by Dennis Michelson
(Painesville, Ohio)
No depression here!
Psalm 42
Introduction: In the last message we saw that spiritual depression is described as thirst. We now come to verse three.
2. Spiritual Depression Will Result in Tears (42:3)
The writer says "my tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, where is thy God?" Tears are usually the result of strong emotion. Tears are not unnatural. They can be quite natural or even supernatural. God has much to say in His Word concerning tears.
God told Hezekiah that "I have heard thy prayer, and seen thy tears . . .." (I Kings 20:5) Sometimes tears can be a sign of utter emotional exhaustion (Psalm 6:6) The tears which issue forth from a heart of genuine contrition are precious to God --
"Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book?" (Psalm 56:8) The Lord God even promises a special blessing for "They that sow in tears" because "they shall reap in joy." (Psalm 126:5)
In the passage before us the writer refers to his tears as his "meat". This is similar to the thought expressed in Psalm 80:5, "Thou feedest them with the bread of tears; and giveth them tears to drink in great measure." In the latter reference (80:5) tears are force fed to those who deny God and would dare to oppose His people.
In the former reference (42:3) the psalmist is expressing the idea that instead of eating, he is weeping. Leupold said, "In the type of emotional expression characteristic of the oriental writer's grief, he has sought relief and found expression in tears, so much so that he has done more weeping than eating."
This outpouring of emotion, as evidenced by tears, raises a rather interesting question for the contemporary Christian. Where is such deep emotion displayed in our day? Who sheds tears because they find it necessary to be absent from the House of God? Tears have almost become an anachronism. When they are shed then it seems that the one weeping feels some compulsion to apologize.
Perhaps our worship should devolve back to the archaic juncture where contrite believers would rather weep than eat and tears would be seen as an indication of spiritual progress and not spiritual perversion.
When genuine God-fearing believers are prohibited from worshiping God in the context of their own unique culture (like Jerusalem in David's time), then tears shed day and night would certainly be a pleasing sacrifice ascending as a sweet-smelling savor to God.
"The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit." The preceding verse states that when "The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth", that He delivers
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