The heart means love. A good heart means love to the Lord and to the neighbor, while a hard or stony heart means the love of self or the world -- riches and things. When the psalmist asks the Lord to search his heart, he wants the Lord to see what it is that he loves. And we are what we love. What we eat may form our earthly body, but it's only temporary, what we love forms our spiritual body, beautiful or ugly as we have chosen. It's interesting to note that the first multi-cellular motion of our embryo is the pulsating that starts in a twist of blood vessel that is to become our heart, and the last motion of our natural body is our heartbeat. It is there for all of our natural life. And of course there is a beating heart in our spiritual bodies when we come to put them on.

8365. 'For I, Jehovah, am your Healer' means that the Lord alone preserves them from evils. This is clear from the meaning of 'healing' as curing of and also preserving from evils; for when evils are meant by 'sicknesses', curing people of them and preserving them from them is meant by 'healing', [here] and also many times in the Word, such as in Moses,

I kill and I make alive, I strike and I heal. Deuteronomy 32:39.

In Jeremiah,

Heal me, O Jehovah, in order that I may be healed; save me, in order that I may be saved. Jeremiah 17:14.

In the same prophet,

I will restore health to you ¹ and heal you of your blows. Jeremiah 30:17.

In David,

His whole bed you have turned in his sickness. ² I said, O Jehovah, be merciful to me; heal my soul, for I have sinned against You. Psalms 41:3-4.

The same may be seen in many other places besides these, such as Isaiah 6:10; 53:5; 57:18-19; Jeremiah 3:22; 17:14; Hosea 6:1; 7:1; 11:3; 14:4; Zechariah 11:16; Psalms 30:2; and elsewhere. And since 'healing' had this meaning, the Lord also calls Himself 'a physician',

Those who are well have no need of a physician but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Matthew 9:12-13; Mark 2:17; Luke 5:31-32.

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