God heals the brokenhearted

Psalm 147:1,3,5,11 (NLT)

Praise the Lord!  How good to sing praises to our God!  How delightful and how fitting!  He heals the brokenhearted and bandages their wounds.  How great is our Lord!  His power is absolute!  His understanding is beyond comprehension!  The Lord’s delight is in those who fear him, those who put their hope in His unfailing love. 

There are 150 Psalms with the final 5 Psalms called the “Hallelujah Psalms”.  Billy Graham has suggested reading 5 Psalms a day so that over a month, you will have read all 150 Psalms.  Also, there are 31 chapters in Proverbs so reading one chapter a day will enable you to read the entire book of Proverbs in one month. 

May I pick on the men here?  I notice most men (and some women) do not sing when praise songs are sung and played.  I admit that sometimes I don’t sing either.  Yet the Bible here says how good, delightful and fitting it is to sing praises to our God.  Delightful means pleasant in the Hebrew that literally means to be agreeable; that is, by singing to the Lord you are in agreement that He is who He says He.  To sing praises is also fitting; that is, it is appropriate that all God’s people sing His praises.  Not to sing, not to at least voice words of praise is inappropriate.  Please remember this from now on when participating in a worship service. 

Verse 3 says that the Lord heals the brokenhearted and bandages their wounds.  Many reading this have broken hearts and wounds right now.  The Hebrew word for brokenhearted literally means broken into pieces or crushed.  The Hebrew word for wounds means to be in pain or to hurt from injury.  Often wounds come from other Christians.  It’s sad but true.  Christians wound other Christians, even to the point of breaking their hearts.  We take our faith, our church and our Christian brothers and sisters seriously and when something happens due to words by people or practices in the church, people are wounded significantly.  Anyone who has left a church because of words and/or actions of church leaders or members know what it means to be wounded.  Wounds from church are the last place you would expect to be hurt, but I believe that it happens to almost all Christians at one time or another.

Regardless, how great is the Lord who can help you if you are brokenhearted and/or wounded.  He has power to heal you and He understands your hurt.  Can you imagine how He felt seeing His Son so terribly wounded by His chosen people?  You cannot comprehend His understanding and appreciation of what you are going through.  But, of course, it takes faith for you to believe this.  Faith and fear (reverence) go hand-in-hand and this is what it takes to please the Lord, to enable Him to be delighted in you.  Knowing His delight in you will help you keep your hope in Him and His love that never fails (I Corinthians 13:8). 

Clearly cry out and tell the Lord what breaks your heart, what wounds you have and what hope you have in Him to help you overcome these afflictions.