DEVOTIONAL FROM PASTOR DAVE MARCH 22, 2023

When I was 8 years old, my mom gave me my very first Bible. It is a white pleather, red-letter King James Version. But not only did she give me this Bible, she told me we were going to read it together. In fact, she said we were going to memorize some of it.

I have vivid memories of sitting up in my bed at night with her as we made our way through memorizing, one verse at a time, Psalm 121. Thank goodness there are only 8 verses! But after a little more than a week, I had memorized the whole thing. She said that way I’ll always have it with me. I can carry it around with me in my heart.

After living with dementia for the past few years, my mom passed away last Monday. We are so grateful for all the expressions of love and support that so many of you have extended to her after she moved here a few months ago, and then to us in this time of loss.

My mom left instructions for her memorial service. She wanted “Love Lifted Me” and “It Is Well with My Soul” to be sung. She wanted “You Raise Me Up” to be played in memory of my dad (I’m so glad Ethan Bullock and the choir sang that song here at Signal Crest this past Sunday). She was adamant about a closed casket. But she left the selection of scriptures up to whomever the pastor would be and to us. But there was only one scripture I wanted to be sure was included: Psalm 121.

The psalm starts “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.” Growing up in the mountains of southwestern Virginia, I was lifting up mine eyes to the hills all the time. There were reminders all around me of whence cometh my help. Living here now in Signal Mountain, I feel back home again, with hills upon which to lift mine eyes everywhere and remember the source of our help.

On Saturday, we buried my mom on a hillside cemetery in Virginia that lifts its eyes up to Whitetop Mountain and Mount Rogers. I brought the Bible my mom gave me to the graveside, and I read the psalm we memorized together so long ago. I didn’t trust my memory to recall it all, but I still trust its message. I pray it might be a blessing to you today.

Psalm 121 (King James Version)

I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.

My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.

He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.

Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.

The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand.

The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.

The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.

The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in

from this time forth, and even for evermore.