Can We Speak Of Drops?

Psalm 119: 136

“Rivers of waters run down mine eyes, because they keep not thy law.”

If you would, please open your Bibles to the book of Psalm and the 119^th chapter. Today we will be looking at verses 129-136. Before we get started I would like to take a minute and talk about why I chose this particular passage to speak on tonight. There were 2 lessons that I had in mind, one I was going to bring in Sunday school and one tonight. But since I worked all weekend and was unable to bring that lesson I considered bringing it tonight. Yet I think I will just stick with the original lesson I had intended for tonight. Both lessons were from Psalm 119. About 2 months ago I ordered a set of books by Thomas Manton. If you haven’t heard that name, it’s quite alright, I hadn’t until just about 2 months ago. But I wanted to buy a good set of books and his looked pretty good. Hollis Walters also highly recommend them, and when it comes to books, he is pretty much my go to guy.

                Now, one thing Thomas Manton is well known for is a series of lessons he brought from Psalm 119. He decided to bring a series of lessons on the chapter, and 190 sermons later he finished. Yes, that averages more than one sermon per verse. Knowing that he preached such a lengthy amount of time on this certain passage I decided I wanted to read through them. I started reading the chapter everyday after I ordered the books. It’s now nearly two months later and I have continued to read through the chapter at least once a day. In that time it has become a chapter dearly beloved to me. This is one of the most beautiful portions of scripture in all the Bible. The author of the Psalm is unknown, although some ascribe it to David, but I do not deem it to be of any necessity to have a certain knowledge of who it was. It is an acrostic Psalm, which means that each section starts with a certain letter which allows for easier memorization. It is broken up into 22 stanzas, all 8 verses in length, each stanza begins with a different Hebrew letter until all the alphabet has been completed.

                The text we will be focusing on are verses 129-136, and our lesson will be brought from verse 136 “Rivers of waters run down mine eyes, because they keep not thy law.” I have titled the lesson tonight “Can we speak of drops?” Before we get into an exposition of the text I feel it important to get into our minds the context of the entire psalm. This Psalm is about the Word of God, in fact it has been said that 174 of the 176 verses in some way mention the Word. When you read through the chapter it is easily seen the love and delight the psalmist had in the Word of God. If you will, just stroll with me through the chapter so we can see the way he describes the greatness of the Word, and the importance it had in his life.

                “With my whole heart I have sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments” v10. “I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies, as much as in all riches.” V14. “Thy testimonies also are my delights and my counselors” V24. “It is good for me that I have been afflicted: that I might learn thy statues. The law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver.” V 71-72 “how sweet are thy words unto my taste! Yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth” V103. “Thy testimonies are wonderful: therefore doth my soul keep them. The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple. I opened my mouth, and panted: for l longed for thy commandments” V129-131 “My heart standeth in awe of thy word. I rejoice at thy word, as one that findeth great spoil” V161-162. The Psalmist declares is love for the Word of God, and ask continually time and again for ways to understand it better. That he might have his eyes open, that he might live by the word, that he might have his heart inclined to it, everything he cared about was learning and living the Word. Then, in the midst of all this joy, and yearning for the Word comes verse 136. In contrast to almost the entire of the rest of the Psalm

                Hopefully in the next few minutes we will have a better understanding of what this verse means, and how it applies to us. The verse is easily broken into two sections. First there is the statement of the psalmist’s condition, and then the reason for why he is in such a condition. We have the effect, which is the rivers of waters that pour from his eyes and the cause of which is that they keep not the law. But what I would like to look at first is to ask ourselves if this is the duty of all believers. Is this simply a one time occasion of grief, or can we find in other portions of scripture that this is to be the normal condition of Christians? The first place I would like to look is the book of Jeremiah. We will look at chapter 13 and verses 15-17. “Hear ye, and give ear; be not proud: for the LORD hath spoken. Give glory to the LORD your God, before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and, while ye look for light, he turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness. But if ye will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride; and mine eye shall weep sore, and run down with tears, because the LORD's flock is carried away captive.” We will not discuss in depth the reasons for his tears but just simply note that this is an indication of one shedding tears for another’s sins. We will look at one other place before we begin an exposition of the text. Turn with me to the Gospel of Mark chapter 3 and verse 5. “And when he had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, he saith unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it out: and his hand was restored whole as the other.” I will not attempt in any measure to explain the factors which are involved in this situation. I believe it is beyond my ability to explain, or even our ability to comprehend it fully. What I would like for us to do is just simply read it, and be marveled at the fact that the Lord of creation, is a state of grief due to the people not obeying the word of God. Certainly we can never fully have the same amount of emotions over this that our Lord had, but that doesn’t mean we should remain hardened in our hearts towards others.

                First let’s look at the “rivers of water run down mine eyes.” The first thing that we should take notice of how he describes the tears. He says they are rivers of waters. Not simply drops, but rivers. One thing about rivers is that they are continual. Sometimes they are high, sometimes they are low, but they are almost always flowing. His tears were not simply once at that moment, but ever flowing from him. One thing that must be considered is if we must shed actual tears fulfill our duty in this. Must we have the same amount of physical expression as the psalmist had? I do not feel this to be the case. God has not made us all the same. We all have different levels of emotions, and respond to certain situations accordingly. It is not the amount of tears that fall from our eyes, but the amount of grief that fills our heart that allows us to follow this command. The amount of tears that we cry for sin, is to be proportional to the amount we would shed otherwise.

                Now what I think we should look into is the second half of this verse. “They keep not thy law.” The question which should first come to mind is “who are they?” It does not appear in the context that we can know for absolute certainty who he is referring to in this verse. Some have said he is referring to his eyes, since the eyes are the inlet of sin, then they should be the outlet of sorrow. But I do not feel that to be the case. I even read in another place one who claimed he had reference to Adam and Eve. Not that I do not believe he would shed tears for them because he must remain in his own sins and had they not sinned then perhaps he could fully enjoy God now. But I am not sure there is any place in the chapter for which can validate this opinion. If our choice of interpretation is limited to the chapter alone, then I think it is fairly obvious whom he is referring to directly. We need only look into a couple other verses to see who he shed tears for in this chapter. “My zeal hath consumed me, because mine enemies have forgotten thy words” v139 and “Many are my persecutors and mine enemies; yet do I not decline from thy testimonies. I beheld the transgressors, and was grieved; because they kept not thy word.” V157-158. It seems apparent the psalmist is referring to his enemies or those oppressing him. The question I have is this the only people we are to shed tears for? Or can we see in other places of scripture that we are to shed tears for others as well. I would like for us to look through other passages to see three examples of people we are to shed tears for.

                First let us turn in our Bibles to II Peter 2. We have here given a warning against following false teachers. Peter is warning the people that the followers of deceitful ways always end in destruction. Perhaps it might not be in this life, but their punishment surely awaits them. Then he gives examples of punishments of past times. He tells of the fallen angels who are awaiting judgment, then of the flood in Noah’s day. Then he gives them one other warning, that being the story of Sodom and Gomorrha. But what applies to our topic is the description given to one who lived there. Here we have Lot living amongst the sinners of these two cities. How is he described? Peter tells us that Lot was “vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked”. He was not walking the streets in an effected manner. This was not a one occasion. It says that he “vexed his righteous soul day to day with their unlawful deeds”.  What he was “seeing and hearing” weighed upon his heart. His soul was tormented at the way the people were living. Now, perhaps as we read this text, which I have before admittedly, and simply said to ourselves “yes, but that’s Sodom and Gomorrah”. How can we expected to act in such a manner as Lot when he lived in what was most likely the most evil cities to ever exist. If we were as bad as them then the Lord would have acted by now. But what does Peter tell us? He says that this is an “ensample unto those that after should live ungodly.” The ungodly will be punished, and they have warnings to remind them. Just because we are not being punished now, does not mean we are not an ungodly nation. Look around, turn on the television or the radio. If you want reasons to have a vexed soul because of sin, it will not take long if we simply look. Everywhere around us are people living in gross sins. Certainly this should vex our souls just as it did Lot’s.

                We have seen in the example of Lot that we as believers are to mourn the sins of the unbelievers who surround us. Now, are there places where we can find that we are to mourn the sins of different people. Turn with me, if you will, to I Corinthians chapter 5. What we have here is Paul reprimanding the Corinthians for a certain sinner who is among there assembly. The person is living in a gross public sin that the Church obviously knows about. What is the first complaint that Paul has to the Corinthians in this matter. He says “ye are puffed up, when you should have rather mourned”. He doesn’t at first attach them for the sinner still being among them. He complains about their attitude toward the situation. Here is this man, living in open sin, and how does this affect them? It brings them to have a rising in their pride. They saw that mans sins, and this brought them to a higher thinking of themselves. There should have been a deep sorrowful mourning in their souls for the situation. There was nothing for them to be proud over. This sin should the unbelievers that they were no different, it brought shame to the body of Christ. Was this not something that should bring tears to the eyes of the converted? How can the worship God together in unity when they aren’t even in unity with God because of such blatant sin among them. They should have confronted this person about their sin, and if there was nothing done to change then he should have been excommunicated. If one would rather live in sin the love the Lord our God then he does not belong in the assembly. But, my question is “how should he to be cut off from the Church”, what are our affections when one is “delivered unto Satan”?  We do not do it with a puffed up pride, joyfully removing him from the assembly. We are to do it with tears in our eyes and a sorrow in our heart.

                Here we have seen that we are to mourn for the sins of unbelievers, and the sins of professing believers. There is one person other person that I do believe the scripture tells that we should mourn the sins of. Let’s turn in our Bibles to the Gospel of Luke chapter 22. We have here recorded for us the story of Peter’s denial. How does it describe the emotion of Peter after he realized the sins that he just committed against the God he loved? It says that he “went out, and wept bitterly” it was not simple going out and saying “well, Lord, I’m sorry. Amen.”  No, those sins had a tremendous affect on him. Perhaps one might say “yes, but he denied that he even knew the Lord, that is quite a sin, I am sure most people would mourn over that.” That is true, but what is sin? Is not sin in it’s simplest form a denial of God. Maybe not a denial of his existence, but certainly a denial of His place in our lives. If there is anything that should bring us to tear it should be when we tell God that He is not the highest priority in our lives.

                We have shown three different types of sins we should shed tears over, the sins of unbelievers, professing believers and ourselves. What I would like to discuss now is why. Why is it that we should have such expressions of emotion when we see these sins. And then I would like to discuss for a moment why I believe that we are not as compassionate as we should be. First, why should we shed tears for sin? Let us just think about the people we are to shed tears for. What about the unbelievers? What was the warning? Coming Judgment, Lot knew the end that was awaiting those people. How can we see an unbeliever knowing that their soul is just waiting an eternal torment in Hell and not be effected. We pass people every day, work with them, go to school with them, who are simply awaiting their judgment. Their sins should be a reminder to us that God’s judgment is coming, and this should bring us to shed rivers of tears. There is also the case of the Corinthians not mourning the sins of a fellow member of the church. Several reasons come to mind for why we should be moved to grieving over the sins of a fellow professing believer. It breaks the unity of the members of the church. We should always want harmony amongst one another in the house of the Lord. If we loved one another like we ought to do, then when we see sin in each others life then we should be moved to tears over that sin. Those people can not enjoy God to the fullest extent when sin is in the way. There is also the reason of our sins are dishonoring to God. I mean, in the end, what is sin? It is simply telling God he is not worthy of our full devotion. John Bunyan puts it like this “Sin sets itself so much against the nature of God that if it could it would annihilate God and turn Him into nothing, it being so intrinsically point blank against Him.” How can we be unmoved when the God we love is treated so disrespectfully. If one was to say something bad about someone we knew and loved we would not stand for it, but day after day we hear people use Gods name in vain, and treat His word as nothing. Too often we let it pass by without the slightest bit of attention, or even worse, a puffed up ego. Now besides these points, I do believe there is one other reason that we should shed tears for sin. It encompasses all three types of people we mourn for, for ourselves, believers and unbelievers. What is the point of this whole Psalm? Basically it is this, “The Word of God is my upmost delight.” There is no other place where he can find the joy that he finds in God’s word. Therefore when he doesn’t follow by those words, he realizes he is keeping himself from his greatest happiness. We should do all that we can to rid our souls from sin, if we do that not only will we be a better witness for Christ and give Him more glory, but our joy will be continual increasing as well. What does Romans 8:1 say about this “For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.” This is the verse from which John Owen based his book the mortification of sin. He talks about the necessity of killing sin in our lives. If we allow sin to continue we are allowing our spirit to be killed slowly. Our thoughts on the matter should be as Owens when he says “Do you mortify; do you make it your daily work; be always at it whilst you live; cease not a day from this work; be killing sin or it will be killing you” Is that not what this text says? If we mortify the bodily deeds, then we live. What happens when we don’t? Clearly we should prefer life to death. I believe what the Psalmist is tearful over in this instance is that those who are in their sins are unable to see how wonderful God and His word really are. They are his enemies, but he still knows if they could but see God for who he is then they would love Him as dearly as he does. With a grieving in his heart he cries “oh that they could but know the joy of my heart in God.” Should this not be our cry? Do we not want people to enjoy the wonderful Savior as much as we do? We should want people to enjoy God so much that we are brought to tears when we see their delight in any thing apart from him. People will never find happiness at the bottom of a beer bottle, the end of joint is not pure joy. If only they would like to Christ they could see the one whom the woman says of in song of Solomon 1:4 “thy love is better than wine.”

                The question is this, “do we follow after this command like we should, and if not, then why?” I think in all honesty we must admit to failure in this topic. There is not one here tonight that can say they mourn just as Christ mourned. Why do we not? I believe the answer lies in our concept of the greatness and glory of God. When God is brought lower, then sin is thought of a little less evil. But when we consider God to be of infinite greatness and infinite worthiness of all our praise, then sin becomes so much more awful. The problem is, we as Christians today, never see God as we should. When we do, then sin will be much grieving to us. I would like to steal a illustration I heard from John Piper concerning the Puritans for a moment. He said our idea of God is like a mountain peak. We see the peak way in the sky and think “yes, that God is pretty big.” Then we just leave it at that. But occasionally there are those who see that peak and say “I’m climbing it, I am going to understand God.” But what do they find when they get at the top? They see the unfathomable number of infinitely high peaks behind it that we never even knew where there. When you see God like that, sin becomes so much different. That’s why when Jonathan Edwards spoke of his sin he said “My wickedness, as I am in myself, has long appeared to me perfectly ineffable, and swallowing up all thought and imagination; like an infinite deluge, or mountain over my head. I know not how to express better what my sins appear to me to be, than by heaping infinite upon infinite, and multiplying infinite by infinite. Very often, for these many years, these expressions are in my mind, and in my mouth, 'Infinite upon infinite ... Infinite upon infinite!' When I look into my heart, and take a view of my wickedness, it looks like an abyss infinitely deeper than hell.” Its this same type of idea that was in the thought of David brainerd when he says “Scarce ever felt myself so unfit to exist, as now: I saw I was not worthy of a place among the Indians, where I am going ... None knows, but those that feel it, what the soul endures that is sensibly shut out from the presence of God: Alas, 'tis more bitter than death.” These ideas almost seem unknown to us today. But why? Because they have climbed that first peak and seen the greatness we never knew of God. And where are we? We are still in Kansas and can barely even see what looks like tiny mountains off in the distance. These men shed tears for their sin, and the sin of others. But what about us, do we shed tears as well? I would like to close with a quote by Thomas Manton, he says “If David can speak of floods, certainly we should at least be able to speak of drops.” I ask you tonight, can we speak of drops?