Fifteen verses from the psalms that ask for healing, praise the God who heals, and give thanks once it comes.
In the King James Version, the word heal and its forms appear in only seven verses of the psalms, and one of those is about mending a land. Psalm 6 and Psalm 41 ask for healing outright. Psalm 30 gives thanks after it. Psalm 103 and Psalm 107 describe God as the one who heals. None of them treats illness as simple. Psalm 38 and Psalm 41 connect the writer's sickness with his own sin, and Psalm 30 remembers a time when God hid his face.
The verses are grouped by what you are asking for: healing itself, strength while recovery is slow, forgiveness, and thanks once it comes. Each has a short note on what the verse says. Tick the ones you want and print them as a sheet. This page is scripture, not medical treatment, and it does not replace a doctor.
Two psalms say heal me in so many words. Both are short enough to pray whole.
Have mercy on me, LORD, for I am faint.LORD, heal me, for my bones are troubled.
Have mercy upon me, O LORD; for I am weak: O LORD, heal me; for my bones are vexed.
The writer asks for mercy and healing in the same breath. He gives his reasons as plainly as a patient would: I am faint, and my bones are troubled.
I said, “LORD, have mercy on me!Heal me, for I have sinned against you.”
I said, LORD, be merciful unto me: heal my soul; for I have sinned against thee.
Here the request for healing comes with a confession, because the writer connects his illness with his own sin. The psalm speaks about his case and does not say every illness has that cause.
Three verses describe healing as something God does, written as praise rather than as a request.
who forgives all your sins,who heals all your diseases,
Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;
Forgiveness and healing sit side by side in a list of benefits the writer tells his own soul not to forget. It is praise for what God does, not a promise about one particular illness.
He sends his word, and heals them,and delivers them from their graves.
He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.
This closes a short story of people who could not eat and drew near the gates of death (107:18). They cry out, and healing comes by a word sent from God.
He heals the broken in heart,and binds up their wounds.
He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.
The healing here is for the broken in heart. The picture is of wounds being bound up, the way a bandage is put on.
For when recovery is slow and what is needed first is the strength to keep going.
My flesh and my heart fails,but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.
The writer admits that his flesh and his heart fail. He does not say they recover. He says God is the strength of his heart and his portion forever.
In the day that I called, you answered me.You encouraged me with strength in my soul.
In the day when I cried thou answeredst me, and strengthenedst me with strength in my soul.
The answer described here is strength in the soul, given on the same day the writer called. The verse does not say the trouble went away.
The LORD is my strength and my shield.My heart has trusted in him, and I am helped.Therefore my heart greatly rejoices.With my song I will thank him.
The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him.
Strength and shield come first, then trust, then the words and I am helped. The verse ends with a song of thanks.
Turn to me, and have mercy on me!Give your strength to your servant.Save the son of your servant.
O turn unto me, and have mercy upon me; give thy strength unto thy servant, and save the son of thine handmaid.
A plain request: turn to me, have mercy, give your strength to your servant. It asks for strength without explaining why it is needed.
Some psalms connect the writer's sickness with his guilt. They describe his own case, and they pair confession with relief.
There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation,neither is there any health in my bones because of my sin.
There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger; neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin.
The writer says there is no health in his bones because of his sin. He describes his body and his conscience together, as one trouble.
When I kept silence, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.
When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long.
Keeping silent about his sin made his bones waste away through groaning all day long. In this psalm the body is part of the story of confession.
I acknowledged my sin to you.I didn’t hide my iniquity.I said, I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah.
I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah.
Once he stops hiding and confesses, the next thing the verse records is forgiveness. The groaning of verse 3 is answered here.
For the day the news is good. These are written in the past tense, by someone who came through.
LORD my God, I cried to you,and you have healed me.
O LORD my God, I cried unto thee, and thou hast healed me.
A thank you for healing in one line. The cry and the answer are both told in the past tense.
LORD, you have brought up my soul from Sheol.You have kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.
O LORD, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave: thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.
The writer says God brought his soul up from Sheol and kept him alive. It is the language of someone who nearly died.
For you have delivered my soul from death,my eyes from tears,and my feet from falling.
For thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling.
Three rescues in one line: soul from death, eyes from tears, feet from falling. The next verse says I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living.
Psalm 6 and Psalm 41 are the two psalms where the writer asks to be healed in so many words (6:2 and 41:4). Psalm 6 is ten verses long and moves from tears every night to the confidence that the LORD has heard. Psalm 41 opens with a blessing on whoever considers the poor, and its third verse speaks of the LORD sustaining him on his sickbed. For praying for someone else, Psalm 41:3 is the nearer fit, and the page on psalms for the sick has more.
Psalm 91 is sometimes searched for alongside healing, but its words are about protection rather than recovery. It speaks of deliverance from the deadly pestilence (91:3), of not fearing the pestilence that walks in darkness (91:6), and of no plague coming near your dwelling (91:10). It does not mention being healed once ill. For that, Psalm 30 and Psalm 103 speak more directly.
Psalm 6, Psalm 30, Psalm 41 and Psalm 103 all use the word heal. Psalm 6 and Psalm 41 ask for healing, Psalm 30 gives thanks after it, and Psalm 103 praises God who heals all your diseases.
Psalm 73:26 names failing flesh and heart and calls God the strength of the heart. Psalm 138:3 describes strength given in the soul on the day the writer called.
Psalm 41:3 speaks of the LORD sustaining a person on the sickbed and restoring him from his bed of illness. Psalm 107:17 to 20 tells of people near the gates of death whom God healed.
Psalm 103:3 puts them together: who forgives all your sins, who heals all your diseases. Psalm 32 and Psalm 38 describe guilt showing in the writer's own body.
Psalm 38:3 uses the word health, but only to say the writer had none in his bones because of his sin. The King James Version of Psalm 42:11 calls God the health of my countenance.
No psalm names a particular disease. Psalm 6, Psalm 38 and Psalm 41 speak of illness in general terms, and Psalm 73:26 speaks to a body that is failing.
Psalms for the SickPsalms about SufferingPsalms for Forgiveness and RepentancePsalms About StrengthPsalms for Comfort and StrengthPsalms of Hope