Abba's Dearly Beloved

“You lay your hand upon me.”

Psalm 139:5 (NIV)

What does it mean to have our Saviour and Lord to lay his hand upon us as the verse in one of the most intimate psalms composed by David?

Picture yourself with Christ laying his arm around you and hand upon you. How does it feel? Do you feel the elated sense of joy and confidence that you are held by the one who fully knows you and has loved you with an everlasting love? Or as you picture this situation described by David in psalm 139, do you feel something else? Perhaps a sense of heaviness or even shame as that hand is laid upon you? Perhaps a whole range of things comes to your mind or emotions.

Whatever you may be experiencing from this, may you be encouraged and reminded of the heart of the one who lays his hand upon you. The very same hand that is extended to lay hold of us, does so with a Holy, pure refined love, to draw us closer, to prevent us stumbling and to pick us up when we have fallen, for that very same hand in whom we are permitted to lean on has made us worthy through the cross on which he lay.

Jesus, the living revelation of Father God, describing his actions as a mirror of what he saw the Father do, used his hands to heal. It says in gospels that people brought to Jesus all who had various kinds of sickness and laying hands on each one, he healed them lay them on the sick to bring healing (Luke 4:40).

Those same hands are those of the Father in the story of the prodigal son extended openly to welcome the ashamed lost son home. They helped caught and rescued Peter when he took his eyes off of Jesus towards the wind and the waves and began to sink.

Those same hands also laboured to carry the cross that was meant for you and me and into which nails were then hammered. If you return to the image of Jesus’s hand resting upon you, do you notice the scars where nails were received into those same hands for you and me? Not only do you see nail scarred hands but the distinct impression of your name there as one whom the saviour has redeemed, never to be forgotten (See Isaiah 46:15-16). What a joy that these are the hands of our saviour Christ Jesus that holds us secure and holds us close.

© 2022. Benjamin Trowbridge