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Psalm 103 · a question people ask

"Who heals all your diseases" (103:3). Does that mean God heals every illness?

In the text

The psalm says it plainly, "who heals all your diseases" (103:3) (tap heals), and doesn't explain it further. The same psalm also says, "As for man, his days are like grass" (103:15), and "the wind passes over it, and it is gone" (103:16). Another psalm says, "Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all" (Psalm 34:19). Paul (2 Timothy 1:1) writes near the end of a letter, "I left Trophimus at Miletus sick" (2 Timothy 4:20), and doesn't say more. These verses stand side by side in Scripture, and these notes don't choose how they fit together.

The verses

“who forgives all your sins, who heals all your diseases,”
Psalm 103:3 · World English Bible
“As for man, his days are like grass. As a flower of the field, so he flourishes. For the wind passes over it, and it is gone. Its place remembers it no more.”
Psalm 103:15-16 · World English Bible
“Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all.”
Psalm 34:19 · World English Bible
“Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, according to the promise of the life which is in Christ Jesus,”
2 Timothy 1:1 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Psalm 103

Psalm 103: Praise the LORD, my soul

"Praise the LORD, my soul" (103:1) is the same Hebrew as "Bless the LORD, my soul" (Psalm 104:1): the psalm speaks to its own soul, and every your in 103:3-5 is spoken to it. And its "flower of the field" (103:15) is Isaiah's, where the Hebrew calls the glory of flesh chesed, the psalm's word for the LORD's everlasting loving kindness (103:17).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions