He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. Sermons
I. MAN'S SUFFERINGS BELONG TO TWO SPHERES. Answering to man as a dual being. He's a spirit. He has a body. So he has the possibility of suffering in the spirit that he is and in the body that he has. Bodily wounds bring before us the whole sphere of sufferings which relate to the bodily organization and relations. It may be true that bodily pain directly affects the spirit, but it is equally true, if more subtle, that pain in the spirit affects the body. Still we can keep the two separate in thought. What an accumulation and variety of pains and woes can affect the human body! How tempted we are to think that these are the supreme woes! They are not. The broken heart is the woe of woes. The distresses of the spirit are the supreme distresses. Afflict a man's body, and body-sphere, even as Job was afflicted, the man does not know what suffering is until he suffers in his soul. This is impressively seen on Calvary, where was the very height of bodily woe. There we see the transcendent woe of the suffering soul. II. GOD'S HELP BELONGS TO THE TWO SPHERES, "Who forgiveth all our iniquities, and healeth all our diseases;" "He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds." This is no less true, because for his healings in the bodily sphere God uses agencies that we can recognize. He uses agencies also for his healings in the spirit-sphere, though they often are such as we cannot recognize. Even when we are willing to pray to God for the healing of our bodily pains, we are mournfully unwilling - or it may be we do not think it right - to seek God's help in our suffering mental and spiritual states. God for our woes of feeling we all but very imperfectly realize. - R.T.
He healeth the broken in heart. Homilist. : —I. HIS RELATION TO SORROWING SOULS. "He healeth the broken in heart." There are broken hearts and wounded souls in this world. The whole human creation is groaning. God works here to heal and restore. Christianity is the restorative element He applies — the Balm of Gilead — the tree whose fruit is for the healing of the nations. II. HIS RELATION TO STARRY SYSTEMS. "He telleth the number of the stars." 1. Those who deny God's active relation to both souls and stars. These comprehend those who deny the existence of God altogether, and those who admit His existence, but deny His superintendence in the universe; the latter regard all the phenomena and changes of nature as taking place not by the agency of God, but by the principles or laws which He impressed upon it at first. The universe is to them like a plant,: all the vital forces of action are in itself, and it will go on until they exhaust and die. 2. Those who admit God's active relation to stars, but, deny it to souls. They say that it is derogatory to Infinite Majesty to suppose His taking any notice of broken hearts. He has to do with the great, but not with the little. There are two or three thoughts which make this objection appear very childish.(1) One is that man's great and small are but notions. When I say that a thing is great, all I mean is that it is great to me. To God there is nothing great nor small(2) Another is that what we consider small are influential parts of the whole. Science proves that the motion of an atom must propagate an influence to remotest orbs; that all created being is but one great chain, of which the corpuscle is a link, which, if touched, will send its vibration to the ultimate points. In the moral system facts show that the solitary thought of an obscure man can shake empires, produce revolutions, and reform society.(3) Another thought is that — even on the assumption of our conception of magnitudes being correct — we have as much evidence to believe that God is as truly at work in the Small as the great.(4) Human souls, though in suffering, are greater than the stars in all their splendour.(5) There is higher evidence to believe that God restores souls than that He takes care of stars. The highest proof is consciousness. I infer, from my understanding, that God governs the heavenly bodies, but I feel that "He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds." This thought gives to its objection a contemptible insignificance. 3. Those who profess faith in God's active relation to both, but who are destitute of the suitable spiritual feeling. Antecedently, we should infer that, wherever there could be found a thinking moral nature like man's fully believing in this twofold relation of God — His connection with the heavenly bodies, and with all pertaining to the history of itself — there would be developed in that nature, as the necessary consequence of that faith, life, humility, and devotion. It is said that "an undevout astronomer is mad"; but an undevout believer in God's connection with the universe and man is impossible. Wherever, then, we find apathetic, proud, undevout men professing this belief, we find hypocrites. 4. To what class, in relation to this subject, dost thou belong? Thou wouldst probably revolt at the idea of belonging to either of the former two; but the latter, for many reasons, is worse than either: it is to play the hypocrite, and disgrace religion. Get, then, the true faith in the subject — the faith that will produce this true quickening, humbling, devotionalizing effect — and thou shalt catch the true meaning of life. (Homilist.) 1. A very deep and poignant sorrow on account of sin. 2. Utter inability to get rid of it. II. A GREAT MERCY. "He healeth The broken in heart." 1. He alone does it. 2. He alone can do it. 3. He alone may do it. 4. He will do it. Did Saul of Tarsus rejoice after three days of blindness?Yes, and you shall be delivered also. Oh, it is a theme for eternal gratitude, that the same God who in His loftiness and omnipotence stooped down in olden times to soothe, cherish, relieve, and bless the mourner, is even now taking His journeys of mercy among the penitent sons of men. Oh, I beseech Him to come where thou art sitting, and put His hand inside thy soul, and, if He finds there a broken heart, to bind it up. ( C. H. Spurgeon.) I. THE PATIENTS AND THEIR SICKNESS. 1. Those whose hearts are broken through sorrow. The text does not say "the spiritually broken in heart," therefore I will not insert an adverb where there is none in the passage. Come hither, ye that are burdened, all ye that labour and are heavy laden; come hither, all ye that sorrow, be your sorrow what it may; come hither, all ye whose hearts are broken, be the heart-break what it may, for He healeth the broken in heart. 2. Those whose hearts are broken for sin. 3. Hearts that are broken from sin. When you and sin have quarrelled, never let the quarrel be made up again. II. THE PHYSICIAN AND HIS MEDICINE. 1. Jesus was anointed of God for this work. 2. Jesus was sent of God on purpose to do this work. 3. He was educated for this work. He had a broken heart Himself. 4. He is experienced in this work. 5. His medicine is His own flesh and blood. There is no cure like it. III. THE TESTIMONIAL TO THE GREAT PHYSICIAN which is emblazoned in the text. I understand it to mean this. 1. He does it effectually. 2. He does it constantly. 3. He does it invariably. 4. He glories in doing it. IV. WHAT WE OUGHT TO DO. 1. Resort to Him. 2. Trust Him. 3. Praise Him. ( C. H. Spurgeon.) : — A great deal of what we call the scepticism of the present day is merely the protest of the human mind for unity. The spiritual world has so often been described as being so utterly unlike this, its laws have been so persistently spoken of as contradictory to the laws of this; warring continually against it, that you could almost think sometimes that if these two worlds are governed at all they must be governed by two different, contradictory, and even antagonistic deities. Man does not like this. It perplexes him. His allegiance becomes divided. He does not like to feel that he belongs to one world, and that he lives with one set of facts, whilst he is working and thinking and studying, and that he is in another world and with another set of facts when he worships and prays. Now, these words start from the fullest recognition of both. The reality of both is implied.I. THE SAME GOD HOLDS SWAY IN BOTH WORLDS. "He healeth the broken in heart. He telleth the number of the stars." The revelation of God is twofold. There is the revelation that He gives in the spirits of men — the revelation that comes to us of God's handling of the souls of men; and there is the revelation which God gives in this material creation outside. Now, let me ask you, shall we not understand God better by keeping the two together? Is it not a loss to separate them? Let me say that the best commentary upon the Bible is science, and the best commentary upon science is the Bible. There are scientific questions being discussed in England at this present moment that never will be settled until people approach them from the spiritual standpoint. And, let me add, our religious conceptions would be strengthened, would rest upon a firmer foundation, and would be healthier and sweeter, if we always remembered the things that have come to us through the physiologist, through the biologist, through the geologist, and through all the men of science. The complete, true understanding of God comes through remembering that He who telleth the stars is also the same who healeth the broken in heart. II. THERE ARE CERTAIN GREAT PRINCIPLES THAT PREVAIL IN BOTH WORLDS. Oh, there is a difference! There is plenty of difference. Why, I have only to read my text again. Broken hearts belong only to one sphere. The shadow of a great disaster is upon our souls. There is nothing like it elsewhere. "The sunshine has a heart of care," said the great English novelist who tried to write poetry and failed; but the care was in her own heart. "The whole creation groaneth and travaileth together in pain until now," said the Apostle Paul. The song of creation is set in the minor key. There is a little bit of something there besides poetry. Suffering is everywhere. Ask the doctor, and he will tell you that pathology is as broad as physiology. One is the shadow of the other. But let us steady our hearts. The same hand that keeps and helps and soothes the poor, bewildered, sorrowing creature, is the Hand that keeps the stars. If we could impress upon ourselves that the soul is as much under law as the body, that the well-being of the soul is determined by conditions as fixed and inexorable as the conditions that determine the well-being of the body, we could command spiritual influences with the same absolute certainty that we could command physical influences. "There is a law of gravitation," you say; "there is a law of the combination of chemical elements." Do not talk nonsense in a church. There is a law of pardon, there is a law of prayer, there is a law of spiritual health and sanctification. In an instant this morning you can, if you like, bring yourself into the current of help which will carry you up to the feet of God. Oh, if we but believed that all spiritual felicity is as much within our reach as the nearest law of nature! "Wilt thou be made whole?" I saw a young boy, the other day, making experiments with an electric battery. The place was full of electricity; but the connection was not established. Just one thing, and the current was complete. "Wilt thou be made whole?" "Yes." Then the current is complete. Cast yourself on the promises of God like a strong man casting himself into the tide. As truly as God leads the stars, can He, will He, heal the brokenhearted. (J. Morlais Jones.) People Jacob, PsalmistPlaces JerusalemTopics Bindeth, Binding, Binds, Broken, Brokenhearted, Broken-hearted, Giving, Griefs, Healeth, Healing, Heals, Heart, Makes, Oil, Puts, WoundsOutline 1. The prophet exhorts to praise God for his care of the church4. His power and wisdom 6. His mercy 7. His providence 12. To praise him for his blessings upon the kingdom 15. For his power over the elements 19. And for his ordinances in the church Dictionary of Bible Themes Psalm 147:3 5285 cures Library Healing for the WoundedWe will not delay you by a preface, but will come at once to the two thoughts: first, here is a great ill--a broken heart; and secondly, a great mercy--"he healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds." Man is a double being: he is composed of body and soul, and each of the portions of man may receive injury and hurt. The wounds of the body are extremely painful, and if they amount to a breaking of the frame the torture is singularly exquisite. Yet God has in his mercy provided means … Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 1: 1855 Christ's Hospital The Acceptable Sacrifice; Anxious About Earth, or Earnest About the Kingdom The Chorus of Angels The Sermon of the Seasons The Room was Like and Oven What God Is Peace That it is Profitable to Communicate Often Prayer. Concerning Peaceableness Letter xvi to Rainald, Abbot of Foigny The Preface to the Commandments A Treatise on Good Works The Providence of God John Bunyan on the Terms of Communion and Fellowship of Christians at the Table of the Lord; Psalms Links Psalm 147:3 NIVPsalm 147:3 NLT Psalm 147:3 ESV Psalm 147:3 NASB Psalm 147:3 KJV Psalm 147:3 Bible Apps Psalm 147:3 Parallel Psalm 147:3 Biblia Paralela Psalm 147:3 Chinese Bible Psalm 147:3 French Bible Psalm 147:3 German Bible Psalm 147:3 Commentaries Bible Hub |
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