayer:

Father, we thank you that you see this mama and her baby. Their frames are not hidden from you. You formed this mama to grow and birth this baby and that’s amazing! Help her now to trust you with the things she cannot see. Help her to lean on your word and anchor her identity in Christ.

Father, we are so thankful that you know us intimately. There is no place we can flee from you. There are so many unknowns in life and especially in pregnancy and birth. Help each mama listening today to know your presence behind and before her. Help her to trust you to equip her to do the jobs you give her to do. May she rest in you and your strength as she finishes this pregnancy and as she goes through the process of giving birth.

Show notes:

In this episode we are reminded from Psalm 139 that it is God who is forming your baby and has designed mama’s body to grow and birth a baby. He is the God who sees – both you and your baby and He is present with you no matter what direction your pregnancy or birth takes.

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