When Jesus wept, the falling tear in mercy flowed beyond all bound.
When Jesus groaned, a trembling fear seized all the guilty world around.
Sometimes life is so hard, all we can do is sing our pain, pray our pain, cry out our pain. In scripture, the Psalmist says “Tears may flow in the night” The weeping at midnight; the pain that arises out of our sleepless dreams. What we have done; what we should have done; what was done to us. Yesterday, or 10 years ago, or 60 years ago. The unresolved grief of loss so deep…
David the king, was grieved and wounded,
He went to his chamber, his chamber and wept;
And as he went, he wept and said, O my son!
O my son would to God I had died, would to God I had died,
Would to God I had died for thee,
O Absalom my son, my son!
Tears flow in the night, and those who have died come out of our hearts, and we weep in our pillows, for their death, for what we never told them, praying that it could have been different.
Sometimes I feel like a motherless child
Sometimes I feel like a motherless child
Sometimes I feel like a motherless child
A long way from home, a long way from home.
Tears may flow in the night, but, the Psalmist promises us that joy comes in the morning (Ps 30:5). But sometimes the morning takes a very, very long time to come. Sometimes it can take years, before the dawn finally arises upon our souls. And if we are wise, if we have practiced it long before we ever needed it, we pray, and we try to lift our burden to God. Try not to take it back again, to let it continue festering in our hearts.
Precious Lord, take my hand, lead me on, help me stand,
I am tired, I am weak, I am worn;
Through the storm, through the night, lead me on to the light:
Take my hand, precious Lord, lead me home.
African Americans discovered the deep healing of reaching out to God in their spirituals, those heart rending songs of woe that give such release, such relief to those who sang them in the slave fields, that sing them when a son is shot on the street.
When Israel was in Egypt’s land: Let My people go!
Oppressed so hard they could not stand: Let My people go!
Go down, Moses, way down to Egypt’s land;
Tell old Pharaoh to let My people go.
Tears may flow in the night, but joy comes in the morning (Ps 30:5). The night of the soul will come upon each and every one of us, at some point in our lives. And it is good to prepare for it, good to learn what it means to lean on the everlasting arms. Because we will not ever avoid heartbreak, but we can learn how not to fear it. We can learn how to embrace it, and let its cleansing fire work its way through us. Learn how to weep, so its overwhelming flood will cleanse the pain from our hearts.
O Love that will not let me go, I rest my weary soul in Thee,
I give Thee back the life I owe,
That in Thy ocean depths its flow may richer fuller be.
That grief will not be feared, if there is One beside us. We may feel isolated, alienated, alone, feeling the waves crest over us. Has anyone ever felt this pain, and endured. Will the morning come? Will the morning ever come? And in our moment of deepest need, we call out to the living God.
O Lord, what a morning! O Lord, what a morning!
O Lord, what a morning, when the stars begin to fall…
And sometimes we feel God’s strength beside us; and sometimes we can’t.
But whether we can feel it or not, God is there to hold us when we can bear no more.
And when we fall exhausted, God is there, waiting.
And those who are wise wait, knowing that the morning will come.
Swing low, sweet chariot, comin’ forth to carry me home;
Swing low, sweet chariot, comin’ forth to carry me home.
We don’t usually read the book of Lamentations. It is a long song of pain, written by the prophet Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, the raging prophet, the aching prophet, who cried in the night, “Why me?”
“The thought of my affliction and my homelessness is wormwood and gall,” he writes. “My soul continually thinks of it and is bowed down within me. But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hop…The Lord is good for those who will wait, for the soul that will seek. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord… The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, and God’s mercies never come to an end: they are new every morning. Great is Your faithfulness!
Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see.
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided:
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord unto me.
In the Name of the One who will never let us go, no matter what: even Jesus the Christ. Amen.
Scripture for Oct. 6, 2019
Psalm 30:5
Tears may flow in the night, but joy comes in the morning.
Lamentations 3:19-26
The thought of my affliction and my homelessness is wormwood and gall! My soul continually thinks of it and is bowed down within me. But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, and God’s mercies never come to an end: they are new every morning. Great is Your faithfulness! “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in God.” The Lord is good for those who will wait, for the soul that will seek. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.
Friends, listen to what the Spirit would say to us today.