The Tears of God’s People Psalm 42:3-4

Text: “My tears have been my meat day and night, while they (the reprobate, unbelieving) continually say unto me, Where is thy God?”

Psalm 42:3.

          “Serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears, and temptations, which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews.”

Acts 20:19.

Good morning, tearful Christian!  The Lord God has granted you a very real passion for prayer to Him; a very real compassion for His Body - the international church made up of individuals from all nations who have been washed in Christ’s sinless Blood, and born again of the God the Spirit – and thus, because of the state of the world today, you are frequently found in tears, crying out to the Living Lord God for the souls of ‘His people’.  You do well, beloved Christian, praise God for Christians that are passionate about their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ!  Praise and all glory to His Holy and Victorious Name!

“And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross.  Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a Name which is above every name: that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in Heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth: and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:8-11)

The Origin of Tears:  The tears of God’s elect people shed throughout the pages of Holy Scripture, and throughout the history of mankind, would be a subject of enormous study to write about and to understand.  Tears only came about as a consequence of Adam/Eve’s sin in Eden’s garden – for all before the time of their disobedience to the Lord God Jehovah was seen by God to be ‘very good’.

“And God saw everything that He had made, and, behold (look, and understand), it was very good.  And the evening and the morning were the first day.”  (Genesis 1:31)

After Adam and Eve committed their sin of original disobedience to God in the Garden of Eden, the Scriptures teach us that “...the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons...and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the Presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.”  (Genesis 3:7-8)

This phrase contained within Spirit-inspired Scripture, “...the eyes of both of them were opened...” denotes for me the origin of mankind’s tears today; and the cause of such tears was originally brought about by human sin.  When something is ‘opened’, it is usually to let something else out; and the something else that came out of our progenitor’s guilty eyes was tears – revealing also, of course, that they were indeed sorry for their disobedience to God.

Furthermore, an integral part of the Creator’s Lord God’s curse upon the creature and the earth that He had created, was the curse of human ‘sorrow’ – which would continually bring about such human tears.

“Unto the woman He said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children...”  (Genesis 3:16)

“And unto Adam He said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and has eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life.”   (Genesis 3:17)

Mankind has been weeping tears ever since the time of God’s curse upon His Creation for the disobedience of His created people, Adam and Eve.  You and I weep tears today, but, praise God, because of Calvary and because of God’s Sovereign grace in providing Christ as a Sacrifice of full Atonement for us, we can also now shed tears of joy and tears of profound compassion for other souls.  

In Christ Jesus, the Lord God promises to rescind the tears of ‘His people’: all Spiritually regenerate souls whom He has called unto Salvation in Christ shall have our tears wiped away in a truly joyful Eternity in Heaven.  Hallelujah!  This is good news indeed!

“He will swallow up death in Victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all (all the elect) faces; and the rebuke of His people shall He take away from off the earth: for the Lord hath spoken it...Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him, we will be glad and rejoice in His Salvation.”  (Isaiah 25:8-9)

The ‘Victory’ spoken of here, that will eventually take away all tears from God’s people, is the Victory of the Lord Jesus Christ’s Sacrifice for our sins, at the Cross of Calvary.  He is the only One Who can Eternally remove all tears from our eyes, our hearts, and our very souls.  For He alone holds the key to Eternal Salvation.  All glory to His Holy Name!

“Neither is there Salvation in any other: for there is none other name under Heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”  (Acts 4:12)  “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me.” (John 14:6)

Open-Eyed Ministries: Today, because of God’s Sovereign grace towards sinners, and Christ’s Salvation of human souls – we can have what I might define as ‘Open-Eyed Ministries’: personal and organisational ministries by Spiritually born again Christian people, who really care enough for the precious souls of other sinners to labour in prayer and evangelical Missions, that sinners might be both saved and discipled in sound doctrine through the proclamation of the written Word of God.  ‘...faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.’ (Romans10:17)  ‘...Grow in grace, and in knowledge of...Jesus Christ...’ (2 Peter 3:17-18)

Many of the tears true Christians shed today are shed for the unsaved nations of the world; the increased state of apostasy within the ‘professing’ church worldwide; and the growth of gross doctrinal error that is spreading like a cancer among many church denominations – as we see whole societies rushing headlong to live their lives in gross sin, ‘...as in the days of Noah...’  Let us cry out unto the Living Lord God, that we might turn all nations to Him!

Thought: “Verse 3. My tears have been my meat day and night. When a man comes to tears, constant tears, plenteous tears, tears that fill his cup...he is earnest indeed.  Perhaps it was well for him that the heart could open the safely valves; there is a dry grief far more terrible than showery sorrows.”  (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 203)