Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your wrath. Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am faint; heal me, Lord, for my bones are in agony. My soul is in deep anguish. How long, Lord, how long? Turn, Lord, and deliver me; save me because of your unfailing love. Among the dead no one proclaims your name. Who praises you from the grave? I am worn out from my groaning. All night long I flood my bed with weeping and drench my couch with tears. My eyes grow weak with sorrow; they fail because of all my foes. Away from me, all you who do evil, for the Lord has heard my weeping. The Lord has heard my cry for mercy; the Lord accepts my prayer. All my enemies will be overwhelmed with shame and anguish; they will turn back and suddenly be put to shame.

--Parallel verses:
‭‭John‬ ‭11‬:‭33‬-‭36‬
When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. “Where have you laid him?” he asked. “Come and see, Lord,” they replied. Jesus wept. Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”

As we live in a broken, sinful world — there are hardships, pain, and enemies that surface. David, before and after he was King, had enemies surface around him. King Saul pursued him for years trying to kill him, as King Saul had turned to evil ways and David was the anointed successor to the throne. Afterwards, David had enemies in his own family that tried to threaten his rule. His son Absolom, who had erected a monument in his own name, had plotted with his advisors to kill David. David had lots of occasions to weep.

And we see in the parallel verses, Jesus wept when he saw the pain and anguish the death of Lazarus had caused Lazarus’ sister, Mary. In a story that is evidence of both the humanity and deity of Jesus when he was on earth, he wept at Lazarus’ loss and its impact, all the while knowing he would shortly be raising him from the dead. And in divine power, he did just that.

Read this Psalm again. What do you notice? I notice real deep anguish. David was being attacked from all sides. He had seen his country fall into an evil King’s rule under Saul and he saw his son die trying to kill him. David wanted justice, but he also cared about those who persecuted him, as evidenced in the story of Absalom. And when we allow ourselves to care deeply and become personally invested in messy relationships — at times we weep. We weep for those who sadly follow evil, we weep when hardship overtakes us it seems, and we weep when we experience loss.

However, while we weep, we do not weep without hope. David evidenced this by saying: “The Lord has heard my cry for mercy; the Lord accepts my prayer. All my enemies will be overwhelmed with shame and anguish; they will turn back and suddenly be put to shame.”

So the questions I have to ask myself today are: 1) Have I loved deeply enough and cared strongly enough for the people around me to weep for them at times, when they have turned away from God? 2) In my weeping, do I maintain my faith and hope in God?

Lord, thank you for your servant, David, whom you loved as a friend. He modeled for us truly deep, passionate love for others. And this was evidenced not only in his actions for them, but in his weeping about their sin and its impact on him. Open and expand my heart more to weep over those who are lost in the lies of this world.