Sermon of Sunday 8 August 2010 What makes you cry? Psalm 119.113-136

Psalm 119.113-136

136 'Streams of tears flow from my eyes, for your law is not obeyed.'

What makes you cry?
Are there situations which just make you well up with tears?
There are moments when we are deeply moved and it is right that tears flow.
Not just times of bereavement or deep frustration
but other times when something deep is touched inside us.

On the two occasions I have been travelling home from India
I have sat in the airport at Ahmedabad with tears in my eyes.
The Christian friends I have made there are so dear to me.

Or there’s that scene in ‘The Railway Children’
where Bobbie stares through the steam on the station platform
as she begins to make out the figure of her father
who is coming home to his family after being unjustly imprisoned.
I always need a hanky near by for that scene.
Tears for a scene of reconciliation.

Or that time when Ireland so nearly beat Australia in the rugby world cup
and big Mick Doyle sat in the tv studio with a tear running down his cheek.
Tears out of frustration, of only …, so near and yet so far.

I hope no-one is thinking ‘Big boys don’t cry’.
hat’s one of those assumptions in our culture and upbringing
which we need to challenge
because the Bible is full of examples of big boys who do cry
and not just because someone close to them has died
or they are suffering dreadful oppression.

There is Jacob kissing his bride to be Rachel and weeping.
Genesis 29.11

Jacob and his brother Esau weeping as they are reconciled. Genesis 33.4

There is Joseph reconciled to his brothers
years after they had sold him as a slave
weeping on several occasions.
Genesis 42.23-25 43.30

Hannah, weeping in bitterness of soul over her childlessness. 1 Samuel 1.10

King David deposed and humiliated by his favourite son Absalom
walked away from Jerusalem, weeping. 2 Samuel 15.30

As the law is read to the people in the time of Nehemiah they wept
because they had not been keeping it Nehemiah 8.9

And they joined with Ezra the priest in weeping bitterly
in confession of their sin. Ezra 10.1

When Peter realised he had denied Jesus three times he wept bitterly.
Matthew 26.75

Tears can also be an expression of self pity
feeling sorry for yourself and your loss but not for your sin
So Esau wept when he lost his birthright and blessing to his brother Jacob Hebrews 12.17
The prophet Malachi rebuked people who flooded the LORD's altar with tears.

In the book of Revelation the kings and the merchants weep a lot for their loss.
Revelation 18.10-16

Contrast what John writes earlier how he wept and wept
because no-one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside.
Revelation 5.4

Old Testament prophets like Jeremiah shared that passionate concern
for the for the spiritual hardness of the people, as did St Paul.
People dismiss him as a gloomy old man but consider how:
he served the Lord with great humility and with tears Acts 20.19;
he warned people night and day with tears Acts 20.31;
he wrote to the Corinthian Christians
'out of great distress and anguish of heart and with many tears,
not to grieve you but to let you know the depth of my love for you.'
2 Corinthians 2.4;
he reminded the Christians at Philippi
even with tears, 'that many live as enemies of the cross of Christ'.
Philippians 3.18

Paul cared about people
and their need of the good news that Christ died for them
and how terrible it was when they rejected that.

Then there was the woman
so overcome with Jesus’ love for her and that she was forgiven
that she made a scene in the house of the respectable Pharisee
wetting Jesus’ feet with her tears Luke 7.36-50

Finally we come to the Lord Jesus himself.
He wept at the grave of his friend Lazarus John 11.35
and the letter to the Hebrews reminds us of his tears with his prayers.
Hebrews 5.7.
He wept over Jerusalem as he approached the city Luke 19.41.
The people did not know what made for peace,
they were not reconciled to God.

Big boys don’t cry?

Jesus himself said they cry in hell with weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 8.11-13 and other places)
Those are tears of self pity and regret.
Wouldn’t it be better to weep now in repentance
and to weep with Jesus and with Paul and with the psalm writer
that so many just don’t seem to get it,
that they disobey God’s word and ignore the warnings?

This verse 136 in Psalm 119 poses the question to me.
why am I not so deeply moved as this man who weeps and weeps
because God’s law is not being obeyed.

I don’t think I am the only one to have a disconnect
between what I say I believe and how I respond.

Why are we not more excited, more moved by the things of God?
Are we delighted, do we rejoice when someone follows Christ
Are we distraught, upset when someone disobeys Christ?

How can we sing our hymns, read our bibles with all those wonderful truths
and still be so dull and unresponsive?

136 Streams of tears flow from my eyes, for your law is not obeyed.

What can we do about this?
I don’t want to hand out onions: we could have tears all right but no real grief.
But I hope you share my concern
that the vast majority of us are not more tender hearted
and more expressive of what we feel.
And if we don’t have strong feelings about God and his holiness
and the horror of disobeying him
then please join me in praying that our hearts may be softened.

My tears have been my food day and night,
while men say to me all day long, Where is your God?
(Psalm 42.3)

Weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.
(Psalm 30.5)

Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy.
(Psalm 126.5)

'God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes' Revelation 7.17, 21.4

Lord teach us a good weeping that will bring healing to the soul:

tears of repentance not regret;

tears that express our passion for people and for you

Soften our hearts.