“He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” Psalm 147:3
Jehovah Rapha
The word “heals” in Psalm 147 is Strong’s H7495 rapha’. It literally means to sew or mend. Figuratively, it is also used in Scripture to mean healing, restoring, curing, repairing, and physician.
To heal a wound, or a wounded person—you sew up the wound (Isaiah 19:22, Isaiah 30:26, Job 5:18, Ecclesiastes 3:3). Martin Luther referred to physicians as the “cobblers of our Lord God.”
I bought one of those “adult therapy” coloring books that are all the rage. This one is on the names of God; there are many in the book, but the one I was drawn to first was Jehovah Rapha which has Exodus 15:26 as the Scripture reference. “If you diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the Lord who heals you.”
I am drawn to the Lord our Healer for many reasons: I’m a nurse; He has allowed me to be the vessel through which He has brought healing; and He has done miraculous healing multiple times in multiple ways in my own personal life. He is the master Physician and He has sewn and mended things that were thought to be way beyond repair—health conditions, relationships, broken hearts, minds, and souls.
It brings to mind the Matthew West song, Mended:*
When you see broken beyond repair
I see healing beyond belief
When you see too far gone
I see one step away from home
When you see nothing but damaged goods
I see something good in the making
I’m not finished yet
When you see wounded, I see mended
When I think of mended it makes me smile as I remember my mom sewing up the knees in jeans that I had ripped out as a kid, which she did only after she had kissed my tears away and bandaged up my frequently wounded knees. Isn’t that what God does in every area of our life if we will but let Him?
Whose eyes are we going to look through? Who do you think has the most accurate picture?
Can you see what a huge difference it is to see yourself as mended instead of wounded?
Why don’t we take a leap of faith and believe His picture of us?
“Jehovah Rapha, thank You for seeing beyond our mistakes and wounds. Thank You for mending, healing and, most importantly, loving us. Amen.”
Yes, we need to remember to look at ourselves thru the eyes of God , not the world. Thank you.
Amen.