Comfort in Sorrow"Neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the LORD is your strength — Neh. 8:10.
Sorrows indeed may, and often will, come in like a flood, but the Lord is our helper in all these things. The soul that has never known the discipline of sorrow and trouble has never yet learned the preciousness of the Lord's love and helpfulness. It is in seasons of overwhelming sorrow, when we draw near to the Lord, that He draws specially near to us. So the Psalmist (130) found it, when, in deep affliction, he cried to the Lord and reasoned of His righteousness, saying: "Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O LORD. Lord, hear my voice: let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications." Feeling his own shortcomings and longing for full deliverance from every imperfection, and prophesying the bountiful provisions of the Divine Plan of salvation through Christ, he adds: "If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities [imputing them to us], O Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared [reverenced]"—Z '95, 20 (R 1759). The bulk of mankind are, generally speaking, usually given to sorrow rather than to joy. It could not be otherwise under the reign of the Adamic curse; for pain, suffering, sickness, losses, disappointments, enmities, dying, death and mourning abound on all sides and make the race sorrowful; for we are all living in the night of sin in which weeping endures (Psa. 30:5). Hence joy is not the usual and enduring experience of the race under the curse. It is the privilege of God's people to be joyous—P '42, 100. Parallel passages: Gen. 3:16, 17; 1 Sam. 1:15; Esth. 9:22; Job 41:22; Psa. 13:2; 16:4; 18:4, 5; 32:10; 69:29; 116:3, 4; Isa. 35:10; 51:11; Jer. 31:12, 13, 25; John 16:20-22; 2 Cor. 2:7; 6:10; 7:8-11; 1 Thes. 4:13, 14; Rev. 21:4. Hymns: 60, 222, 38, 3, 43, 203, 204, 105, 231, 228, 173. Poems of Dawn, 225: Sorrow. Tower Reading: Z '15, 344 (R 5802). Questions: Did I seek to obtain God's comfort and not be unduly sorrowful? What helped or hindered therein? With what results? |
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SORROW
COUNT each affliction, whether light or grave,
God's Messenger sent down to thee; do thou
With courtesy receive Him; rise and bow;
And, ere His shadow pass thy threshold, crave
Permission first His heavenly feet to lave;
Then lay before Him all thou hast; allow
No cloud of passion to usurp thy brow
Or mar thy hospitality, no wave
Of mortal tumult to obliterate
Thy soul's marmoreal calmness. Grief should be
Like joy, majestic, equable, sedate,
Confirming, cleansing, raising, making free;
Strong to consume small troubles; to commend
Great thoughts, grave thoughts, thoughts lasting to
the end.
COUNT each affliction, whether light or grave,
God's Messenger sent down to thee; do thou
With courtesy receive Him; rise and bow;
And, ere His shadow pass thy threshold, crave
Permission first His heavenly feet to lave;
Then lay before Him all thou hast; allow
No cloud of passion to usurp thy brow
Or mar thy hospitality, no wave
Of mortal tumult to obliterate
Thy soul's marmoreal calmness. Grief should be
Like joy, majestic, equable, sedate,
Confirming, cleansing, raising, making free;
Strong to consume small troubles; to commend
Great thoughts, grave thoughts, thoughts lasting to
the end.
