Sunday, September 4, 2016

God Knows Our Pain



God Knows Our Pain

Psalm 56.8 Record my misery;
    list my tears on your scroll-
    are they not in your record?

“You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in Your bottle. You have recorded each one in Your book.” Psalm 56:8 (NLT)

" You number my wanderings;
Put my tears into Your bottle;
Are they not in Your book?" NKJV

The word for bottle or scroll means skin or bottle. It can be either a scroll or a leather skinned bottle. I think it has a double meaning. But the primary one is

Tears= the juice that comes from weeping

Tears are treated by God as something very precious, Iike costly perfume.

Spurgeon tells of a man who had a collection of things from the Middle East... lachrymatory, or tear bottle, which had been found in a tomb at Thebes in Egypt.

Commentator Adam Clarke noted, "Here is an allusion to a very ancient custom, which we know long obtained among the Greeks and Romans, of putting the tears which were shed for the death of any person into small phials, called lacrymatories or urnae lacrymales and offering them on the tomb of the deceased. Some of these were of glass, some of pottery, and some of agate, sardonyx, &c. A small one in my own collection is of hard baked clay."

Tears are part of us. They are the juices that come from being crushed. Like the olive oil we spoke of last week, the olives are crushed and the oil comes out. So we, as we are crushed by life, tears flow from our eyes.

Isaiah prophesied concerning Jesus in Isaiah 53.10  Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush Him and cause Him to suffer.
Gethsemane was the place of the Olive Press or where olives were crushed. 
We are told by Luke 22.44 And being in anguish, He prayed more earnestly, and His sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.

A few days earlier, just above the Garden of Gethsemane, on that same mountain,  Luke records in 19.41 As He approached Jerusalem and saw the city, He wept over it 42 and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. 43 The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. 44 They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.”

Jesus weeping over the city, brokenhearted that they rejected Him and that rejection will bring about the destruction of it. 

Jesus shed tears at Lazarus' tomb.

Hebrews 5:7
During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, He offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the One who could save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverent submission.

Everyone experiences crushing times in their lives. If we are following Jesus we will have our times of deep pain. 

"I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." John 16.33


1. Our Difficulties are recorded. Psalm 56.8

There are times as we struggle with pain we may wonder, "What is the use to this? What good is going to come out of this? How long will this go on?"

We remember the hard times we went through but God records them! He remembers the details. We know all things work together for our good if we love Him. 

The times of suffering and sorrow are the times when He is building our souls. They are times when He is drawing us closer to Him. They burn the dross off our lives. The times of pain bring into the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings.

We talk about the injustices of it but then we look to Jesus ad saw what He suffered to redeem us, to save us. His trial and death was the biggest travesty of justice this world has ever known or will know.


2.  The LORD remembers our tears.
Then those who feared the LORD spoke to one another, and the LORD listened and heard them; so a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the LORD and who meditate on His name" (Malachi 3:16).

Experts have proven that tears are good medicine for the healing of our souls and our bodies. Studies have found that “Having a good cry” is the body’s way or ridding itself of the toxins and waste products built up in the body during times of elevated stress. One study compared reflex tears and emotional tears (after peeling an onion and watching a sad movie, respectively). When scientists analyzed the content of the tears, they found each type was very different. Reflex tears are generally found to be about 98 percent water, whereas several chemicals are commonly present in emotional tears, including Adrenocorticotropic hormones which indicate high stress levels, and leucine-enkephalin, an endorphin that reduces pain and works to improve mood (A natural pain-killer).

Quote from Gene Edwards A Tale of Three Kings

"If you are asking me if I am a former thief and cave dweller and one who followed a sobbing, hysterical fugitive, then yes, I was one of the 'mighty men of David.'"

"Why, you make the Great king sound like a weakling. Was he not the greatest of all rulers?"

"He was no weakling," said the old man, "Nor was he a great leader."

"... The clearest memories I have of my king is when we lived in the caves... he lived a life of submission. Yes, David showed me submission, not authority. He taught me, not the quick cures of rules ad laws, but the art of patience. That is what changed my life. Legalism is nothing but a  leader's way of avoiding suffering. Rules were invented by elders, so they could to bed early."


David and Jeremiah were men of many tears.
David, a man after God's Own heart
Jeremiah, some said Jesus was he.

David in the Psalms:
Psalm 39:12 Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear unto my cry; hold not Thy peace at my tears: for I am a stranger with Thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were.
Psalm 42.3 My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?

Jeremiah:
Jeremiah 9:1 Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!
Jeremiah 13.17 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.

In our pain we cry. That does not show our weakness but rather can indicate a depth of spirituality. We weep over cities, we weep over people, we weep when God's Word is disregarded... we are becoming more like Jesus.

Our personal pain is noted by the LORD, recorded by Him. It is ordained by Him. So often our questions about the LORD is why He allowed or better yet didn't stop tragedies in our lives. We do not see that He is in the work of confirming us to the image of Christ and that simply cannot happen without us going through suffering. We cannot become like Christ without a broken-heart.  We cannot become like Him without tears being shed. He does not leave us alone in these times although it might seem like He is far away. He records all of it in His scroll.


I have a "scented spice towel". On the instructions it reads, "Hang on oven door, refrigerator handle or any place you want the smell of fresh spices to fill the air. To reactivate just hit spice pocket with a hammer." Interesting, is it not, what crushing brings? 

In our pain..

We have His promises for today.
We have His promises of eternity. Its in the LORD's Supper. It is throughout the Bible. He will come again and put an end to our pain and all it causes...


3. One Day all tears will be wiped away by God. 
Revelation 21.1Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and He will dwell with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be Their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

This will not happen until Christ returns and sets up His Kingdom.

Now that He is in heaven we fast, we wait, we at times are heartbroken.

Matthew 9.14At that time, John’s disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Why is it that we and the Pharisees fast so often, but Your disciples do not fast?” 15Jesus replied, “How can the attendants of the bridegroom mourn while He is with them? But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them; then they will fast.…

Revelation 14.12 This calls for patient endurance on the part of the people of God who keep His commands and remain faithful to Jesus.

Romans 8.23 
And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies He has promised us.

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