Series: Amazing!
“HEALING GRACE”
PSALMS 103:1-5
Max Lucado tells a story about Chippie the parakeet. He says: Chippie never saw it coming. One second he was peacefully perched in his cage. The next he was sucked in, washed up, and blown over.
The problems began when Chippie's owner decided to clean his cage with a vacuum cleaner. She removed the attachment from the end of the hose and stuck it in the cage. The phone rang, and she turned to pick it up. She'd barely said '”hello” when sssopp! Chippie got sucked in.
The bird’s owner gasped, put down the phone, turned off the vacuum, and opened the bag. There was Chippie – still alive, but stunned. Since the bird was covered with dust and soot, she grabbed him and raced to the bathroom, turned on the faucet, and held Chippie under the running water. Then, realizing that Chippie was soaked and shivering, she did what any compassionate bird owner would do. She reached for the hair dryer and blasted the pet with hot air. Poor Chippie never knew what hit him.
A few days after the trauma, the reporter who'd initially written about the event contacted Chippie's owner to see how the bird was recovering. “Well,” she replied, “Chippie doesn't sing much anymore. He just sits and stares.”
Lucado notes: “It's hard not to see why. Sucked in, washed up, and blown over – that's enough to steal the song from the stoutest heart.”
One of the things I’ve come to embrace in my 43 years of following Jesus and it’s something that has been reinforced in my 28 years as an ordained minister is that everyone has hurts. I have hurts and you have hurts. No one sails through life untouched. No one really leads a charmed fairy-tale life.
Everybody in this room has experienced tremendous hurt, and many of us still suffer from the scars. We don’t all look like it, but everyone has hurts.
Job sums up the way many of us have felt about the hurts in our lives. Job 7:16 – “I despise my life; I would not live forever. Let me alone; my days have no meaning.” Job is literally saying, “I hate my life. My life is meaningless. I hurt so badly that I don’t want to live anymore.”
The worst hurts are those that don’t heal by themselves. Some hurts heal with the passing of time. Some hurts leave lasting pain. Left to themselves, they never heal.
I’m talking about hurts like rejection, betrayal, abuse, and injustice. These hurts, if left over time, will fester. There is a need for healing but they just don’t heal by themselves.
Most of us are familiar with Job’s story. He was a wealthy man who was well-respected and was faithful in his worship of God. Everything was taken away from. His children were killed and his flocks and herds were destroyed in what we call today “natural disasters.” On top of that, Job contracted a severe case of painful boils that afflicted him from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet. His wife was a nagging and negative woman. No wonder that he despaired of his life.
But something incredible happened. By the end of the book of Job, we see that something miraculous occurred. Job had wrestled with his assumptions about God and reached a point where he understood God better than he did before. God brought healing to his life. Job 42:12a – The Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the former part.
I am not saying that God will heal your hurts exactly the same as he did Job’s but I am convinced that he will bring healing for your hurts according to your specific need. Ps. 147:3 – He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. He desires to trade your sorrows for joy.
For those who grieve and whose wounds are deep, God wants, according to Is. 61:3 – To bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.
King David knew what it means to hurt. Yet he writes in Ps. 103:1-5 – Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. 2 Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits— 3 who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, 4 who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, 5 who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
That passage is our focus scripture this morning. I want us to see how God heals the hidden wounds in our lives – the wounds of guilt, discouragement, anxiety, and weariness. God brings healing at the point of greatest need.
How do we discover healing through God’s grace? We need to cling tightly to four essential truths.
GOD CAN HANDLE MY GUILT WITH HIS FORGIVENESS
Prov. 28:1 – The wicked man flees though no one pursues, but the righteous are as bold as a lion. That’s what you feel like when you’re guilty. You feel like you’re being chased. You are your own accuser.
Several years ago in the San Diego superior court there were two men who were on trial for armed robbery. The prosecutor called an eyewitness to the stand and began his direct examination.
Prosecutor: “You were at the scene of the robbery?” Witness: “Yes.”
Prosecutor: “You saw a vehicle leave at a high rate of speed?” Witness: “Yes.”
Prosecutor: “Did you observe the occupants of this vehicle?” Witness: “Yes.”
Prosecutor: “How many people were in the vehicle?” Witness: “Two.”
Prosecutor: “Were they male or female?” Witness: “Male.”
Prosecutor: “And are those two men in this courtroom today?” Before the witness could answer, both defendants raised their hands.
Let’s admit it. At some point we just have to raise our hands and say, “I did it.” We all have sinned. Rom. 3:23 – For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Once you’ve committed one sin, you’re guilty of breaking all of God’s law. James 2:10 – For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.
We’ve sinned through our acts – things like lying and stealing. We’ve sinned through our attitudes – things like anger, lust, and envy. Because we inherently understand that sin separates us from God, the feelings of guilt fall heavily on our souls. We cry out like David in Ps. 38:4 – My guilt has overwhelmed me like a burden too heavy to bear.
Guilt is like a warning light that brings our attention to something that needs to get fixed. But we sometimes try to ignore it. It’s similar to the person who ignores the “check engine” light on their dashboard. They just hope that it will go away on its own. But the smart thing to do is to deal with the problem. We need to be freed from our guilt.
Ps. 103:3 – says that God “forgives all your sins.” There are three important concepts in that phrase.
The first concept is that God’s forgiveness is continual. God doesn’t forgive you just one time. He forgives you continually. The statement is given in the present tense.
When you trust Jesus, he wipes your past clean. He takes care of future sins. He gives you grace for the present and His forgiveness keeps going and going and going.
The second concept is that God’s forgiveness is divine. If I offend my wife Anna, which I somehow manage to do from time to time, I would be foolish to ask someone else for forgiveness. We need to be forgiven by the one we’ve offended.
David observes in Ps. 51:4 – Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge. We need God’s forgiveness to free us from our guilt and that’s exactly what He offers.
The third concept is that God’s forgiveness is far-reaching. He forgives all of my sins. There are no exclusions. There’s nothing that’s not covered. There’s no small print. God promises to heal the guilt of all your sins, no matter when they were committed or how severe
they may be.
How does God deal with my sinful acts, attitudes, and nature? He forgives them. He wipes my slate clean. He makes me a new creature.
My role is to simply ask for this forgiveness. Acts 3:19 – Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord. I’ve got to turn away from sin and follow God. I have to come to him and admit my guilt and ask him to remove it.
The good news is that he promises to do so. God says in Is. 43:25 – “I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.”
God can relieve you of your guilt today. You can have a guilt exchange with God. Christ paid the penalty for all of our sin. God can completely forgive you of all your sins – past,
present, and future. In exchange, you can receive new life and a new reason for living.
GOD CAN HANDLE MY DISCOURAGEMENT WITH HIS HELP
Job 5:7 – Yet man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward. That’s pretty sure, isn’t it? This week, I read about some folks who could surely testify to the truth in that statement.
A fierce gust of wind blew 45-year old Vittorio Luise’s car into a river near Naples, Italy. He managed to break out a window, climb out, and swim to shore where a tree blew over and killed him.
Mike Stewart, 31, of Dallas was filming a public service movie about “The Dangers of Low-Level Bridges”. He was standing on the back of a semi-truck filming when it passed under a low-level bridge knocking him off and killing him.
Walter Hallas, a 26-year old store clerk in Leeds, England was so afraid of dentists that he asked a fellow worker to try to cure his toothache by punching him in the jaw. The punch caused Hallas to fall down, hit his head, and die of a fractured skull.
Does anybody here have problems? Sure. We all have problems. It’s hard to imagine anyone having more problems than David, the man who wrote 103rd Psalm. You name it, he experienced it.
He was the least in his family – the runt of the litter. King Saul tried to kill him. He had to run for his life for years. One of David’s sons, Amnon, raped his half-sister, Tamar, and was later murdered by another one of David’s sons – Absalom. Several; years later, Absalom plotted against his father to take away his throne.
David’s life was one of turmoil. He was brutally honest with God about how he felt. He let God know whenever he was experiencing a time of trouble.
David writes a song about his experience with God in these matters. It’s our central passage for this morning.
In vss. 3-5 of Psalm 103, he says that God is someone who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
David is saying, “God has forgiven all of MY sins and has healed ME. He has redeemed ME from the pit and crowned ME with love and compassion. He has satisfied MY desires and renewed MY strength.” He wants me to remember one very important thing: God is bigger than my problems.
You might have come here today extremely discouraged. God can handle your discouragement. God can provide healing from whatever it is that is dragging you down.
I read this week about a man in a wheelchair. His mother was killed when he was a child. His father never knew how to show him love. He dove into a river and became paralyzed. After that, he became enslaved to drugs and alcohol.
Because of the paralysis, it took him an hour to get out of bed. He couldn’t feed himself or go to the bathroom by himself.
Several years ago he gave his life to Jesus Christ. After two years under God’s care, he exchanged his bitterness and his hurt for God’s love. He’s adopted 11 children and has 4 foster children.
It still takes him an hour to get out of bed but now he can make his own sandwich. But most importantly, he’s found that God is bigger than his problems.
God’s promise is that whenever his people are in need, he will help. David says in Ps. 18:6 – In my distress I called to the Lord; I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears. Then in vs. 9, he says –He parted the heavens and came down. God can handle whatever discouragement you are facing with his help.
GOD CAN HANDLE MY ANXIETY WITH HIS PROVISION
Anyone here ever worry? We all have worries. A lot of us worry about our needs being met. God promises to meet our anxiety with his provision.
Psalm 103:4b-5a – [God] crowns you with love and compassion, [and] satisfies your
desires with good things. He promises not only to meet our basic needs, but to meet our deepest needs – to provide us with his love and tender mercies. Our God is a God who provides.
I’ve found this to be true in my own life. There have been times of trouble and uncertainty. There were struggles and disappointments. Like most of you, I worried. I was anxious then and still struggle with it to some degree now. But I kept praying and kept trusting and God always provided. My wife and I have certainly discovered that God surrounds us with love and tender mercies. He fills our lives with good things.
If you’re anxious this morning about having enough, God promises to meet your needs. He wants to surround your life with love and mercy; to fill your life with good things. God can handle my anxiety with his provision. Phil 4:19 – And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.
GOD CAN HANDLE MY WEARINESS WITH HIS REST
There are times in my life when I feel extremely tired. My body, my mind, and my spirit get weary. The only thing that I can do during those times and those seasons is to rest in the Lord.
Is. 40:28-31 – 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, and his understanding no one can fathom. 29 He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. 30 Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; 31 but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
We learn two crucial things from that passage. Number one, we learn that everyone gets tired sometimes. Even the strongest people get tired at times.
Number two, God is never too tired to help those who are worn out or discouraged. God’s power and strength never diminish. He is never too drained to help and listen. The one who watches over us never gets tired or sleeps.
You may be exhausted this morning. Jesus offers you rest from that weariness and fatigue. He invites you to come to him and to receive his rest. Mt.11:28-29 – “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”
In India, if you’re walking down their rural roads, you’ll occasionally come across a post with a sturdy shelf about shoulder height. It is called “Soma Tonga,” which means “resting place.” When people are traveling with a heavy load, they place their heavy load on the shelf for relief. Once rested, they continue their journey. Christians in India call Jesus, “My Soma Tonga.”
CLOSE
There’s an old nursery rhyme that sums up our predicament. We all learned it at an early age. It describes how our hurts debilitate us.
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall;
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall;
All the King’s horses and all the King’s men;
Couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty back together again.
Do you feel broken by the hurts you’ve suffered in life? Do you feel like Humpty Dumpty that no one can put you back together again?
David O. Dykes wrote an additional verse to Humpty Dumpty that describes our hope in Jesus Christ:
Jesus Christ came to your wall;
And on the Cross, He died for your fall;
Regardless of death and in spite of your sin;
Through grace, He can put you together again!
Jeremiah 17:14 – Heal me, Lord, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise. When we come to God recognizing our weakness and his strength, our sin and his righteousness, and our lack and his wealth we can find the process of healing that his grace brings to all who will ask and receive.
