The Lord Who Heals – Jehovah Rapha

“My soul, bless the Lord, and do not forget all his benefits. He forgives all your iniquity; he heals all your diseases. He redeems your life from the Pit; he crowns you with faithful love and compassion.” This is what the Word of God says in Psalm 103:2–4 (emphasis added). In these verses, we see that God heals. From our diseases, yes. And also, more importantly, from our iniquities—our sins.

God heals. That is why one of His names is Jehovah Rapha, literally the Lord who heals. 

Don’t hesitate to talk to God about your pain and invite Him into your struggle. Ask Him to help and to heal.

No matter who you are, the longer you are on this earth, the more you will be exposed to pain. It can be emotional, physical, or spiritual, and regardless of which type of pain it is, it’s not likely to be pleasant. It is more likely to cause suffering and discomfort that we would like to be rid of as soon as possible. 

In Exodus 15:26, where the name “the Lord who heals” first appears, God had just rescued the Israelites from physical and emotional slavery to the Egyptians and saved them from dying of thirst in the desert at Marah. He then promised them that “If you will carefully obey the Lord your God, do what is right in his sight, pay attention to his commands, and keep all his statutes, I will not inflict any illnesses on you that I inflicted on the Egyptians. For I am the Lord who heals you” (Exodus 15:26). God continued to show that to be true throughout the Scriptures as he healed people from blindness, leprosy, diseases, raised people from the dead, opened barren wombs, etc. in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. The list of examples of God’s healing is too extensive to get deeply into today, so we will just focus on this personal name of God and what it means for us today. 

Whether you are dealing with mental illness or emotional struggles like fear, worry, or anxiety, or maybe you are struggling with a physical illness such as high blood pressure, diabetes, or cancer, don’t hesitate to talk to God about your pain and invite Him into your struggle. Ask Him to help and to heal, knowing that there is no disease or problem beyond God’s ability to cure. In the midst of it, we can ask God to help us grow closer to Him, and trust that even if He heals in a way or on a schedule that we don’t like, or if He chooses not to heal us now, in this life, for some reason we can’t understand, we can still trust that He knows what is ultimately best for us and He will take care of us! We can stand firm on the hope that someday, when we are alive with Jesus in eternity, He will give us complete and total healing, not just from physical, emotional, and mental afflictions, but even more importantly, from the spiritual affliction we have because of our sin. We had a prognosis of death; our spiritual affliction was terminal. But Jesus came, as the most amazing physician in the world, and through His work on the cross, He healed us—cured us—so that now, we can live with a new prognosis of everlasting life free of crying, free of pain, and free of death (Revelation 21:4).

No matter what you are suffering through today, reach out to Jehovah-Rapha, the Lord who heals. He hears you and he cares about you—now and forever.

Verses where God healed or promises healing as well as prayers for healing: