Once you condemn yourself, you have no reason to want to change. It’s like being blinded by your own sorrow and never taking the time to realize that the hole you’re digging only gets deeper unless you look up and see the light.”
–Ken Pratt (The Jester’s Magician)
“As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.”
–2 Corinthians 6:10 (NKJV)
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“Those who mourn are fortunate! For they shall be comforted.” –Matthew 5:4 (TLB)
Arthur Pink tells us that, “Mourning is ever a characteristic of the normal Christian state.” What? Sorrow is my lot? Yes, and no. We must remember that this is a spiritual issue, not just natural. This is the sorrow over sin–that inner war that we all fight–the flesh versus the spirit. This is a perpetual war. This is the war that Paul speaks of in Romans 7, when he cries out, “What a wretched man I am!” (7:24, NIV) This is the sorrowing over our sins with a godly sorrow. “It is mourning over the felt destitution of our spiritual state, and over the iniquities that have separated us and God, mourning over the very morality in which we have boasted, and the self-righteousness in which we have trusted; sorrow for rebellion against God, and hostility to His will; and such mourning always goes side by side with conscious poverty of spirit.” (A.T. Pierson)
We mourn because we cannot do good in ourselves. We have the propensity to wander; even wander against the grace that is shed out for us. We pray, repent, are relieved, then wander again. We want to have a close relationship with God yet we lack that intimate communion with Him; we see the shallowness of our love–and we mourn. Ahh, but take hope, as the early church leader Basil said, “Holy mourning is the seed out of which the flower of eternal joy grows.” Thomas Watson tells us that, “Man must pass through the valley of tears to get to paradise.” The great shepherd and psalm writer David reminds us, “For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime; weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.” (Psalm 30:5, NIV) Yes, that is the blessedness of spiritual morning–joy, does indeed, come in the morning!
That is the truth of this wonderful beatitude. This life brings sorrow, sin, and strife. “The mourning that is blessed is the realization of God’s holiness and goodness that issues in a sense of depravity of our natures and the enormous guilt of our conduct.” (Pink) This is where Paul continues, “Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God–through Jesus Christ our Lord! There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 7:23-24; 8:1, NIV) It is because of Christ, that we are no longer condemned, our mourning can cease and we will recognize our blessedness in Him.
We see the truth of this in the words of Jesus when He speaks to us this story. “And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 18:13-14, NKJV) The psychologists and the pseudo-intellectuals of our day tell us to remove guilt. Yet it is that guilt–the conviction of the Holy Spirit–that brings us to true mourning and thus to the true realization of genuine comfort.
Have you ever felt sorrow over a friend or loved one in mourning? Have you ever been shown comfort from such a one when you have been in this state? Oh, what a blessedness it is. But even more so, when we mourn, in the natural or the spiritual, we see the comfort and passion of God towards us.
“Happy day, happy day, When Jesus washed my sins away!
He taught me how to watch and pray, And live rejoicing ev’ry day.
Happy day, happy day, When Jesus washed my sins away!”
–Philip Doddridge