It always amazes me how God knows just where I’m at and gives me help just when I need it. Often, the thing that I read in the morning from the Bible will be the very thing that I need for the circumstances of that day.
Recently, I volunteered to be a part of this devotional book, so I signed up for Psalm 34 which has so much special meaning for me. Coincidentally, I also picked Psalm 34:17 for the Bible Memory Sabbath at Thanksgiving. “The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles.” Little did I know the trouble I would be facing in the upcoming days. We were scheduled to go down and help our son, Mitch, and Bella who were expecting a baby. She had to be in the hospital for the last few weeks before her delivery. We left feeling so excited about the baby coming.
Our daughter, Elissa, was 19 weeks pregnant and was planning to fly down later that week, meet us, and attend the wedding of one of her childhood friends. Jim was preforming the ceremony. All seemed to be going well.
On our way down to California, we got a call from our son. He said the doctors were worried about the baby. The baby had stopped growing and would need to be delivered early. I could hear the worry in my son’s voice. We immediately prayed on the phone with him and as I was praying, I remembered the verse I had chosen. I thought to myself, God knows where I’m at. He’s answering our prayers. He wanted me to know that if I lift my voice to Him, He will deliver us! It gives me so much peace when I can sense God speaking directly into my situation.
I am a “helicopter parent” and tend to stress out about everything, but in my later years, I have learned to stand on these promises that God gives with His miraculous timing. I am becoming much better at communicating peace and trust to my children!
Shortly after praying for Mitch, Elissa called and said she had been dealing with a nosebleed that wouldn’t stop. She had already been to the ER a couple of times and had just left an ENT’s office. They thought the problem was resolved. She was scheduled to fly out three days later for the wedding in California. We prayed once again on the phone and once again I remembered the verse God had given me twice just before I left. I really felt God was right with us.
Our first grandbaby was delivered on October 31 at 8:00 in the morning. She was 3 lbs., 10 oz. She was only 34 weeks and expected to possibly have some difficulties. Miraculously, she came out crying, breathing on her own and never had to even go to the NICU. The Lord had delivered us!! I knew he was right there with baby Leavitt in the delivery room.
Two days later, on Friday, we got a call in the evening from Dustin, Elissa’s husband. They had just landed in Sacramento and Elissa’s nose was profusely bleeding. She was afraid that her insurance would not cover for her to get medical care in California as she lives in Couer d’Alene, Idaho. So instead of going straight to the ER, they were going to get a motel and try to make it through the night. She was hurting, and I was hurting for her. We prayed most of the night, not getting a lot of sleep. Early the next morning, we got a call from Dustin. He said Elissa was still bleeding a lot but that the insurance people had said they were covered for her to go to the nearest ER. The nearest ER was UC Davis Medical Center. We told them we were on our way to meet them and prayed the whole way there. I meant to post a prayer request on the Hood View Prayer website but inadvertently posted a general Facebook post about my daughter’s situation. I realized that after I got a text message from one of the anesthesiologists who I work with. She said, “Betty, remember I told you this is where I graduated from? She is in good hands!” I thought to myself, “How did she know about this?” Oops! But in the end, it turned out to be a blessing!
So many people sent prayers up and I know it made a huge difference. God was delivering us out of all our troubles even in my mistakes!
We arrived at UC Davis and found our daughter in an ER bed surrounded by doctors. She had packing in her nose and was obviously in pain. I knew we needed divine intervention, so I just interrupted everyone and asked if I could say a prayer. All those doctors dutifully bowed their heads and I asked for wisdom for them and healing for our daughter and also for protection of her baby.
One of the doctors who was in the room was an intern from Loma Linda University Medical Center doing rotations at UC Davis. Not coincidentally, she had gone to elementary school with Dustin! Wow, I just couldn’t believe how God was working things out for her to be at that hospital, on that day, assigned to Elissa. She prayed with Elissa and eventually, when it was determined Elissa was going to go to surgery, she was standing right beside her and praying with her as she was put to sleep. Elissa said, “I was scared but then I realized Shannon was holding my hand and praying for me.”
Jim and I had to leave for the wedding. He was kind of in charge of the whole thing and I had to go with him and leave our daughter in the hospital. It was the hardest thing. I clung to the promise that God was delivering us. I had no cell reception where we were at and had no way to find out how my daughter was doing. Later, when they told me about Dr. Shannon holding her hand, I thought, “God, you delivered us out of our troubles. I couldn’t be there, but You sent someone to hold her hand!” The doctors at UC Davis knew about Elissa’s friend’s wedding and that she was the bride’s only attendant. They came in to the hospital much earlier than they usually do, at 5:30 on a Sunday morning, to see how she was doing and discharge her, so she could make it to her friend’s wedding. There is no way that all this could have just been accidental. God was delivering us in a spectacular way! Fifteen minutes before the wedding, not showered and just fresh from surgery, Elissa arrived at the wedding venue!!
“The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles.” Psalm 34:17 As I write this, our daughter is now 25 weeks pregnant and baby Leavitt has grown to six lbs. We will be proud grandparents again in April of a grandson. I just want to say, “I will thank the Lord at all times, I will never stop praising Him. I will boast about Him for what He has done! Let all those who are pressured and stressed stop and listen. . . I prayed to the Lord and He answered me. He delivered me from all my fears.”
Betty McMurry
is Pastor Jim's wife and a helicopter mother of two adult children, Mitch-31 and Elissa-29 and soon to be two grandchildren, Leavitt Rose and a baby boy coming in April. She loves music, reading and family. She has four dogs a-barking, seven hens a-laying and a partridge in a pear tree.
Leviticus 14
The Ritual for Cleansing Healed Lepers
1 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “This shall be the law of the leper for the day of his cleansing: He shall be brought to the priest. 3 And the priest shall go out of the camp, and the priest shall examine him; and indeed, if the leprosy is healed in the leper, 4 then the priest shall command to take for him who is to be cleansed two living and clean birds, cedar wood, scarlet, and hyssop. 5 And the priest shall command that one of the birds be killed in an earthen vessel over running water. 6 As for the living bird, he shall take it, the cedar wood and the scarlet and the hyssop, and dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water. 7 And he shall sprinkle it seven times on him who is to be cleansed from the leprosy, and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let the living bird loose in the open field. 8 He who is to be cleansed shall wash his clothes, shave off all his hair, and wash himself in water, that he may be clean. After that he shall come into the camp, and shall stay outside his tent seven days. 9 But on the seventh day he shall shave all the hair off his head and his beard and his eyebrows—all his hair he shall shave off. He shall wash his clothes and wash his body in water, and he shall be clean.
10 “And on the eighth day he shall take two male lambs without blemish, one ewe lamb of the first year without blemish, three-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil as a grain offering, and one log of oil. 11 Then the priest who makes him clean shall present the man who is to be made clean, and those things, before the Lord, at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. 12 And the priest shall take one male lamb and offer it as a trespass offering, and the log of oil, and wave them as a wave offering before the Lord. 13 Then he shall kill the lamb in the place where he kills the sin offering and the burnt offering, in a holy place; for as the sin offering is the priest’s, so is the trespass offering. It is most holy. 14 The priest shall take some of the blood of the trespass offering, and the priest shall put it on the tip of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot. 15 And the priest shall take some of the log of oil, and pour it into the palm of his own left hand. 16 Then the priest shall dip his right finger in the oil that is in his left hand, and shall sprinkle some of the oil with his finger seven times before the Lord. 17 And of the rest of the oil in his hand, the priest shall put some on the tip of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot, on the blood of the trespass offering. 18 The rest of the oil that is in the priest’s hand he shall put on the head of him who is to be cleansed. So the priest shall make atonement for him before the Lord.
19 “Then the priest shall offer the sin offering, and make atonement for him who is to be cleansed from his uncleanness. Afterward he shall kill the burnt offering. 20 And the priest shall offer the burnt offering and the grain offering on the altar. So the priest shall make atonement for him, and he shall be clean.
21 “But if he is poor and cannot afford it, then he shall take one male lamb as a trespass offering to be waved, to make atonement for him, one-tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil as a grain offering, a log of oil, 22 and two turtledoves or two young pigeons, such as he is able to afford: one shall be a sin offering and the other a burnt offering. 23 He shall bring them to the priest on the eighth day for his cleansing, to the door of the tabernacle of meeting, before the Lord. 24 And the priest shall take the lamb of the trespass offering and the log of oil, and the priest shall wave them as a wave offering before the Lord. 25 Then he shall kill the lamb of the trespass offering, and the priest shall take some of the blood of the trespass offering and put it on the tip of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot. 26 And the priest shall pour some of the oil into the palm of his own left hand. 27 Then the priest shall sprinkle with his right finger some of the oil that is in his left hand seven times before the Lord. 28 And the priest shall put some of the oil that is in his hand on the tip of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed, on the thumb of the right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot, on the place of the blood of the trespass offering. 29 The rest of the oil that is in the priest’s hand he shall put on the head of him who is to be cleansed, to make atonement for him before the Lord. 30 And he shall offer one of the turtledoves or young pigeons, such as he can afford— 31 such as he is able to afford, the one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering, with the grain offering. So the priest shall make atonement for him who is to be cleansed before the Lord. 32 This is the law for one who had a leprous sore, who cannot afford the usual cleansing.”
The Law Concerning Leprous Houses
33 And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying: 34 “When you have come into the land of Canaan, which I give you as a possession, and I put the leprous plague in a house in the land of your possession, 35 and he who owns the house comes and tells the priest, saying, ‘It seems to me that there is some plague in the house,’ 36 then the priest shall command that they empty the house, before the priest goes into it to examine the plague, that all that is in the house may not be made unclean; and afterward the priest shall go in to examine the house. 37 And he shall examine the plague; and indeed if the plague is on the walls of the house with ingrained streaks, greenish or reddish, which appear to be deep in the wall, 38 then the priest shall go out of the house, to the door of the house, and shut up the house seven days. 39 And the priest shall come again on the seventh day and look; and indeed if the plague has spread on the walls of the house, 40 then the priest shall command that they take away the stones in which is the plague, and they shall cast them into an unclean place outside the city. 41 And he shall cause the house to be scraped inside, all around, and the dust that they scrape off they shall pour out in an unclean place outside the city. 42 Then they shall take other stones and put them in the place of those stones, and he shall take other mortar and plaster the house.
43 “Now if the plague comes back and breaks out in the house, after he has taken away the stones, after he has scraped the house, and after it is plastered, 44 then the priest shall come and look; and indeed if the plague has spread in the house, it is an active leprosy in the house. It is unclean. 45 And he shall break down the house, its stones, its timber, and all the plaster of the house, and he shall carry them outside the city to an unclean place. 46 Moreover he who goes into the house at all while it is shut up shall be unclean until evening. 47 And he who lies down in the house shall wash his clothes, and he who eats in the house shall wash his clothes.
48 “But if the priest comes in and examines it, and indeed the plague has not spread in the house after the house was plastered, then the priest shall pronounce the house clean, because the plague is healed. 49 And he shall take, to cleanse the house, two birds, cedar wood, scarlet, and hyssop. 50 Then he shall kill one of the birds in an earthen vessel over running water; 51 and he shall take the cedar wood, the hyssop, the scarlet, and the living bird, and dip them in the blood of the slain bird and in the running water, and sprinkle the house seven times. 52 And he shall cleanse the house with the blood of the bird and the running water and the living bird, with the cedar wood, the hyssop, and the scarlet. 53 Then he shall let the living bird loose outside the city in the open field, and make atonement for the house, and it shall be clean.
54 “This is the law for any leprous sore and scale, 55 for the leprosy of a garment and of a house, 56 for a swelling and a scab and a bright spot, 57 to teach when it is unclean and when it is clean. This is the law of leprosy.”
Leviticus 15
The Law Concerning Bodily Discharges
1 And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, 2 “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When any man has a discharge from his body, his discharge is unclean. 3 And this shall be his uncleanness in regard to his discharge—whether his body runs with his discharge, or his body is stopped up by his discharge, it is his uncleanness. 4 Every bed is unclean on which he who has the discharge lies, and everything on which he sits shall be unclean. 5 And whoever touches his bed shall wash his clothes and bathe in water, and be unclean until evening. 6 He who sits on anything on which he who has the discharge sat shall wash his clothes and bathe in water, and be unclean until evening. 7 And he who touches the body of him who has the discharge shall wash his clothes and bathe in water, and be unclean until evening. 8 If he who has the discharge spits on him who is clean, then he shall wash his clothes and bathe in water, and be unclean until evening. 9 Any saddle on which he who has the discharge rides shall be unclean. 10 Whoever touches anything that was under him shall be unclean until evening. He who carries any of those things shall wash his clothes and bathe in water, and be unclean until evening. 11 And whomever the one who has the discharge touches, and has not rinsed his hands in water, he shall wash his clothes and bathe in water, and be unclean until evening. 12 The vessel of earth that he who has the discharge touches shall be broken, and every vessel of wood shall be rinsed in water.
13 ‘And when he who has a discharge is cleansed of his discharge, then he shall count for himself seven days for his cleansing, wash his clothes, and bathe his body in running water; then he shall be clean. 14 On the eighth day he shall take for himself two turtledoves or two young pigeons, and come before the Lord, to the door of the tabernacle of meeting, and give them to the priest. 15 Then the priest shall offer them, the one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering. So the priest shall make atonement for him before the Lord because of his discharge.
16 ‘If any man has an emission of semen, then he shall wash all his body in water, and be unclean until evening. 17 And any garment and any leather on which there is semen, it shall be washed with water, and be unclean until evening. 18 Also, when a woman lies with a man, and there is an emission of semen, they shall bathe in water, and be unclean until evening.
19 ‘If a woman has a discharge, and the discharge from her body is blood, she shall be set apart seven days; and whoever touches her shall be unclean until evening. 20 Everything that she lies on during her impurity shall be unclean; also everything that she sits on shall be unclean. 21 Whoever touches her bed shall wash his clothes and bathe in water, and be unclean until evening. 22 And whoever touches anything that she sat on shall wash his clothes and bathe in water, and be unclean until evening. 23 If anything is on her bed or on anything on which she sits, when he touches it, he shall be unclean until evening. 24 And if any man lies with her at all, so that her impurity is on him, he shall be unclean seven days; and every bed on which he lies shall be unclean.
25 ‘If a woman has a discharge of blood for many days, other than at the time of her customary impurity, or if it runs beyond her usual time of impurity, all the days of her unclean discharge shall be as the days of her customary impurity. She shall be unclean. 26 Every bed on which she lies all the days of her discharge shall be to her as the bed of her impurity; and whatever she sits on shall be unclean, as the uncleanness of her impurity. 27 Whoever touches those things shall be unclean; he shall wash his clothes and bathe in water, and be unclean until evening.
28 ‘But if she is cleansed of her discharge, then she shall count for herself seven days, and after that she shall be clean. 29 And on the eighth day she shall take for herself two turtledoves or two young pigeons, and bring them to the priest, to the door of the tabernacle of meeting. 30 Then the priest shall offer the one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering, and the priest shall make atonement for her before the Lord for the discharge of her uncleanness.
31 ‘Thus you shall separate the children of Israel from their uncleanness, lest they die in their uncleanness when they defile My tabernacle that is among them. 32 This is the law for one who has a discharge, and for him who emits semen and is unclean thereby, 33 and for her who is indisposed because of her customary impurity, and for one who has a discharge, either man or woman, and for him who lies with her who is unclean.’ ”
Psalm 34
The Happiness of Those Who Trust in God
A Psalm of David when he pretended madness before Abimelech, who drove him away, and he departed.
1 I will bless the Lord at all times;
His praise shall continually be in my mouth.
2 My soul shall make its boast in the Lord;
The humble shall hear of it and be glad.
3 Oh, magnify the Lord with me,
And let us exalt His name together.
4 I sought the Lord, and He heard me,
And delivered me from all my fears.
5 They looked to Him and were radiant,
And their faces were not ashamed.
6 This poor man cried out, and the Lord heard him,
And saved him out of all his troubles.
7 The angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear Him,
And delivers them.
8 Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good;
Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!
9 Oh, fear the Lord, you His saints!
There is no want to those who fear Him.
10 The young lions lack and suffer hunger;
But those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing.
11 Come, you children, listen to me;
I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
12 Who is the man who desires life,
And loves many days, that he may see good?
13 Keep your tongue from evil,
And your lips from speaking deceit.
14 Depart from evil and do good;
Seek peace and pursue it.
15 The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,
And His ears are open to their cry.
16 The face of the Lord is against those who do evil,
To cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.
17 The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears,
And delivers them out of all their troubles.
18 The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart,
And saves such as have a contrite spirit.
19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous,
But the Lord delivers him out of them all.
20 He guards all his bones;
Not one of them is broken.
21 Evil shall slay the wicked,
And those who hate the righteous shall be condemned.
22 The Lord redeems the soul of His servants,
And none of those who trust in Him shall be condemned.