I once had a toothache and I was in so much pain. For some reason, I did not think of getting a painkiller or any medical help. Maybe because I thought it made me manlier. Mwanaume anafanya nini akimeza pain killer? Pain ikimuuma anafaa pia kuiuma! Just like Chuck Norris, who doesn’t feel pain, the pain feels him. But my face was so distraught, and anyone could clearly see I was in pain.

A lady friend decided enough was enough and she bought me a Mara Moja and forced me to take it. In a few minutes, I could literally feel the pain subside and disappear. The relief I got was so great that I felt I could marry that lady. ‘What magic is this that takes away such pain?’ I wanted to be her friend forever and protect her with everything I had — even take a bullet for her. I literally wanted to sing praises to her.

In Psalm 147, one of the reasons the Psalmist is singing praises to God is because God released Him from some deep pain caused by heartbreak.

Look at how the psalmist sings praises to God in the rest of the Psalm: 1 — Praise the LORD! For it is good to sing praises to our God; for it is pleasant and a song of praise is fitting. 7 — Sing to the LORD with thanksgiving, make melody to our God on the lyre. 12 — Praise the LORD, O Jerusalem! Praise your God, O Zion! 20b — Praise the LORD

Wueh, this guy was so happy that he wrote a song asking other people to sing to God. Why? Because God delivered him from the deep emotional pain of heartbreak. You see the thing about pain is it demands to be felt. You cannot switch it off like lights. In life, we normally face physical and emotional pain. With physical pain, at least you can be able to tell where the pain is and apply some remedy to cool it down. But with deep emotional heart pain, you cannot be able to tell exactly where it is hurting from. You don’t even know what to do to ease the pain. It’s not like a burn where you can pour some cold water on. You can’t even take medicine to heal the pain you feel in your heart. You can’t even go to a doctor and tell him, ‘Heal this emotional pain.’ The pain is in you constantly and you can only hope that one day it will die down on its own. But here is someone who is singing praises to God saying that he has found a remedy to emotional pain! He is saying that God heals deep emotional pain.

Right now, you could be heartbroken. You could be feeling deep emotional pain beyond your understanding. So deep that you cannot be able to describe it. So deep that even when you are asked how you are doing, you have no words to say. So deep that the only thing that you can do is cry. The help that you may be getting from other people may not seem to have any impact. I am here today with comforting news from the Word of God. I am here to present to you One who heals the brokenhearted. One who can actually do something to the deep pain that you are feeling.

I will present Him to you in two main points. I will first give you His CV and then His cover letter. I will tell you who He is and what He has done and then present to you how He accomplishes this healing. - He who heals - How He heals

Who is this?

The Psalmist describes Him in two ways. He first presents a big awesome majestic and powerful God. Then he presents a God who steps into the lives of His creation in their sorrow and suffering. Look with me in the surrounding verses of Psalm 147 to see a powerful and majestic God. Who is this that heals the brokenhearted? 4 — He determines the number of the stars and gives to all them their names. Do you know how many stars there are? We don’t even know, we just say billions! This God, not only knows their number but He names each of them! You know the amazing thing about this infinite ability is not that He has named all the stars, the mind-blowing thing is that He knows your name! His knowledge of billions of stars in the universe does not stop Him from knowing you in a very personal way. You see, for God, it is not as if when we pray to Him He is handling large crowds of people struggling to hear one over the other while asking people to take turns. No. Billions of people all over the world reach out to Him, but with each of them, in a very personal way, it is as if He is in a room listening to them one on one. C.S. Lewis puts it this way, ‘He has infinite attention to spare for each one of us. He does not have to deal with us in the mass. You are as much alone with Him as if you were the only being He had ever created.’ Ni wewe na yeye. This is how powerful the One who heals you is.

How else is He powerful?

5 — Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; His understanding is beyond measure. 8 — He covers the heavens with clouds, He prepares rain for the earth, He makes grass grow on the hills 16 — He gives snow like wool: He scatters frost like ashes 17 — He hurls down His crystals of ice like crumbs; who can stand before His cold? 18 — He sent out His word, and melts them; He makes His winds blow and the waters flow.

Nothing else, in this world, compares to the greatness of our God. And this is the God who heals. So cling to Him. Go to Him with your prayers and songs and lament. Cling to His word with your fingernails. Sing through tears and gritted teeth. Allow Him to minister to you through His people.

But also notice with me, that He is not just a God who is powerful and majestic and far off from us. Because that is how it feels when we interact with powerful human beings. We stand before men wielding power and tremble because of the harm they can do to us. Many times we fear and detest them. Let us see together what God is doing with this awesome, grand, majestic power. The Bible calls Him the Lord of hosts, which means the commander of legions of angels. One angel of God in 2 Kings 18:35 killed and completely obliterated 185,000 mighty soldiers. God commands thousands upon thousands of such angels. It is like saying that God holds a thousand nuclear missiles!

So, what does the one who holds a thousand nuclear missiles do? 2 — The LORD builds up Jerusalem; He gathers the outcasts of Israel. 6 — The LORD lifts up the humble; He casts the wicked to the ground. 9 — He gives to the beasts their food, and to the young ravens that cry 10,11 — His delight is not in the strength of the horse, nor His pleasure in the legs of a man, but the LORD takes pleasure in those who fear Him, in those who hope in His steadfast love. 13 — For He strengthens the bars of your gates; He blesses your children within you. He makes peace in your borders; He fills you with the finest of the wheat.

He is the exact opposite of many human beings who have power and wealth. That’s why CityAlight calls Him Jesus strong and kind! He uses His power to care and show love, especially to those who are in deep distress, like you are right now. Trust me, you want a caring, loving God who would come to your level and step into your sorrow with complete sincerity and integrity and come through for you. Right now, because of your pain, you could be feeling like you have hit rock bottom. But I pray that God may make you very aware of His presence around you, so that you may see how He is the Rock at the bottom holding you fast.

On to my second point. How does He do it? How He heals He binds up their wounds. But wait, aren’t we dealing with a broken heart? This is what a doctor does with physical wounds. What does the psalmist mean by binding up wounds? I believe that the Psalmist is helping us to see that God can heal our emotional pain the same way a doctor treats a physical wound. As a Christian, when in deep emotional pain, you’re not just waiting hopelessly for the pain you are feeling to just heal on its own. God, your Remedy, is already binding up the wounds of your emotional pain. Binding up speaks of care, love, compassion, and presence. Just like the Good Samaritan who poured oil and wine on the wounds of the beaten-up Jew. It might take time, but He is there with you, nursing your emotional pain out, till the day you can sing again with joy.

It might take time. But, He does it in such a way that He never leaves your side as He heals your emotional pain. It’s like how a wound is nursed. He checks up on you, soothes the hurting area, applies His sweet balm of healing oil and closes it up. This continues till the day that you fully heal. The gain at the end is much more than the healing. You gain God! You get closer to Him and you cherish Him more. You get to have a deeper understanding of Him and therefore a deeper love. You get to drink from the deep wells of pure joy because, in His presence, there is fullness of joy.

This is not the first time that our great and powerful God steps down into our sorrow. This God left His glorious throne above and stepped into our broken world. He came to deliver us completely from our pain, sorrow and death by dealing with sin. You see, heartbreaks are just but a symptom of a deeper problem called sin. When I took the painkiller for my toothache, the pain subsided but the problem was not sorted out. I had to go to a dentist and get the whole tooth removed.

When we sin against God, we move from the source of everything that is good. We move from light to darkness. We move from love to disconnection. We move from life to death. Heartbreaks are just but a small surface on the tip of the iceberg of our problems. Our big problem results from our great assault against God. However, as a loving Redeemer, He came in the form of man to deal with it. On the cross, in deep anguish, pain and sorrow, and we could even say with a broken heart, He cried out, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me’ so that all who believe in Him, would never have to be forsaken by God.

His robes for mine, such anguish none can know Christ God’s beloved, condemned as though His foe He as though I, accursed and left alone I as though He, embraced and welcomed home God is your very present help in this time of need.