taken from spurgeon's treasury of david
psalm 119.136 rivers of waters run down mine eyes, because they keep not Thy law.
Lord, let me weep for nought but sin,
and after none but Thee,
and then i would, O that i might!
a constant weeper be.
note: this psalm has 176 verses.
i noticed some similar themes in this psalm
so i started placing verses in one of the following categories
all of which i had in place before going thru the psalm again.
david, the author's:
1. only hope is God's word (remember, all he had in his day was maybe the book of job
and the penteteuch-1st 5 books of the bible..i think)
2. his resolve to obey God's word
3. his awareness and acknowledgement of his sin
4. assessment of those who don't keep God's word/
circumstances of difficulty between these people and himself
5. petitions to God
at verse 136 i found that there was a new category
for it was the first verse to speak, in any way, of
6. his love for other men
it impresses me that david does not seem to focus on HIS love for others.
he seems much more focused on his relationship with God.
as i think more about the little (1 verse) he speaks of his love for others,
and in an indirect way it comes that maybe not much needs be said about love
three things come to mind to ask myself about it:
1. do i weep for men?
2. do i keep God's commandments?
3. do i speak the truth to others?
by that scale i may or may not even be a 'featherweight'
(oh God have mercy and make my heart like Your's
or even anywhere close to david's.)
most of the easterns shed tears much more copiously than the people of europe.
the psalmist said rivers of waters ran down his eyes;
and though the language isbeautifully figurative,
i have no doubt it was also literally true.
i have myself seen arabs shed tears like streams. john gadsby
note: i recall when Jesus and His disciples
came to the home of the synagogue official
whose daughter had just died.
the mourners were all 'weeping and lamenting' for her.
when Jesus said,
'stop weeping, for she has not died, but is asleep.
they all began laughing at Him.
may God have mercy on our souls
and keep us from trusting any outward appearance
that gives the impression of godliness
when there is nothing there of substance,
only the misfortune of possessing
a natural inclination which mistakenly can be taken
by oneself and or others as a mark of godliness.
may Jesus, as He speaks truth to us,
reveal our hypocrisy to pave the way
for us to live genuinely before Himself and others.
note, the sins of sinners are the sorrows of saints.
we must mourn for that which we cannot mend. matthew henry
godly men are affected with deep sorrow for the sins of the ungodly.
let us consider the nature of this affection.
..it is not a stoical apathy
an affected carelessness;
much less a delighful partaking with sinful practices...
not a proud setting off of ones own goodness,
with marking the sin of others..
not the derisionand mocking of the folly of men..
not a bitter, bilious anger,
breaking forth into railings and reproaches
nor an upbraiding insultation.
nor a vindictive desire of punishment,
venting itslef in curses and imprecations.
the diciples..to Christ was far different from that way,
and yet He said to them,
'ye known not of what spirit ye are...robert leighton
the Lord requireth this (mourning bitterly for other men's sins)
to keeep our hearts the more tender and upright
it is an act God useth to make us more careful of our own soulds,
to be troubled at the sins of others, at sin in a third person.
it keepeth us at a great distance from temptation.
this is like quenching of fire in a neighbour's house;
before it comes near tthee, thou runnest with thy bucket.
there is no way to keep us free from the infection, so much as mourning.
the sould will never agree to do that which it gieved itself to see another do.
and, as it keepeth us upright, so also humble, fearful of divine judgment,.
tender lest we ourselves offend and draw down the wrath of god.
he that shruggeth when he seeth a snake creeping u0pon another,
will much more be afraid when it cometh near to imself.
in our own sins we have the advantage of conscience
scourging the soul with remorse and shame.. thomas manton
thus uniformly is the character of god's people represented-
not merely as those who are free from-
but as 'those that sigh ans cry for -
all the abominations that are done in the midst of the land ezekiel 9.4
and who does not see what an enlarged sphere still presents itself on every side
for the unrestrained exercise of christian compassion?
the appalling spectacle of a world apostatized from God,
of multitudes sporting with everlasting destruction-
as if the God of heaven were 'a man what he should lie'
is surely enough to force 'rivers of waters' from the hearts
of those that are concerned for His honour.
what a mass of sin ascends as a cloud before the Lord,
from a single heart!
add the aggregate of
a village, a town a country, a world!
every day-every hour-every moment.
well might the rivers of waters rise to an over flowing tide,
ready to burst its barriers. charles bridges
note: Jesus wept with and for lazarus' sisters in his death..
and for the continual, GREAT loss;;
for all the mutitudinous calamitiess that come
from man's fall away from al who God is...
jesus wept over the insanity that grips and holds the human heart
(unless freed by His grace)
in an awful, prideful, willful, hateful,vengeful human opposition
to his only creator, sustainer and possible redeemer.
the vices of the religious are the shame of religion:
the sight of this hath made the stoutest champions of Christ melt into tears.
david was one of those great worthies of the world,
not matchable in his times, yet he weeps.
did he tear in pieces a bear like a kid?
rescue a lamb with the death of a lion?
foil a mighty giant, that had dared the whole army of God?
did he like a whirlwind, bear down and beat down his enemies before him;
and now, does he, like a child or a woman, fall a weeping?
yes, he had heard the name of god blasphemed,
seen his holy rites profaned, His statutes vilipended
and violence offered to the pure chastity of that holy virgin, religion;
this resolved that valiant heart into tears.. thomas adams
ezekiel 9.8-9 then it came about as they were striking and i alone was left,
that i fell on my face and cried out saying,
'alas, Lord God art Thou destroying the whole remnant of israel
by pouring out Thy wrath on jerusalem?
then he said to me,
'the iniquity of the house of israel and judah is very, very great,
and the land is filled with blood
and the city is full of perversion;
for they say '
'the Lord has forsaken the land, and
'THE LORD DOES NOT SEE!
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