My eyes shed streams of tears, because people do not keep your law. Psalm 119:136
It’s hard to know whether David is crying for the people who break God’s law or for God as He watches His people break His law. We know firsthand the pain of watching others reject God, live on the edge of an abyss, and eventually shipwreck. We see those we love languish without the Word and every part of them grow more sickly. They hear the truth but reject the One who would bring God’s shalom to their brokenness. I need to give thought to how God feels as He watches His children reject Him.
God doesn’t behold my life with a casual attitude of indifference. God is the engaging, heartbroken Father who watches sin impact the one He loves. I have often rejected the paths He designed for me and missed out on the very reasons He created me in the first place. I don’t want to waste any of today, time given to me by a Creator who thought of me before I was even a microscopic being in my mother’s womb.
Perhaps David sits with God and weeps with Him over the ways He is being hurt. Just as we knock on the door of someone we love to grieve with them over a crippling loss, David visits God. On Maundy Thursday, as God remembers what it was like to watch His Son die, how many will remember with Him and share His grief? As God watches the world He made slowly erode and groan for His redemption? As God watches the church of this age mingle their affections with the stuff of Babylon, how many will tearfully repent on their behalf and soothe the ragged edges of God’s heart?
God is touched when we are emotionally invested in His heart. Because of His desire for our fellowship, He’s chosen to be affected by whether or not I bend my heart in his direction or withhold it. Bendetti, the 13th century hymn writer of the Stabat Mater, was one day found weeping in public. When asked the reason for his tears, he said… “I weep because Love goes about unloved.”
I sit with You today, remembering Your journey with Your Son. I’m sorry people rejected Your gift of Love. I’m sorry for each time I have doubted it for myself. Amen
