Today’s Passage: Psalm 147
This psalm sets two things side by side that we might never have thought to join. The same God who heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds is the God who counts the stars and calls each one by name. It is one God, and one gospel, and the point here is not a lesson in astronomy but the wonder that the hand which dresses a wound is the very hand that named the lights of heaven.
He made the stars He names. And the notion of a world that unseated its Maker and made itself is no part of what we believe in this house.
As you read, hold this: He heals the brokenhearted. He names every star.
Context Jerusalem built. Hearts bound.
The psalm opens with a Hallelujah, and no author sets his name to it. It begins close to home, with Jerusalem being built up again and her scattered exiles gathered back. Then, in the very next breath, a wound is dressed, and after that the stars are named. That pairing is the heart of it, the near work and the far work held in one hand, and not a lecture tacked on at the end.
Psalm 147:1-3 (BSB)
¹ Hallelujah! How good it is to sing praises to our God, how pleasant and lovely to praise Him! ² The LORD builds up Jerusalem; He gathers the exiles of Israel. ³ He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.
It is good to sing to Him, the psalm says, and pleasant, and lovely. Jerusalem is built up and the exiles are gathered home, and then, right in the middle of all that public rebuilding, comes something quieter and more personal: He heals the brokenhearted, and He chabash, pronounced khah-VASH. Strong's H2280, to bind up, to wrap a wound, to bandage. It means to wrap a wound, to bind a bandage around an injury. This is not sympathy felt from a safe distance. It is hands laid on the very place that hurts.
And the same God whose hands do this will go on to name the stars in the very next line. their wounds.
Psalm 147:4-6 (BSB)
⁴ He determines the number of the stars; He calls them each by name. ⁵ Great is our Lord, and mighty in power; His understanding has no limit. ⁶ The LORD sustains the humble, but casts the wicked to the ground.
He numbered the stars and He named them, every last one, for the Maker is never guessing at His own work. He is great and mighty in power, and His understanding has no limit at all. And then that same limitless hand turns back toward us: the humble are held up, and the wicked are cast to the ground.
Psalm 147:7-11 (BSB)
⁷ Sing to the LORD with thanksgiving; make music on the harp to our God, ⁸ who covers the sky with clouds, who prepares rain for the earth, who makes grass to grow on the hills. ⁹ He provides food for the animals, and for the young ravens when they call. ¹⁰ He does not delight in the strength of the horse; He takes no pleasure in the legs of a man. ¹¹ The LORD is pleased with those who fear Him, who hope in His loving devotion.
He covers the sky with clouds, sends the rain, and makes the grass grow on the hills. He feeds what He has made, down to the young ravens that cry out to Him. What pleases Him is not the strength of a horse or the speed of a man’s legs, but those who fear Him and rest their hope in His loving devotion.
Psalm 147:12-14 (BSB)
¹² Exalt the LORD, O Jerusalem; praise your God, O Zion! ¹³ For He strengthens the bars of your gates and blesses the children within you. ¹⁴ He makes peace at your borders; He fills you with the finest wheat.
He strengthens the bars of the city gates and blesses the children inside them, He makes peace along the borders and fills His people with the finest wheat. This is close and homely work, and it is done by the same God who named the stars.
Psalm 147:15-20 (BSB)
¹⁵ He sends forth His command to the earth; His word runs swiftly. ¹⁶ He spreads the snow like wool; He scatters the frost like ashes; ¹⁷ He casts forth His hail like pebbles. Who can withstand His icy blast? ¹⁸ He sends forth His word and melts them; He unleashes His winds, and the waters flow. ¹⁹ He declares His word to Jacob, His statutes and judgments to Israel. ²⁰ He has done this for no other nation; they do not know His judgments. Hallelujah!
He spreads the snow like wool and scatters the frost like ashes, He flings the hail down like pebbles, and then He sends out His word and melts it all away. That same word He speaks to Jacob, giving Israel what no other nation had been given. Hallelujah. He speaks, and He heals, and He names.
Study notes He names them. He heals.
Isaiah sings this very same pairing, the stars called out by name and power given to the faint.
"Lift up your eyes on high: Who created all these? He leads forth the starry host by number; He calls each one by name. Because of His great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing. Why do you say, O Jacob, and why do you assert, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the LORD, and my claim is ignored by my God”? Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary; His understanding is beyond searching out. He gives power to the faint and increases the strength of the weak." Isaiah 40:26-29 (BSB)
Who created all these? He does, and He calls each one by name, and out of that same great power He gives strength to the faint. It is one and the same gospel: He heals the brokenhearted, and He names every star.
He heals the brokenhearted. He names every star.