CHRIST’S HOSPITAL – Charles Spurgeon
CHRIST’S HOSPITAL
“He heals the broken in heart, and binds up their wounds.” Psalm 147:3.
Introduction
OFTEN as we have read this Psalm, we can never fail to be struck with the connection in which this verse stands, especially its connection with the verse that follows. Read the two together—“He heals the broken in heart, and binds up their wounds. He counts the number of the stars; He calls them all by their names.” What condescension and grandeur! What pity and omnipotence! He who leads out yonder ponderous orbs in almost immeasurable orbits, nevertheless, is the Surgeon of men’s souls and stoops over broken hearts and with His own tender fingers closes up the gaping wound and binds it with the liniment of love. Think of it and if I should not speak as well as I could desire upon the wonderful theme of His condescension, yet help me by your own thoughts to do reverence to the Maker of the stars, who is, at the same time, the Physician for broken hearts and wounded spirits.
Connection with the Previous Verse
I am equally interested in the connection of my text with the verse that goes before it—“The Lord does build up Jerusalem: He gathers together the outcasts of Israel.” The church of God is never so well built up as when it is built up with men of broken hearts. I have prayed to God in secret many a time, of late, that He would be pleased to gather out from among us a people who have a deep experience, who should know the guilt of sin, who should be broken and ground to powder under a sense of their own inability and unworthiness, for I am persuaded that without a deep experience of sin, there is seldom much belief in the doctrine of grace and not much enthusiasm in praising the Savior’s name. The church needs to be built up with men who have been pulled down. Unless we know in our hearts our need of a Savior, we shall never be worth much in preaching Him. That preacher who has never been converted, what can he say about it? And he who has never been in the dungeon, who has never been in the abyss, who has never felt as if he were cast out from the sight of God, how can he comfort many who are outcasts and who are bound with the fetters of despair? May the Lord break many hearts and then bind them up that with them He may build up the church and inhabit it!
The Text and Its Application
But now, leaving the connection, I come to the text itself, and I desire to speak of it so that everyone here who is troubled may derive comfort from it, God the Holy Spirit speaking through it. Consider, first, the patients and their sickness—“He healed the broken in heart.” Then, consider the Physician and His medicine and for a while, turn your eyes to Him who does this healing work. Then, I shall want you to consider the testimonial to the great Physician which we have in this verse—“He heals the broken in heart, and binds up their wounds.” Lastly and most practically, we will consider what we ought to do towards Him who heals the broken in heart.
I. THE PATIENTS AND THEIR SICKNESS
They are broken in heart. I have heard of many who have died of a broken heart, but there are some who live with a broken heart—and who live all the better for having had their hearts broken—they live another and higher life than they lived before that blessed stroke broke their hearts in pieces. There are many sorts of broken hearts and Christ is good at healing them all. I am not going to lower and narrow the application of my text. The patients of the great Physician are those whose hearts are broken through sorrow. Hearts are broken through disappointment. Hearts are broken through bereavement. Hearts are broken in 10,000 ways, for this is a heart-breaking world and Christ is good at healing all manner of heartbreaks. I would encourage every person here, even though his heartbreak may not be of a spiritual kind, to make an application to Him who healed the broken in heart. The text does not say, “the spIritually broken in heart,” therefore I will not insert an adverb where there is none in the passage. Come here, you that are burdened, all you that labor and are heavy laden. Come here, all you that sorrow, be your sorrow what it may. Come here, all you whose hearts are broken, be the heartbreak what it may, for He heals the broken in heart.
Still, there is a special brokenness of heart to which Christ gives the very earliest and most tender attention. He heals those whose hearts are broken for sin. Christ heals the heart that is broken because of its sin so that it grieves, laments, regrets, and bemoans itself, saying, “Woe is me that I have done this exceedingly great evil and brought ruin upon myself! Woe is me that I have dishonored God, that I have cast myself away from His presence, that I have made myself liable to His everlasting wrath and that even now His wrath abides on me!” If there is a man here whose heart is broken about his past life, he is the man to whom my text refers.
II. THE PHYSICIAN AND HIS MEDICINE
Who is this that heals the broken in heart? I answer that Jesus was anointed of God for this work. He said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted.” Was the Holy Spirit given to Christ in vain? That cannot be. He was given for a purpose which must be answered, and that purpose is the healing of the brokenhearted. By the very anointing of Christ by the Holy Spirit, you may be sure that our Physician will heal the broken in heart.
Further, Jesus was sent of God on purpose to do His work—“He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted.” If Christ does not heal the brokenhearted, He will not fulfill the mission for which He came from heaven. If the brokenhearted are not cheered by His glorious life and the blessings that flow out of His death, then He will have come to earth for nothing. This is the very errand on which the Lord of glory left the bosom of the Father to be veiled in human clay that He might heal the broken in heart—and He will do it.
Our Lord was also educated for this work. He was not only anointed and sent, but He was trained for it. “How?” you ask. Why, He had a broken heart Himself and there is no education for the office of Comforter like being placed where you yourself have need of comfort, so that you may be able to comfort others with the comfort wherewith you have been comforted of God.
III. THE TESTIMONIAL TO THE GREAT PHYSICIAN
It is God the Holy Spirit who, by the mouth of His servant David, bears testimony to this congregation tonight that the Lord Jesus heals the broken in heart and binds up their wounds. If I said it, you need no more believe it than I need believe it if you said it. One man’s word is as good as another’s if we are truthful, but this statement is found in an inspired Psalm. I believe it—I dare not doubt it, for I have proven its truth.
As I read my text, I understand it to mean this—He does it effectually. As I said last Thursday night, if there is a person cast down or desponding within 20 miles, he is pretty sure to find me out. I laugh, sometimes, and say, “Birds of a feather flock together,” but they come to talk to me about their despondency and sometimes they leave me half desponding in the attempt to get them out of their sadness. I have had some very sad cases lately, and I am afraid that when they went out of my room, they could not say of me, “He heals the broken in heart.” I am sure that they could say, “He tried his best. He brought out all the choice arguments he could think of to comfort me.” And they have felt very grateful. They have come back sometimes to thank God that they have been a little bit encouraged, but some of them are frequent visitors—and I have been trying to cheer them up by the month together. But when my Master undertakes the work, “He heals the broken in heart,” He not only tries to do it, He does it. He touches the secret sources of the sorrow and takes the spring of the grief away.
IV. WHAT WE OUGHT TO DO
If there is such a Physician as this and we have broken hearts, it goes without saying that, first of all, we ought to resort to Him. When people are told that they have an incurable disease, a malady that will soon bring them to their grave, they are much distressed. But if, somewhere or other, they hear that the disease may be cured after all, they say, “Where? Where?” Well, perhaps it is thousands of miles away—but they are willing to go if they can. Or the medicine may be very unpleasant or very expensive— but if they find that they can be cured, they say, “I will have it.” And if anyone came to their door and said, “Here it is. It will heal you and you can have it for nothing and as much as you want of it,” there would be no difficulty in getting rid of any quantity of the medicine so long as we found people sick. Now, if you have a broken heart tonight, you will be glad to have Christ.
When you are about to go to Christ, possibly you ask, “How shall I go to Him?” Go by prayer. One said to me the other day, “I wish that you would write me a prayer, sir.” I said, “No, I cannot do that, go and tell the Lord what you need.” He replied, “Sometimes I feel such a great want that I do not know what it is I want. And I try to pray, but I cannot. I wish that somebody would tell me what to say.” “Why!” I said, “The Lord has told you what to say. This is what He has said—‘Take with you words, and turn to the Lord: say unto Him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously.’”
When you have trusted in Him and your heart is healed, and you are happy, tell others about Him. You believe that Christ is blessing you, yet you never try to bring others to Him to be saved. That must not be the case any longer. We must excel that dog in our love for our species and it must be our intense desire that if Christ has healed us, He should heal our wife, our child, our friend, our neighbor, and we should never rest till others are brought to Him.
Then, when others are brought to Christ, or even if they will not be brought to Him, be sure to praise Him. If your broken heart has been healed and you are saved, and your sins forgiven, praise Him. We do not sing half enough.
Conclusion
Let us begin to praise God for healing the broken in heart, binding up wounds, and for His endless love and care. God bless all the broken hearts in this congregation tonight, for Jesus’ sake! Amen.
EXPANSION BY C. H. SPURGEON
Psalm 147
Verse 1:
Praise you the LORD—It is not enough for the psalmist to do it himself. He needs help in it, so he says, “Praise you the LORD.” Wake up, my brethren. Bestir yourselves, my sisters. Come, all of you, and unite in this holy exercise!
Verse 2-9:
He heals the broken in heart and binds up their wounds… He gives to the beast his food… Praise you His name.
Final Prayer:
Praise the Lord. Hallelujah.