Psalm 147--He Heals the Brokenhearted

Psalm 147
English Standard Version

He Heals the Brokenhearted
147 Praise the LORD!
For it is good to sing praises to our God;
    for it is pleasant, and a song of praise is fitting.
2 The LORD builds up Jerusalem;
    he gathers the outcasts of Israel.
3 He heals the brokenhearted
    and binds up their wounds.
4 He determines the number of the stars;
    he gives to all of them their names.
5 Great is our Lord, and abundant in power;
    his understanding is beyond measure.
6 The LORD lifts up the humble;
    he casts the wicked to the ground.

7 Sing to the LORD with thanksgiving;
    make melody to our God on the lyre!
8 He covers the heavens with clouds;
    he prepares rain for the earth;
    he makes grass grow on the hills.
9 He gives to the beasts their food,
    and to the young ravens that cry.
10 His delight is not in the strength of the horse,
    nor his pleasure in the legs of a man,
11 but the LORD takes pleasure in those who fear him,
    in those who hope in his steadfast love.

​12 Praise the LORD, O Jerusalem!
    Praise your God, O Zion!
13 For he strengthens the bars of your gates;
    he blesses your children within you.
14 He makes peace in your borders;
    he fills you with the finest of the wheat.
15 He sends out his command to the earth;
    his word runs swiftly.
16 He gives snow like wool;
    he scatters frost like ashes.
17 He hurls down his crystals of ice like crumbs;
    who can stand before his cold?
18 He sends out his word, and melts them;
    he makes his wind blow and the waters flow.
19 He declares his word to Jacob,
    his statutes and rules to Israel.
20 He has not dealt thus with any other nation;
    they do not know his rules.
Praise the LORD!

---

We are wrapping up the book of Psalms with some calls to worship.  These psalms were those that the people in Exile looked to as they were hopeful to return to the Land and as they came back and eagerly worked to rebuild the Temple and Jerusalem.  Here are promises of both things--the people gathering together who were scattered abroad, and the LORD building Jerusalem once again.

This psalm has an even greater fulfillment in the LORD bringing all the Jewish people from around the world back to the Holy Land in our time, and the city of Jerusalem that was under the control of the Romans and then the Arabs being rebuilt by the Jews.  There is still a fight over the Land today (as most of us are aware who pay any attention to the news).  There is a desire within the hearts of the Jewish people to return home and to once again worship the LORD as this psalm says.

The psalm then picks up on one of the themes from the last psalm--that the LORD heals the brokenhearted.  We often speak of the LORD healing the physical wounds and infirmities of people, but He can reach deep into a person's soul and heal the emotional scars that are there that no doctor can fix.  The world would simply tell us to drown this pain with alcohol or drugs (which don't make it any better and leave us in an even worse state), but the LORD promises true healing that only He can bring.

How do we know that He can do this thing that sounds impossible?  Noting in impossible for the LORD!  He is the one who spoke all the stars into existence.  Can you count them?  See how innumerable they are, and it took no effort for Him to make and name all of them.  With power like that, is anything too hard for the LORD?  Those who understand this are humbled before the LORD because we are small and insignificant compared to how mighty and powerful He is, and yet He will exalt those who humble themselves, yet the wicked who are proud and boastful will be humiliated by Him when they stand before Him in judgment.

The LORD gives common grace to everyone that should be reason for all of us to sing His praises.  The clouds give rain to the just and the unjust alike.  He makes the grass grow to give food to the wild beasts, and He gives food to the birds of the air.  All of His creatures are cared for.  Jesus asks in the Sermon on the Mount, "Are you not much more valuable than they?" since the answer that is assumed is "Yes," the hidden question that remains is, "Then why do you worry?"  Instead, we should worship for what the LORD has provided and trust that He will provide everything that we need, not worry about if He will do what He has always done.  The LORD takes pleasure in those who do not count in the strength of their military for their salvation, but trust in the LORD for their daily needs and for their protection.  "The LORD takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love."  That verse fits in well with what we studied both as a church and as a family in Isaiah 7.  The LORD desired for His people to trust in Him for salvation instead of the army of Assyria.  Instead of trusting in the LORD they trust in men and horses, and it was by the hand of Assyria that the LORD afflicted the people of Judah after they destroyed the king of Syria and the king of the northern kingdom of Israel.

The LORD is the one that gives peace and security--He is the one that makes it safe for children to play away from their homes and gives a bountiful harvest to the farmers (which is a blessing to all the people of the Land).  The LORD controls the weather--thunder and lightning are at His command, and so is the snowstorm.  The LORD hurls large hailstones of ice down at His enemies and destroys them as the armies of Israel advance so that the LORD kills more enemies with the hailstones than the men of Israel could.  We think of the weather as something completely random, but the LORD can direct the weather to protect His people and target their enemies.

The LORD also uses the breath of HIs mouth to destroy those who would attack His people.  All the LORD has to do is blow and the enemies of Israel are destroyed by fire, wind, and water.  The LORD made a covenant to Jacob that He will not break--a covenant to be their God and that they would be His people forever and ever.  That covenant promised Land and descendants--ultimately pointing forward to the greatest descendant of the Abrahamic Covenant that is Jesus.  The LORD still plans to make good on His covenant with Israel and all true Israel will be saved and will turn back to the LORD and cray "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD" (that is Jesus, the Messiah) in the end times.  He has given Israel the Law and the Prophets that He did not give to any other nation.  In this way, Israel is special in that He has made them His ambassadors to the entire world that they should know His Word and should declare His word and His works to the Gentile nations.  Now it is the job of the Church who has been grafted into the true Israel to join in this work in what is called The Great Commission.  For all these reasons and more, we join with the pslamist and say, "Praise the LORD!"