Request your free, three-month trial to Tabletalk magazine. You’ll receive the print issue monthly and gain immediate digital access to decades of archives. This trial is risk-free. No credit card required.
Try Tabletalk NowAlready receive Tabletalk magazine every month?
Verify your email address to gain unlimited access.
There are certain verses of Scripture that you have read often over the years, but a certain set of circumstances causes a text to be moved to the forefront of your mind and remain there as one of your “go to” references. Such was the case with me for Psalm 147:3: “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.”
I had just been informed of the death of a dear friend of many years. He was one of my soccer players in college almost forty years ago. He had kept in touch with me over the years, and we enjoyed sharing the news of our children as they grew up. Cancer took him, but I knew that though my friend was absent from the body, he was present with the Lord. I wanted to share with his wife some comforting word from the Scriptures. God brought to my mind this verse, and it has been very special to me ever since.
Who are the brokenhearted and wounded that this verse talks about? It’s us. We are emotional and frail and live in a broken world. We see the fingerprints of God everywhere in His wonderful creation, but we also see and hear the pain and sorrow that is everywhere as well. There are many causes of a broken heart, and there are many kinds of wounds that we bear, not all of which are visible. The oft-repeated saying that “time heals all wounds” is simply not true.
In Psalm 147, the heavenly Healer is referred to seven times as the Lord, the self-existent One, our covenant-keeping God. In dramatic fashion, this psalm presents Him as the omnipotent Creator. He created all things, from the largest to the smallest. It has been estimated that there are two hundred billion trillion stars in the universe. Verse 4 declares that He not only made them all, but He knows them all by name. He made the clouds (v. 8), so amazing in their variety and grandeur. How interesting that the psalmist also calls attention to tiny raindrops and snowflakes (vv. 8, 16). Big things are not too big for our heavenly Healer to handle, nor are little things too insignificant for Him to pay attention to. He is the tenderhearted Lord of His hurting people. There is no hurt so great that He cannot heal it. Isaiah 53:4 tells us, “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.” He binds up the wounds that are visible to all, as well as those that are seen by none.
What does this wonderful truth call for us to do? Praise Him. Those words are the bookends of this psalm, as well as in all five of the final psalms. “The flow of the broad river of the Book of Psalms ends in a cataract of praise,” Charles Spurgeon said. Psalm 147 says that praise is “good” and “pleasant” and “fitting” (v. 1). There should never be a day in our lives that is devoid of praise. Reading Scripture, especially the Psalter, will stimulate constant praise.