He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.
Psalm 147 is a song of praise that moves from rebuilding a ruined city to counting the stars — and, in between, to the mending of one broken heart. Does the God who runs a whole universe really stoop that low, and how does He do it?
The psalm sets God's work against the wreckage people leave behind. Each thing He does answers something we do.
People can break things down. Only the Lord can "build up Jerusalem." In our folly we can scatter the people of God. Only the Lord "gathers together" His outcast people. We can break hearts. Only the Lord "heals the broken in heart." We can open old wounds. Only the Lord "binds up" our wounds.
The next verse turns from a wounded heart to the night sky. Both are past our reach, and neither is past His.
The God who "counts the number of the stars" and "calls them by their names" is the God who "heals the broken in heart." The stars are too high for us to reach. The sorrows of a broken heart are too deep for us to reach. But the God who can count the countless stars of heaven can stoop to heal one broken heart on earth.
The order is not an accident. One writer draws a lesson from it.
Notice the order in our psalm. It tells us first that God heals the broken in heart and binds up their wounds. Only then does it tell us that the same God counts the stars and calls them by their names. What do we learn from this order? We learn how deeply God cares for the sorrows and sadness of people.
The verse does not say He healed once or will heal one day. The tense matters, and it settles a question many sufferers keep asking.
In each of these passages the verb is in the present tense. So the action shows what God is like. It is not something God will do now and then if we wait for Him. It is what He always does, because it is His character and His delight to do it. So we never need to ask, Is He willing to comfort? The question is this: are we ready to receive this blessed ministry from Him?
The verse states the fact. One writer points to what the healing cost the Healer.
To heal the broken-hearted He became flesh. He shed His tears to dry ours, and broke His heart to bind up our hearts.
Not every heart is broken by trouble. One writer describes a woman whose heart grace itself broke.
His grace broke her heart. Now He binds it up with His words of love, saying, "Your sins are forgiven … your faith has saved you; go in peace."
Another heart broke another way — over wandering from the Lord. The cure was the same.
We know, too, on the resurrection day, the tender way love took to heal this brokenhearted man and drive away his tears. So in all our backslidings, He restores our souls, by breaking our hearts and winning our hearts with His unchanging love.
A mother had lost her son, and Jesus met her while she wept. The order of what He did shows how this verse works in practice.
If we had the power, we would probably have raised the dead first, and then said to the woman, "Do not weep." But Jesus takes another way — a better way. It makes the story full of comfort for us all. He first says to the brokenhearted mother, "Do not weep," and then He raises the dead. So the woman could say, "In my great sorrow He came so near to me, that He wiped away my tears. He not only took me out of my sorrowful circumstances, but He walked beside me in them."
- Broken by us. People scatter, wound and break; building up, gathering and healing belong to the Lord alone.
- Healed by Him. The heart's sorrow is as far beyond our reach as the stars — and the God who names every star stoops to one heart on earth.
- Always, not sometimes. The present tense makes healing His character. The question is never whether He is willing, but whether we are ready to receive.
- At His own cost. He became flesh, shed tears to dry ours, and broke His heart to bind up ours.
- Near first, then new. He dried the mother's tears before He raised the dead, so she learned that He walks beside us in sorrow, not only lifts us out of it.
He counteth the number of the stars; he giveth names to them all.
This verse belongs to a psalm in which Israel praises God for what He is. The line just before it speaks of healing broken hearts; this line lifts our eyes to the stars.
One writer sums up what this psalm says about God:
In Psalm 147 the saints take their place now in Jerusalem and Zion to say what He is. He is their God. He builds up Jerusalem and gathers the outcasts of Israel. He heals the broken in heart and binds up their wounds. Verses 4 and 5 celebrate His greatness, His goodness and His judgment.
The claim only grows as human knowledge grows:
Human eyes can pick out about six thousand stars in the northern and southern skies. Long ago telescopes pushed that number into millions. With the huge instruments in use today, astronomers no longer talk only of stars. They talk of galaxies of stars running into millions, and of depths of space we cannot imagine. We can measure those depths only in "light-years" — the distance light covers in a year, travelling at 186,000 miles a second. Our God has counted all the stars, for He made them, and He has given each one a name.
One writer sets God's naming beside Adam naming the animals:
God gave Adam the intelligence to name all the creatures. But God alone could number and name the countless millions of stars: "He determines the number of the stars; He gives to all of them their names" (Psalm 147:4). How precious that this verse follows the words "He heals the brokenhearted."
A name from God is not just a label:
The names that God gives mean something, because they describe the person or thing He names. Every star is different: He knows what makes it different, and He gives it a name that fits. So great a God as that is ours.
Why count at all? One writer compares this with God's command to number the tribes of Israel:
He had the right to take the number of the tribes, for they were all His own. If He had no right to them, and no expectations from them, He would not have counted them. The same is said of His divine right in another part of His domain: "He determines the number of the stars; He gives to all of them their names." This is the expression of His sovereignty over the hosts of heaven.
Two things beyond our reach stand side by side here:
The stars are too many for us to count. The sorrow of a broken heart is too deep for us to measure. But God can count the stars in heaven and heal the broken hearts on earth. In the greatness of His love He gave His only Son to come into this world to heal the brokenhearted.
One writer asks which of the two acts is greater:
Which is the greater? That a mighty supreme being should send out the glorious lights that fill the heavens? Or that the same Being should bend down and take an interest in poor weak things like you and me? It is the greatness of His love and grace that draws Him to those He has created. He cares for them in their sorrows and binds up the broken heart.
What God does among the stars, He also does among His people:
Stars picture the great number of people who will receive a heavenly inheritance (Heb. 11:12). Even today the Lord calls His own by name! (John 10:3). He is great indeed and mighty in power!
One writer described what happened when this truth struck him:
I was overwhelmed. I thought of the millions of stars, and of our planet as a tiny speck in such a galaxy of wonder. And God knows their number, and calls them by name. No wonder the Psalmist added the words, "His understanding is beyond measure" (Ps. 147:5).
- He counts — the numbers run past millions into galaxies, yet not one star escapes His count, because He made them all.
- He names — His names describe. He knows what makes each star different, and gives it a fitting name.
- He owns — numbering is a claim of right. He counts what belongs to Him, as He counted the tribes of Israel.
- He stoops — the stars are too many for us to count, the broken heart too deep for us to measure. Neither is beyond Him.
- He calls you — the God who names the stars still calls His own by name, and that is the greater wonder.
Great is our Lord, and of great power his understanding is infinite.
Psalm 147 is the praise of a people brought back to their city. Verse 5 gives the reason for that praise: their Lord is great, He is strong, and His understanding has no limit. The verses around it show what He does with all of it.
A rescued people here describe the God who rescued them. One writer traces the movement of the song:
In Psalm 147 the saints take their place now in Jerusalem and Zion to say what He is. He is their God. He builds up Jerusalem and gathers the outcasts of Israel, healing the brokenhearted and binding up their wounds. Verses 4 and 5 celebrate His greatness, and also His goodness and judgment.
Another writer sums up what the psalm holds together:
His grace also matches the immensity of His power in creation, for He who bound up their wounds counted the number of the stars. Verse 6 only mentions government, and verse 10 the emptiness of human strength. Apart from these, the psalm sets out grace in Israel and power in creation.
"Great is our Lord" says more than that God is strong. One writer draws the distinction:
God is not only great in power, as creation shows. He is great in character too. Not only great in what He has done, but great also in what He is... But He also bends down to bind up the broken heart. Which is greater? For a mighty supreme being to send out the glorious lights that fill the heavens? Or for that same Being to bend down and take an interest in poor weak creatures like you and me?
The verse ends by saying that His understanding is beyond measure. Older translations put it as "His understanding is infinite." The Hebrew phrase behind it appears nowhere else in this way:
en mispar, "no number": used only of the understanding of the Lord. Psalm 147:5.
Another writer admits what that leaves us with:
His understanding is infinite — completely unlimited. Our own understanding is so limited that we cannot grasp how an unlimited understanding is even possible.
The psalm sets the stars beside broken hearts. One writer weighs the two:
The number of the stars is too great for us to count. The sorrow of a broken heart is too deep for us to measure. But God can count the stars in heaven and heal the broken hearts on earth. In the greatness of His love He gave His only begotten Son to come into this world to heal the brokenhearted.
Another writer asks why the psalm gives them in that order:
Note something very significant. Our psalm first tells how God heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. Only then does it say that the same God counts the stars and calls them by their names. What do we glean from this order? We gather how intensely God cares for the sorrows and sadness of mankind.
The counting does not stop at the stars. It reaches people:
No star fails to give the brightness assigned to it. As it shines, it pays its tribute to the glory of the One who created it. In the same way, no living vessel of His grace and power will fail to fill the place given to it... He also keeps a watchful count of the sheep of His blood-bought flock. He numbers the very hairs that grow on His people's heads, so close and jealous is His care.
What this God does with such power depends on where we put ourselves:
Yet if we take our place of nothingness before God and bow down to the dust, He graciously lifts us up (v. 5). By contrast, those who want to exalt themselves in wicked contempt for God, He will cast down to the ground (v. 6).
One writer reads the verse forward to Christ:
Christ, as the wisdom and power of God, shines out from verse 5 — though here in connection with the mystery of God's dealings with His earthly people (Rom. 11:33-36).
- Great — His greatness is double: great in what He has done in creation, and great in what He is.
- Powerful — He counts the stars and calls them by name. The same care counts the hairs on His people's heads.
- Infinite — the phrase means "no number." Scripture uses it only of the Lord's understanding, and our limited minds cannot picture a mind without limits.
- Stooping — the psalm speaks of healing broken hearts before it counts the stars. That order shows how much God cares about human sorrow.
- Lifting — take the low place before this God and He lifts you up. Exalt yourself against Him and He casts you down.