He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.  Psalm 147:3

Consider attending the Workshop “Studying the Bible for Personal Recovery,” Thursday April 16, 6-8pm, held at JPG Resources, downtown Battle Creek (rear entrance to Cafe Rica, access stairs or elevator to second floor).

One of the actions of God, and there are many, is this action above.   It is described in a couple of ways typical of Hebrew poetry.   God is about doing things in his world.

The brokenhearted are those whose very hearts are broken — shattered, broken to pieces, broken.  We have all been there.  When we lose something or someone significant, we are shattered.  I remember a few particular times in my life where I didn’t think happiness was possible ever again.  How could there be happiness in the world when I have been blown to pieces?  Why were there cars on the road, why were people still getting married, why did life continue?

Such is the state of life for all of us some days.  Some heartaches are bigger than others, some more devastating, some push us to the very edge and threaten to throw us down.

God sees these kinds of people.  He knows their pain.  It was the Messiah in Isaiah 53 that was a man of sorrows well acquainted with grief.

For these people, he heals and binds up their wounds.

The healing is the picture of darning, mending, stitching together.  He comes alongside of the downcast and heals them.  The brokenness he stitches, the heart he sews together.  What once was split into shards, he, like the great physician, can mend. 

The binding of the wounds demonstrates the severity of the wound that needs the constriction of the flesh to allow for healing.  He is the binder of the wounds, the one who gives care in such a way that over time the deep gashes of the soul can heal.   There is no quick fix here, but rather healing that takes significant time.

The proud will never admit their need of God’s healing.  They just do not.  But it is the humble, the contrite, the broken, the feeble, the downcast, those in humble estate.  The fearful and the oppressed run to him like a strong tower, the proud and arrogant are scattered.

Let us come to the Lord today and ask for his help — seek his Word — admit to him our need, and find that he is desiring to renew and help us recover.

The book of Job puts it this way, “For he wounds, but he binds up; he shatters, but his hands heal.“ Job 5:18