The famous hymn “There is a Balm in Gilead” begins:

There is a balm in Gilead
To make the wounded whole
There is a balm in Gilead
To heal the sin-sick soul …

The song is based on Jeremiah 8:22:

Jer. 8:22 Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?

The problem is that in this verse Jeremiah is teaching that there is no balm in Gilead that can heal Israel’s sin-sick soul.  The other two texts that refer to “balm” in Jeremiah likewise specify the failure of balm to heal:

Jer. 46:11 Go up into Gilead, and take balm, O virgin, the daughter of Egypt: in vain shalt thou use many medicines; for thou shalt not be cured.

Jer. 51:8 Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: howl for her; take balm for her pain, if so be she may be healed.

Perhaps it would be more accurate, if one is to sing this hymn, to sing:

There is no balm in Gilead
To make the wounded whole
There is no balm in Gilead
To heal the sin-sick soul

Only Jesus Christ can do it,

Not any balm of man;

There is no balm in Gilead

To heal the sin-sick soul.

Sadly, if one sings the traditional version, he is singing to God exactly the opposite of what Scripture says.

Churches are encouraged to sing from hymnals where the compilers actually cared that their content is doctrinally accurate, such as the Trinity hymnal: Baptist edition or Great Hymns and Psalms of the Faith (currently words-only, a version with tunes is being worked on by the Metropolitan Baptist Tabernacle), as well as singing God’s inspired and infallibile psalms, as the New Testament explicitly commands (James 5:13).

–TDR