"O LORD God of hosts, how long wilt thou be angry against the prayer of thy people? Thou feedest them with the bread of tears, and givest them tears to drink in great measure."
Psalm 80:4-5
Part 4
Yesterday: God Sends Tears to Reclaim His Children
“Thou feedest them with the bread of tears.”
To His child that will not hear and sins against Him, God has sent the “bread of tears.”
Today: He Sent the Tears, and He Will Stop the Tears – Permanently
“And givest them tears to drink.”
Asaph’s picture is not hard to understand. Flowing tears are their food and drink through this time of sorrow and weeping.
“My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?” (Psalm 42:3).
“For I have eaten ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping” (Psalm 102:9).
“They swallow tierces[1] [gallons] of tears, and swim in gulfs of grief, and all this by God’s own appointment; not because their enemies have them in their power by force of arms, but because their God refuses to interpose”[2] (Spurgeon).
We must remember in this case that God’s children have rejected Him and His help. He will give them tears and let them flounder for a while without His intervention. Even in this, He does not stop caring or loving them.
“In great measure.”
When God sends His people the “bread of tears” and “tears to drink,” it is in “great measure.” The tears are abundant. There are so many tears one may think he or she will never stop crying. But there is a glimmer of hope here. Note the word “measure.” Our tears are not unlimited, but they are “measured,” there will be an end to them! We need to let our tears draw us closer to our Lord.
Dear believer, have you been through the “Valley of Baca” (the “valley of weeping”),[3] when you thought you will never see the sunshine again? Our God is gracious and merciful. He will never allow us to be buried with more problems than we can handle, with His help (1 Corinthians 10:13). When all seems dark and hopeless, it is not the time to bail on the Lord but to trust Him all the more. He alone can turn the “Valley of Baca” into a well, where the pools are filled with the blessing of rainwater, God’s “Showers of Blessings.”
Child of God, even though life for us will get more complicated, and our tears flow easier the farther we go into these “last days,” we know that Jesus will come again for us. After “the end,” God prevails over and does away with all evil, and, He has promised,
“He will swallow up death in victory, and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces, and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD hath spoken it” (Isaiah 25:8).
“For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes” (Revelation 7:14).
“And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away” (Revelation 21:4).
Can you imagine this? Everything that brings us pain and sorrow now, God will get rid of when we are together in eternity!
“Hallelujah, what a Savior!
Quote: “A Jesus who never wept could never wipe away my tears”[4] (Charles Spurgeon).
[1] “Tierce” here is best defined as “an obsolete measure of capacity equal to 42 wine gallons.” Downloaded: Thursday, February 25, 2021. From: https://www.dictionary.com/browse/tierce.
[2] C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, the electronic version in eSword. Psalm 80:5.
[3] The “Valley of Baca” is from Psalm 84:6. It is the “valley of weeping.”
[4] Spurgeon’s quote Downloaded: Friday, February 26, 2021. From: https://www.quotemaster.org/wipe+the+tears.