True Spiritual Sorrow

When we speak about sorrow, there is not one among our readers who does not know what sorrow is. Since the entrance of Paradise closed behind us because of our sins, the word sorrow is written in this world with large letters. Who among us has not seen sorrow enter the doors of our homes, or who among us has not had some contact with sorrow?

The Bible tells us that in this life here upon this earth it is but a vale of tears. But our text speaks about two different types of sorrow. The one differs much from the other. The sorrow of the world was seen in the life of Esau, that big, strong man who sorrowed at his father's knees. He missed the blessing and sorrowed, saying, “Father, do you not have another blessing?” This was only a sorrow after the world. There was no need for the giver, but only a concern about the gift.

King Ahab sorrowed for Naboth's vineyard. Because of that sorrow, he had no desire for his work and kept to his bed. This, too, was only a sorrow after the world. Rachel also sorrowed. It went so deep that she refused to be comforted, and she said to her husband, “Give me a child, or I die.” This also was only a sorrow for the world. Give Esau riches, and he is satisfied. Give Ahab Naboth's vineyard, and he will dry his tears. Give Rachel a child, and she will have all the comfort her heart desires. Sorrow after the world produces the tears which can be dried with the goods of the world.

But a sorrow after the world is not the only sorrow about which Paul speaks. He speaks also of a godly sorrow. Perhaps you are thinking, “What is a godly sorrow?” A godly sorrow is first of all a sorrow which comes from God and goes back unto God. It is a sorrow in which one comes to know himself as a missing person. No, not missing the world, but a missing which cries to know something of the Lord. It is a sorrow where one comes to know an emptiness, when it seems as if all is empty. There is one big void in the heart. It is a sorrow after God. There can then be a thousand needs and trials, and yet only one real struggle, namely, I have no God for my soul.

Think of the poet in Psalm 42, who said, “As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God.” That type of sorrow has an address. For those people there is only One who can place some healing balm in their open wounds. Give them prosperity when they struggle with adversity, give them the whole world, all that their heart desires, give them heaven, and yet they cannot be satisfied. They have not asked for heaven, but for the God of heaven. In such sorrow they are not asking for the heaven of God, but for the God of heaven.

If you would say to such a person, “You have such strong convictions; I believe that when you die, you will go to heaven,” they would say, “My sorrow is not for heaven; my sorrow is that I may know that God knows me.” There are times when they sit in church, and their inward emptiness cries to the Lord, saying, “I cannot go home unless I may know Thy salvation.” They not only need a God to die with, but they need a God to live with.

In that sorrow lies the first tender beginning of love. In that sorrow, that love suffers. Think of the publican in the back of the temple. He smote upon his breast and cried out, “God be merciful to me a sinner.” He smote his breast; that was where the pain was; there the sin lay. Have you ever experienced that pain because of sin, pain because of guilt? Sorrow after God does not always lie in the tears we weep. Sometimes we have no tears, but then it is a weeping in our hearts. These are known as soul tears, and only the Lord can dry those tears.

Sorrow after God knows certain marks. We will mention a few. First, it is a sorrow that cannot let go. In their hearts it is, “Although He slay me, yet will I hope in Him.” Jacob said, “I will not let Thee go, except Thou bless me.” What wonderful times they are when I cannot let go of Him for whom my soul is thirsting.

Second, it is a sorrow which knows no bitterness. Even if the Lord would turn them away, they would have to acknowledge God's right, and say, “That is because of my sin.” With the Canaanitish woman, they would say, “Yet the dogs eat of the crumbs that fall from the master's table.” Then in their heart it is, “Lord, when I am such a dog, then there is a crumb of God's love and mercy for me.”

Third, sorrow after God humbles the heart, because the sorrow they experience is all a result of their own guilt. When it is sorrow after God, then they say, “I am so full of sin and iniquity.”

Fourth, it is a sorrow that they would not want to miss. That is something wonderful. Here they are in the midst of all their missing, in the midst of the deepest soul struggles. Yet they would not miss all this for the entire world. Why is that? It is because the world cannot make them happy. If you were to say to such a missing struggler, “You must believe and accept; you must not be sorrowful,” they would turn away, saying, “Lord, speak Thou unto my soul.”

Do you know something of that sorrow after God? Is your name mentioned here? Have you ever sunk into that missing? Today there are many possessing people, many good people, many orthodox people. But there are so few missing people because of a sorrow after God. Without that sorrow there can never be true spiritual joy, because this sorrow is the mother of that joy. “For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation.”

Do you want to know whether in your life it is real? Then I ask, “Where has it taken you? Is there in your life a sorrow over sin? Is there a love towards God?” Paul says a godly sorrow worketh repentance unto salvation. What is that salvation? It is a fulfilling of what is missing, of what is empty. It is the Lord's coming unto that needy soul. It is the opening of heaven and an encouragement from heaven. It is joy unspeakable. We can say it in one word: salvation is communion, the communion of the Lord.

Salvation is an eye of faith upon Jesus Christ. It is a looking unto His blood and righteousness. It is having that precious blood of Jesus applied unto my soul. It is to hunger and thirst for His righteousness applied unto my soul, to hear that in that blood and righteousness a holy Father can look upon me and say, “I see no spot or wrinkle in him anymore.”

Salvation is a wonder of God's grace. Lay the entire world next to it, and it is infinitely more than that. It means having an inheritance laid away with God in heaven. No, salvation is not that there will be no crosses anymore. God often deerns it necessary to lay those crosses upon His people to humble their hearts and to drive them unto the Shepherd who alone can help them. No, salvation is never because His people have sorrowed, but only because He, Jesus Christ, has sorrowed. He stood in that deep sorrow of missing God when He hung upon the cross. When He hung there, He did not ask to be delivered from excruciating pain; He asked for only one thing, the Lord.

No, God's people did not ask for God on their own. Their asking flowed from Him. Because of Him, there is salvation. Because of Him, you one day will come to the end of life's journey, and then there will be a homecoming where eternal joy will begin and continue forever.

(Rev. Den Hoed serves the congregation of Franklin Lakes, NJ.)

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