by Rev. Alex. McPherson
(continued from page 326)
PSALM ONE HUNDRED AND THREE
Verse 3. “. . . who healeth all thy diseases;”
From forgiveness, the first of the great benefits for which David stirs himself up to praise God, he passes to healing, the next blessing of which the reconciled sinner is conscious. First are felt pardon of sin and restoration to the divine favour; then follows an awareness of some healing of the corruption which sin has caused in the soul. The Word of God often speaks of this corruption as a disease. Isaiah says, “The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot, even unto the head, there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores; etc.” In Psalm 6 David says, “I am weak: O Lord, heal me; for my bones are vexed.” And in Psalm 38 he says:—
“For a disease that loathsome is
so fills my loins with pain,
That in my weak and weary flesh
no soundness doth remain.”
John, speaking of the unbelief of Israel, quotes Isaiah: “He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.” (John 12, v. 40.) Peter also employs the figure, “By whose stripes ye are healed.” And to complete our proof of this point, we have the Saviour’s words: “The whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.”
That would be no salvation at all which achieved the forgiveness of a sinner but did not alter his nature, thus leaving him as much in love with sin, and as unsuited for heaven as he was before. Therefore God heals the diseased souls of those who believe in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins. As John says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” These two benefits always go together. The Psalm mentions forgiveness first, but in the divine order of operating the cleansing comes first. The regenerating act of the Holy Spirit on a soul is the beginning of salvation to that soul. Until then, whatever thoughts and feelings it has had on religious matters, it is spiritually dead. It is as renewed in heart that a sinner believes in the Saviour now seen to be God’s Son, the Christ; and believing, he is forgiven — a blessing which includes pardon and justification; all of grace! Grace achieved redemption, grace applies it.
In the believer’s consciousness, however, his first awareness is of trusting in Christ, this carrying with it the sweet sense of sins having been forgiven. After this dawns the realisation that the work of healing has begun in the soul, for the believer finds himself in some measure turning away from sin and hungering after righteousness. Healing, begun in the new birth, is continued by a progressive sanctification. And what need is felt of such healing! One might say that the entire life of the Christian afterwards is marked by a growing discovery of the diseasedness of his soul. From the outward life his attention is directed to his speech and thence to the heart; and sin is found everywhere. “My loins are filled with a loathsome disease: and there is no soundness in my flesh.” Daily the cry becomes more urgent, “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.” If regeneration were rejoiced over because it made so much new, it is soon discovered that it is only a beginning. Certain diseases produce extreme lassitude, and the sufferer’s feelings when the correct treatment causes new life to surge through the body are exquisitely joyous and hopeful. Yet those pleasurable feelings are not the true measure of the strength regained. That, though so different from the former weakness, is very slight, and the patient has a long way to go before he is normally healthy and strong. It is the same with grace in the soul. Its beginning, in the case of all who have some assurance of faith from the start, is wonderful, but the Holy Spirit has much to do within the soul ere the foul disease of sin gives way to grace in every direction. For sin is everywhere, in all the faculties, in the mind, affections and conscience too. Yes, even conscience will be found to be less active than it should, leaving us too long free to indulge habitual and much cherished sins.
It is well known that a perusal of a popular medical guide can make anyone with a tendency to hypochondria think he or she has a number of diseases. It is not so well known that people have a sad inability to mark the ravages of sin in their souls, and that the only book which will open their eyes to these ravages is the Bible. Most other books assist in keeping them blind to their corruption, but the Scriptures do the opposite. This is one of the great services it performs for the saved sinner. It opens his eyes to see sin as evil, deadly, defiling, deceiving and powerful. It searches heart and life and closes him in to Christ the only Saviour. “The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.” What a searching thing the moral law is! A reading of Questions 91-952 in The Larger Catechism can be a devastating experience. Likewise the practical sections of Paul’s Epistles. “Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults.”
Yet, numerous though our moral ailments be, Christ can heal them all. He will do it so perfectly that in glory “The inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity.” Do the words of our verse refer also to physical diseases? Those from which we have been healed were indeed healed by God, but the words are not a guarantee that all our diseases will be healed. We can ask that they may; and in sickness it is to God that we should look above all. He may heal; then we ought not to forget his kindness. If diseases are not healed, we should seek submission to his will, and the transmuting of our troubles into blessings. “All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”