Bless the LORD Who Heals

The Sunday sermon at Calvary Chapel Sydney concluded with Psalm 103:1-5:  "Bless the LORD, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name! ² Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits: ³ Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases, ⁴ Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies, ⁵ Who satisfies your mouth with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's."  God was faithful to His promise to be with His people, keep them and provide for all their needs.  To this glorious expression of praise believers can say amen, for He is worthy of our praise and adoration.

Through what Jesus has accomplished for those who trust in Him, we are most blessed and ought to bless His holy name.  In the Gospels we read of Jesus forgiving sins, healing the diseased, and paying the price of eternal redemption through His blood.  Jesus proved He was able to forgive sins by healing a paralysed man.  Anyone can claim to forgive sins because there is no physical corresponding evidence, so Jesus proved His power to forgive by healing and incurable, untreatable condition.  It is interesting people who do not balk at the idea of all their sins being forgiven struggle with verses about healing when it doesn't happen.  This subject of healing raises a few eyebrows even among believers:  surely God does not heal all our diseases, for many Christians have died of illnesses.  So what does this mean?

God created our bodies with systems that work together to promote health and healing for the body.  As science has advanced in knowledge and practice, modern medicine is able to leverage these natural systems to quicken and aid the healing process.  The psalmist David understood that if and when we are healed from a disease, it is God's doing.  But the stubborn fact remains that not everyone is always healed.  There are incurable conditions, cancers and COVID.  It is obvious faith in God does not guarantee physical healing, for 2 Kings 13:14 says concerning the faithful prophet:  "Elisha had become sick with the illness of which he would die..."  Because of passages like this people wonder if healing is always God's will.  I am convinced physical healing is God's will, though God allows things to occur on earth as a result of sin that are not His will.  All who came to Jesus were healed by Him, so this is strong evidence healing is always God's will.  Sickness and death came as a result of sin, and sin is never God's will.

While it is possible God can miraculously heal someone in an instant, God does not always do so.  As we are called to trust Him to heal, we must also trust His means and timing.  God might choose to heal a person through a prayer of faith in Him or after a poultice of figs is administered.  Jesus made mud with His saliva and smeared it over a blind man's eyes and after he washed was able to see.  The power to heal is God's alone, and He will do it His way.  We also must leave the timing to Him.  It may be we will never be fully healed until our bodies die and we enter eternal glory.  The criminal crucified alongside Jesus went that day into paradise and he was made whole of the wounds that resulted in his physical death:  faith in Jesus in an instant brought forgiveness, healing, redemption, a crown of glory and eternal satisfaction enjoyed in the presence of God forever.  He was healed and more still, glorified and immortal.  How good is our God!