THE LANGUAGE OF TEARS

Psalm 39
THE LANGUAGE OF TEARS
Hear my prayer, O LORD, listen to my cry for help; be not deaf to my weeping.... (v.12)

One cannot help but notice the range of emotions in the psalms. When we read the psalms, we meet people with feelings. They lament their sorrowful condition, they ask angry questions, they protest vigorously their innocence, they plead in anguish with God, they sing in jubilation. We meet real people who are not afraid to show their emotions. We need not be afraid or ashamed of ours when we pray to the Lord.

Nothing shows us to be human more than our tears. A fairy tale tells of a toy soldier who had always wanted to be human. He went through many adventures, and proved his courage and chivalry. But he did not become human. One day, his heart was broken by a beautiful girl who did not return his love. Out of his eye came a tear. At last, the fairy told him, he had become human.

So we discover our human vulnerability in our tears. We are hurt. We dare not turn to anyone lest we are hurt again. We cry before the Lord. Does God understand when others have failed to understand? This is the plea of the psalmist: Hear my prayer, listen to my cry, do not be deaf to my weeping.

Elsewhere, David makes the same plea: "Record my lament; list my tears on your scroll - are they not in your record?" (Ps 56:8). In an alternative translation, the verse reads, "Put my tears in your wineskins" (bottles). Surely, God takes note of our tears. He registers our grief and helplessness. Our tears express much more than our words can say. He hears and knows, for he too had shed tears (John 11:35). As one song puts it, "Tears are a language God understands."

Tears speak when words cannot.