Psalm 119:136 – Real Men Cry Part 1
by Jonathan Tsai -
Passage: Psalm 119:136
God made emotions, and God made tears.
Real men, godly men, know how to embrace their God-given emotions. They won’t cry when they break their humerus in a freak snowboarding accident, but they will be moved to tears when their love for God is so great and their love and compassion toward others reflects God’s heart toward men.
Crying and weeping and being moved to tears is an act of worship to God under two broad circumstances of loving another person–and when it doesn’t end with just that, but also with interceding and praying on his or her behalf for the restoration of a broken Creator-creature, servant-master relationship, or for the salvation of his or her soul.
Loving the Brother or Sister
A genuine believer who loves the Lord would only want others to do the same–to obey the greatest commandment, which is to “love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Deuteronomy 6:5). His heart is grieved because the sinning brother or sister is grieving the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:30; 1 Thessalonians 5:19). He knows that while this brother or sister is having difficulty in repentance to the Lord–perhaps because he or she is drowned in the feeling of guilt and is forgetting to turn to the Lord who is not wrathful and easily angered, but rather is meek and gentle–he or she is temporarily forfeiting infinite joy and pleasures in the Lord (Psalm 16:11) while being robbed by the deceitfulness of the passing pleasures of sin (Hebrews 3:13; 11:25).
When all seems hopeless for the straying sheep, the weeping believer prostrates himself and falls to his knees as he pleads with the Lord for the restoration of the straying one. A picture of this is described in the song “Prayin’ for You” by the Christian rap artist Lecrae.
Loving the Unbeliever
A believer who truly understands the gravity of the consequences of sin (Romans 6:23) and the heart of God which is grieved by the unwillingness of hardened sinners to repent (Genesis 6:5-6; c.f. Ezekiel 18:23; 2 Peter 3:9) will pray with much weeping for the salvation of the unbeliever, if perhaps that the Lord may be moved by the relentless prayer of His godly ones (Luke 18:1-8; c.f. Judges 2:18; 2 Samuel 24:25; 2 Chronicles 33:13).
In trusting the sovereignty of the Lord in salvation (Revelation 7:10, 19:1; c.f. Psalm 46:10), the believer who acts in dependence by praying with humility and sincerity even to the point of shedding tears couples that action with evangelism–sharing the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ (Romans 1:15-16) who purchased sinners with His own blood (1 Peter 1:18-19).