A listener named Ian in Australia writes in to ask this, "Pastor John, how would you preach from Psalm 103.3, which says that God heals all our diseases? Do we just spiritualize this? He heals us from the disease of sin? Or do we take it in the ultimate sense that one day we will be healed in heaven?

There are many Christians today who die of awful diseases." Yeah, this is an absolutely crucial question because verse 3 of Psalm 103, "He forgives all your iniquity, He heals all your diseases," is one of dozens of places in the Psalms that seem to promise things that are so idealistic, so far beyond anybody's ordinary experience.

And so we really do need an answer to this question of not only how to teach them, but how to believe them, how to enjoy them. What comforts me, and has helped me perhaps as much as anything in wrestling with the absolute statements of blessing in the Psalms, is that Jesus knew this problem and the devil knew it, and the way they interacted about it is very illuminating.

So the devil knows Psalm 91. It's one of those Psalms like, "The arrow will not come near you," you know? It's just an amazing Psalm, Psalm 91. You're gonna be protected. Nothing is gonna harm you. So the devil quotes this to Jesus, standing on the top of the temple, and he says, "If you're the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written," and he quotes it in the Bible.

The devil's quoting the Bible. "He will command his angels concerning you to guard you. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against the stone." In other words, he's saying, "Jesus, jump off of here, because the Bible says angels won't let you die jumping off this temple." So he's tempting Jesus by quoting him in Scripture, just like he heals all your diseases.

I mean, they're in the same category. He never lets you dash your foot against the stone. You can't fall off a cliff if you're a Christian, and you won't get any diseases, or if you get one, you'll be healed. And Jesus answered him and said, "You shall not put the Lord your God to the test." That's Luke 4 and 9.

"You shall not put the Lord your God to the test." So for Jesus, the devil was quoting the Bible at a wrong time, in the wrong way, for the wrong end. Jesus had come into the world to suffer and to die. He was going to be crushed. Therefore, all the Psalms of never coming to harm, or always being delivered, could not be applied directly to Jesus at any given moment.

He came to die. So to try to apply the Psalm to the best of men would be a misapplication. And Jesus knew it, and Paul knew it. In fact, Paul saw that the Psalms themselves would not allow this kind of simple application to every person at any time. Psalm 44, 22 says, "For your sake, God, we are being killed all day long.

We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered." Now, in that context, in Psalm 44, 22, that is not owing to God's judgment, it's not owing to their sin, it's simply the fact they've been faithful and they're being slaughtered. Which is why Paul quotes it in Romans 8, as part of what Christians can expect.

He says, "What shall separate us from the love of God? Shall tribulation, distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, we are being killed all day long." So he quotes the very Psalm that says we'll be killed and destroyed. And so Christians can expect this.

So now, against that backdrop of the New Testament, and Jesus and Paul helping us not oversimplify the absolute statements of blessing in the Psalms, what do they mean? And here's my threefold answer. Number one, there is coming a time when all of these statements, all of these promises, will be fulfilled in Jesus and in all of those who are in Jesus, in the new earth, in the ideal world.

And all those promises will not prove to be overstatements. All sins will be forgiven, all diseases will be healed, eventually. And Jesus has forged a way through suffering, he calls us to forge the way through suffering into the full experience of those Psalms in the age to come. Second, in this world, God does heal.

And all healing that comes to us comes to us from God. And so we should look for it, ask for it, thank him when he gives it. But the final promise of no more death and no more disease will come in the future. And third, even our diseases and our calamities are not defeats.

That's what Paul said, "In them all we are more than conquerors through him who loved us." They work good for us now, in all the ways that count, and they prepare a weight of glory beyond all comparison. So that's how I would teach my people to read that Psalm.

He heals all your diseases, meaning he will heal them in the age to come. He heals them often now, and when he doesn't, they work a healing that's even better. Thank you, Pastor John, and thank you for listening to the podcast. And tomorrow, I'll pose a question to you, Pastor John, about dad's role in homemaking.

I'm looking forward to it. Until then, please email your questions to us at AskPastorJohn@DesiringGod.org and visit us online at DesiringGod.org to find thousands of books, articles, sermons, and other resources from John Piper, all free of charge. I'm your host, Tony Reinke. Thanks for listening.