WEEPING

I Was Just Thinking About – WEEPING.

In too many instances, when it becomes known that a man has cried, he is viewed as being weak or unstable. This generalization has had a subtle impact in terms of human emotions. Matters of great importance, gravity or significance are such that weeping and tears are appropriate rather than the stoic posture some choose to embrace. I think of the concern expressed in Nehemiah 1. Nehemiah makes an inquiry about the welfare of the Jewish people (Verses 2-3), “I asked them concerning the Jews who escaped, who had survived the exile, and concerning Jerusalem. And they said to me: The remnant there in the province who had survived the exile is in great trouble and shame. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are destroyed by fire.” How does Nehemiah respond to this distressing news? Verse 4 informs us of his response: “As soon as I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven.”

There is an interesting moment in the life of David after he had been captured by the Philistines. In Psalm 56:8 he wrote: “You have kept count of my tossing, put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book?” A commentator suggests: David was going through a difficult time. He begins this sad Psalm with the words “Be gracious to me, O God, for man tramples on me; all day long an attacker oppresses me” (Psalm 56:1). David was, at the time he wrote this psalm, a prisoner of war, and he had reason to cry and be sorrowful. David says that his struggles are recorded in God’s book (verse 8), and he asks God to put his tears in His bottle. What does this poetic language mean? Does God really have a bottle where all our tears go? Are the events of our lives really written in a book? The idea behind the keeping of “tears in a bottle” is remembrance. David is expressing a deep trust in God—God will remember his sorrow and tears and will not forget about him. David is confident that God is on his side. He says, in the midst of this troubling time: This I know, God is for me (Psalm 56:9) and In God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me?” (verse 11).

Weeping is appropriate not just in times of difficulty or situations deemed impossible. Tears are an indication of deep concern and that which touches the heart. If it touches my heart, my tears are noted by the Lord and it touches His heart as well. On a very sad day following the death of Lazarus, it is said in John 11:35 that “Jesus wept.” He was weeping over the unbelief of the present group but long range he was looking at the lack of faith and ultimate rejection of “the resurrection and the life” in the future.

I do appreciate the words recorded in Psalm 30:5, “Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.” Trust in the Lord in and for all things. He wants His joy to be in you so that your joy will be full and complete.

Prayerfully – consider these things with me.