Bible Verses About Healing

"Who healeth the broken of heart, and bindeth up their bruises."

The DRC numbers this Psalm 146 (the Vulgate splits Psalm 147 into 146 and 147). It pictures God as a physician with bandages, attending to wounds we cannot reach ourselves.

"Is any man sick among you? Let him bring in the priests of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith shall save the sick man: and the Lord shall raise him up: and if he be in sins, they shall be forgiven him."

The biblical foundation of the sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick. Note both halves: bodily healing and forgiveness, treated as a single act.

"Surely he hath borne our infirmities and carried our sorrows: and we have thought him as it were a leper, and as one struck by God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our iniquities, he was bruised for our sins: the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his bruises we are healed."

The Suffering Servant passage — written 700 years before Christ but read at every Catholic Good Friday service. Healing here costs the healer.

"And he said to her: Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole: go in peace, and be thou whole of thy disease."

Christ to the woman with the haemorrhage, after she touches his cloak in the crowd. He calls her 'daughter' — she has no other name in the Gospel, and is given the dignity of one in his family.

"For I will close up thy scar, and will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the Lord."

Jeremiah's prophecy to Israel in exile — addressed first to a community, then read by individuals. Note the sequence: closing the scar comes before fully healing the wound.

"The just cried, and the Lord heard them: and delivered them out of all their troubles. The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a contrite heart: and he will save the humble of spirit."

David's psalm naming what God does with broken people: he comes near. Not a removal from trouble, but a presence in it.

"For I am the Lord thy healer."

God's name to Israel after the bitter waters at Marah. The Hebrew is 'Yahweh-Rapha' — the Lord-who-heals. It is one of the names by which Israel learns who God is.

"And he said to me: My grace is sufficient for thee; for power is made perfect in infirmity. Gladly therefore will I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may dwell in me."

Paul has asked three times for the 'thorn in the flesh' to be removed. Christ does not remove it; instead he tells Paul where his strength will come from. Healing as the redirection of weakness, not the elimination of it.