Psalms in the Summer Ps 126 & 39: Don’t Waste your Tears Psalm 126.5-6 Those who plant in tears will harvest with shouts of joy. They weep as they go to plant their seed, but they sing as they return with the harvest. Psalm 39.12a Hear my prayer, O Lord! Listen to my cries for help! Don’t ignore my tears. Psalms in the Summer

Psalms in the Summer Ps 126 & 39: Don’t Waste your Tears Those wishing to train in prayer will pray the Psalms. It’s the prayer book of Jesus. The Psalms help me to learn to pray with Jesus and like Jesus; they help me to become a person after God’s own heart in the midst of my daily life. (Bill Gaultiere) Psalms in the Summer

Psalms in the Summer Ps 126 & 39: Don’t Waste your Tears The majority of Psalms are laments, songs to weep by. O Lord, how long will you forget me? Forever? (Ps 13) Why are you cast down, o my soul? (Ps 42) my life is full of troubles… I am as good as dead… I am forgotten… O Lord, why do you reject me? Darkness is my closest friend. (Ps 88) Psalms in the Summer

Jesus too prayed the laments. Ps 126 & 39: Don’t Waste your Tears Jesus too prayed the laments. [Ps 22, My God, my God, why have you abandoned me] is the only time in the gospel accounts that Jesus prayed to his Father using the formal and distant name “God.”  He knew how it felt to be in pain and to cry out for God and yet feel alone.  He knew what it was like to long for the Father’s love and feel abandoned.  (Bill Gaultiere) Psalms in the Summer

wept and agonized like we do. Ps 126 & 39: Don’t Waste your Tears He shared our pain, wept and agonized like we do. While Jesus was here on earth, he offered prayers and pleadings, with a loud cry and tears, to the one who could rescue him from death. And God heard his prayers because of his deep reverence for God Hebrews 5.7 Psalms in the Summer

over the human condition, and over others. Ps 126 & 39: Don’t Waste your Tears Expect tears (Ps 126.1-4) Psalms expects you’ll have something to weep about, and gives a way to express your feelings to God. You’ll weep over yourself, over the human condition, and over others. Psalms in the Summer

Psalms in the Summer Ps 126 & 39: Don’t Waste your Tears Expect tears (Ps 126.1-4) Ps 126 starts with gladness, a God-restoration that got the nations talking. It’s our joy at our friends’ salvation, at our mountain-top experiences, at the return of a prodigal to God. We are glad! (v 3) Psalms in the Summer

Psalms in the Summer Ps 126 & 39: Don’t Waste your Tears Expect tears (Ps 126.1-4) But then v 4: restore our fortunes. Now life is like a desert. The myth: if I’m a good Christian, nothing bad will happen to me. No, expect tears. Why? Psalms in the Summer

God gave you a new heart at conversion: Ps 126 & 39: Don’t Waste your Tears Expect tears (Ps 126.1-4) God gave you a new heart at conversion: And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart. Ezekiel 36.26 Now you have feelings for the pain and suffering around you. You’re vulnerable. Psalms in the Summer

Psalms in the Summer Ps 126 & 39: Don’t Waste your Tears Expect tears (Ps 126.1-4) The Perfect One, Jesus, was always crying. Jesus wept. Jn 11.35 But as Jesus came closer to Jerusalem and saw the city ahead, he began to weep [burst into tears]. (Lk 19.41) As you become like Jesus, expect tears. Psalms in the Summer

Psalms in the Summer Ps 126 & 39: Don’t Waste your Tears Invest your tears (Ps 126.5-6) Picture the risks of a farmer planting precious seed. Will the rains come? Will an enemy invade? Will he get a harvest? It’s not a hobby. It’s his future and his family’s survival. He weeps as he plants. Psalms in the Summer

Psalms in the Summer Ps 126 & 39: Don’t Waste your Tears Invest your tears (Ps 126.5-6) Plant your tears. Take the tears of rage, loneliness, disappointment and rejection to God. Process them with him. Take the risk that God listens, cares and can turn your tears into joy. Psalms in the Summer

In Ps 39 David ends with tears Ps 126 & 39: Don’t Waste your Tears Pray your tears (Ps 39) In Ps 39 David ends with tears Hear my prayer, O Lord! Listen to my cries for help! Don’t ignore my tears. For I am your guest—a traveler passing through, as my ancestors were before me. Leave me alone so I can smile again before I am gone and exist no more. (vv 12-13) Psalms in the Summer

Psalms in the Summer Ps 126 & 39: Don’t Waste your Tears Pray your tears (Ps 39) Such an honest prayer. Such a safe God to pray to. God hears crazy, desperate prayers. He ignores the request, like Jesus with Simon: Oh, Lord, please leave me— I'm too much of a sinner to be around you. Luke 5.8 Instead Jesus called Simon to follow him. Psalms in the Summer

See his sufferings in your place. God will hear and respond. Ps 126 & 39: Don’t Waste your Tears Pray your tears (Ps 39) You’ll be heard in your tears, because Jesus took your place and wasn’t. Come quickly Ps 38.22 But God didn’t, not for Jesus. Look to the cross. See his sufferings in your place. God will hear and respond. Psalms in the Summer

Psalms in the Summer Ps 126 & 39: Don’t Waste your Tears Don’t miss the joy (Ps 126.6) Laments become praise but it takes time. The end of psalms is all praise. All prayer, pursued far enough, becomes praise. Any prayer, no matter how desperate its origin, no matter how angry and fearful the experiences it traverses, ends up in praise. Eugene Peterson Psalms in the Summer

Psalms in the Summer Ps 126 & 39: Don’t Waste your Tears Don’t miss the joy (Ps 126.6) Psalms sets you free to weep as you care for others, to enter the messy brokenness of life, because God promises joy. You’ll carry the harvest in with joy, like the joy of Jesus, in the resurrection. [when Jesus appeared to the disciples] they could not believe for joy. Luke 24.41 Psalms in the Summer