Lake of Tears: Ours and His
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1 When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dreamed.
2 Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Then it was said among the nations, ‘The Lord has done great things for them.’
3 The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy.
4 Restore our fortunes,[c] Lord, like streams in the Negev.
5 Those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy.
6 Those who go out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with them. -
What Jesus is like
What Jesus asks
What he does
Context
Psalm 126 is one of the Songs of Ascents. Psalms 120-134 is a group of Psalms which would have been sung by Pilgrims journeying to Jerusalem for one of the festivals (eg Pentecost). I have been dipping in to the Psalms over these 3 days with the Theme ‘Lake of Tears’
Psalm express the emotions and feelings of the Psalmist. NT Wright suggests that 2/3 of the 150 Psalms are laments
This session is called Tears: Ours & His. Three things I wish to convey this morning about tears is 1. Tears Happen 2. Tears Held. 3. Tears Harvest
Tears Happen
Tears Held
Tears Harvest
Tears Happen
Psalm 126:1-3 begins with laughter and songs of joy - the Lord has done great things and the writer is filled with joy. Perhaps it was about the rebuilding of the temple, perhaps it was about the return from exile . In verse 1 we read that something they have dreamt of has happened. Joy unspeakable.
Now contrast that with Psalm 126:4 something bad has happened. It could have been the sadness David experienced in 1 Samuel 30:4 where it says, ‘David and his men cried until they had no strength left to weep.’ In Psalm 126:4 the writer is asking the Lord to restore their good fortune. Something bad has happened. Tears happen. Notice that there is no mention of repenting our confession. Their downturn has just happened - it is not like a judgement, probably not because of sin. Tears happen. There is a Christian fable that is sometimes told, that if we are in a right place with God then nothing bad will happen. Not so, all of us here have stories to tell showing that is a myth.
Think of Catherine Marshall , Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Dr Helen Rosvere, Job, Jesus (the most faithful sinless person in history who experienced the greatest suffering in history. There is a connection in the bible between faithfulness and suffering. These things happen - tears happen.
We are not to overthink this, the question is how do we react to our adversity? What do we do about our tears/our weeping?
I believe what we do begins by knowing that our tears are held.
Tears Held
We read in Psalm 56:8 ‘our tears are held in a container.’ Yesterday I told part of my story when I had an experience that endorsed this idea of a container. Of course, it is picture language, it's poetic. I am not saying there is a literal bottle of tears (but that is a thing for some people) my experience was for a much greater tear container let me tell you a little bit of that story again.
We join the story after I had prayed angry prayers to the Lord, such as, ‘Lord you are not a personal God,, you do not know how hard this is, you do not see my tears, my brokenness, you are far away.’
I will read it from my book, ‘Lake of Tears’
“What happened after this changed my perception of God forever.
As I prayed, alone in that room, God responded deep into my heart with the spiritual precision of a surgeon’s key-hole surgery. As I lay exhausted; emotionally and spiritually broken, I was lifted in a vision
to a place I recognised and later to another place, I did not know. With a gentle firmness God rebuked my rant with a crystal-clear visual response.In my mind’s eye, I was carried to the place where Jesus led his disciples after the ‘last Supper,’ the Garden of Gethsemane. I could see myself in the garden, the evening sun lit the olive grove, creating shadows and soft shards of light. The trunks were gnarled with branches reaching upwards to form an atmospheric canopy. I was transfixed, out of sight, observing the disciples resting in the distance. and Jesus was there too, praying, dropping to kneel by a Mount Olive screed. Olive trees stooped over him and he was weeping as he prayed. Sobbing agony, blood droplets fell like perspiration from his forehead. I heard Him groan and pray. Faced with the cup of suffering he was about to imbibe. Ahead lay separation from his Heavenly Father, the cost of bearing the curse of humanity’s sin, Jesus aged thirty-three, my age, sobbed. Jesus wept in full knowledge that the Father would forsake a sin-laden Christ. His rib cage heaving and his chest pounding uncontrollably with tears from the very depths of his innermost self. I heard him roar ‘My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me,’ I realised that these were not expressions of fear or pleas for mercy. This was a grieving realisation of what it meant to be devoid of God for even a brief moment in eternity, ‘Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me.’
Then, in my vision, Jesus paused mid-sentence, turned his head and locked his eyes on me. Me, Kelvin Burke in 1990 but mysteriously present in Gethsemane. Staring directly at me Jesus continued, “Yet not what I want Father, but what you want.”
I was overcome with emotion and I began to cry, lying in that room in Ventnor, I sobbed, heartbroken as I realised he did that for me, somehow ‘before the foundation of the world’ (Ephesians 1:4) and before the brutality of Good Friday, Jesus knew me, he understood my tears and my frustrations and he walked forward from Thursday night’s garden prayers onto Friday’s crucifixion…for me. I was broken by this cosmic glimpse at reality… Jesus knew me, Christ knows me, he knows how I feel. I wept like I have never wept before, audible groans, tears like torrents, gut-wrenching, painful tears, healing tears.Then in the dream, I was carried from the garden, soaring like an eagle, up and beyond a mountain range. From long distance, I could see beautiful lofty peaks and majestic shadowy valleys. Suspended face down I hovered over one particular peak. As I looked, I noticed that it was, in fact, a crater, like an extinct volcano. Through my tears, I spoke to the Lord and said, ‘Lord why are you showing me a crater?’
The Lord said, ‘Look into the crater.’
I looked again and saw that the crater was not empty, it was filled with water.
‘Lord, why are you showing me a crater filled with water?’
‘Those are tears, that is a lake of tears,’ the Lord replied.
‘Not one tear you have cried has gone unnoticed’ He continued in a soft tender voice, ‘and for every tear you have cried, the Lord Jesus has wept ten-fold in the heavenly place. This lake of tears represents every tear that has trickled onto your cheeks, the Godhead knows them all.’
I had dared to accuse my Lord of being impersonal, un-knowing, distant and here was my answer, he knows me down to my very last tear!”
As I said, I'm not saying there is a literal lake of tears ‘up there’ but that’s the vision that I received. Isa 40:12 says he measures the oceans in the hollow of his hand. That’s a picture of the greatness of God, beyond our comprehension and the Lake of Tears is a similar staggering glimpse that God is all-knowing, all-participating ever-present God. Tears are held.
Tears Harvest
‘Those who sow in tears WILL reap with songs of joy. 6 Those who go out weeping carrying seed to sow will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with them.’ Psalm 126:5
This is another metaphor, a picture given to us to glimpse a spiritual reality – it is a farming metaphor – sowing seeds and coming back with harvest.
Tears harvest. When the bible refers to tears and weeping, it is not for wallowing in the misery of it but for the harvest that will be reaped when we cling to God in the word and in prayer, in praise and in worship. 2 Corinthians 2:14 says ‘he causes us to triumph and through us diffuses the fragrance of his knowledge in every place.’ Imagine underneath each of our seats is a little bottle of scent with those reed diffusers. the aroma in this place would be beautiful. Think of that alongside Romans 8:37 where Paul says, ‘In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loves us.’ By sowing in tears the joy and the reaping will diffuse the fragrance of Jesus. Throughout the bible brokenness and tears are the raw materials of flourishing and fruitfulness. God harvests from such brokenness.
Remember Jesus understands tears. Even before the cross in the Garden of Gethsemane he said, ‘My soul is sorrowful even unto death’ – he says this sorrow is so great it may kill me before I get to the cross. Matthew 26:38
Friends, this is our God – he shed tears, he sows in tears even at Gethsemane and what joy was harvested by believers on the third day when he rose again. Praise his Name.
Notice that tears do not get replaced by joy, like laughter may replace sadness, tears produce joy…. We sow in tears and reap with songs of joy.
How do we do this? I have said already you sow in tears by continuing to be faithful in reading the word of God. In prayer and praise and worship too. Psalm 139:12 ‘Hear my prayer oh Lord, listen to my cry for help, be not deaf to my weeping’ and Psalm 126:4 ‘Restore our fortunes oh Lord.’ These are good prayers, gutsy heartfelt prayers. Friends, come to the Lord Jesus who knows pain, sorrow, isolation, abandonment. Isaiah 53:3 prophecied that he is a man of sorrows acquainted with grief. When we come to him in prayer and praise we are taking part in the spiritual warfare like Job who defiantly said, ‘Though He slays me still I will trust him’ Job 13:15.
David makes a declaration In Psalm 56:10 that is rooted in sowing in tears and reaping. ‘By this I know God is for me …. In God I trust, what can man do to me.’ Tears Harvest
In this month’s Open Doors Prayer pointers, Neema’s faith was solid in the face of tragedy. A bomb went off in her church in DR Congo killing seventeen people including her son David (age 4). She defiantly said in response to the Jihadists attack - ‘God fights for me….may the name of God be glorified’ - Tears Harvest
I would like to conclude with Pam’s story. When I was Hospital Chaplain in Leeds, I was called to one of the Oncology wards to visit Pam. She had just been told some ‘bad news’ her cancer had progressed and was now life-limiting. Her prognosis was not good.
I met with Pam and spoke to her about the Lord Jesus who would walk with her on the difficult journey ahead, if she would place her life and trust in his hands. She prayed a prayer of faith from the booklet, ‘Journey into life.’ A couple of days later, she asked if I would Baptise her in St James’s Hospital Chapel.
I arranged for a simple Baptism service to take place in the chapel a few days later. Pam invited her family.
There was not a dry eye in the place as I Baptised this sister in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The joy and poignant sadness was evident for everyone present.
As the service ended, Pam’s son whispered in my ear, asking if I would Baptise his daughter (Pam’s granddaughter). We reconvened the service and Pam was able to witness and be God parent to her Granddaughter, what joy was in the place. After the final blessing, Pam’s sister seemed troubled and I spoke quietly to her. She confessed that she wanted to pray a prayer of commitment to Christ and be Baptised along with Pam and the granddaughter.
I hastily called the small congregation together one more time and after praying a prayer coming to faith, I had the privilege of Baptising the third candidate of the afternoon. This all started with Pam ‘sowing in tears’ and what a harvest was reaped that day.
Tears Harvest.
One final note, Romans 8:38 draws our gaze to our eternal destiny, which is assured for believers. ‘Who shall separate us from the love of Christ.’
This leads us naturally at the end of this RRR weekend to reflect and acknowledge that some of our sowing in tears is a long haul that may only be resolved in glory when we see our Saviour face to face and (Revelation 21:4) ‘He will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’ Notice the tenderness in that verse, he will wipe … can you imagine the Lord holding your face in his hands and wiping, soothing, knowing all things - in that heavenly place where there is no more crying?
In the meantime, tears happen, they are held and they harvest with songs of joy - that is for those who trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
I have asked Elijah and the worship team if they would conclude this part of the service with the song, Where could I run from your presence.
Where could I run from your presence?
