Testimony of Healing April 30, 2007 Issue

HEALINGS FROM THE 91ST PSALM

TRUDI CARTER

On a lovely fall day, a fellow church member and I decided it was time to gather up the brush and clean the yard around the church. While I was pulling on a particularly large and heavy branch and walking backward in my open-backed sandals, my bare heel came down squarely on a large industrial-type nail. Immediately the wound began to bleed profusely. My friend kindly offered to help. However, I declined and said that I wanted to trust completely in God's care at that moment.

In my study of Christian Science, I've learned that it is important to know that what I'm thinking affects my experience of the world around me. This means that understanding my spiritual relationship with God, based on the Bible's teaching that man is His image and likeness (see Gen. 1:26), will have a direct impact on my physical well-being. I also remembered that Science and Health states that "accidents are unknown to God" (p. 424), which makes sense to me—as St. Paul said, "In him we live, and move, and have our being" (Acts 17:28). Knowing these truths, my friend and I were confident in my turning to God for healing.

The thought then came to focus on the 91st Psalm. I'd memorized this psalm several years earlier, and turned to it naturally, trusting God to protect and heal me. I began to recite it out loud. This lifted my thought beyond concern, to joy and confidence in God. Each word brought me closer to the understanding that He was always with me. I was no longer conscious of pain as I dragged the branch across the church yard. I particularly loved this passage: "He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust" (verse 4). This promise brought a wonderful feeling of the divine presence. Heaving the branch onto the pile of brush, I walked back across the yard still dwelling mentally "in the secret place of the most High," my thoughts filled with the conviction of God's love.

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