What purposes do weeping and tears serve for God’s mourning people?

God teaches us about tears and weeping through the lives of believers who mourned, who reveal the purpose of tears to us through their experiences:

First : Such examples reveal the characteristics of tears that are acceptable before, and cherished by God; and the characteristics of those tears He rejects.

Second : They reveal the characteristics of tears that are pleasing to God. David asks the Lord not to rebuke him in His anger (Ps. 6:1). He does not pray, “Lord, do not rebuke me.” Rather, he says, “Rebuke me but as a father with his son.” Jeremiah, too, says, “O Lord, correct me, but with justice; not in Your anger, lest You bring me to nothing” (Jer. 10:24). David prays that the sorrows that befall him may be as the chastisements of a child and not as the punishment of an outcast. The wrath of the Lord destroys, but His fatherly love repairs, compels, and saves. David asks God to rebuke him in mercy and goodness, and not in His anger, for he upon whom God pours out His anger will perish. God has two rods: one for mercy and the other for His dreadful wrath. St. Paul talks about the latter, saying, “… treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God” (Rom. 2:5).

Third : David was a weeping prophet like Jeremiah the prophet. He did not grieve because of external afflictions, but when the burden of sin weighed heavily on his conscience he refused to be comforted,⁵¹⁹ waiting for the mercies of God, the true Physician. He thus cried out to Him saying, “O Lord, do not rebuke me in Your anger, nor chasten me in Your hot displeasure. Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am weak; O Lord, heal me, for my bones are troubled … All night I make my bed swim” (Ps. 6:1–2, 6). This cry is a confession of our weakness and our inability to save our own souls. Our hope for redemption rests in divine mercy.

Fourth : The faithful are not ashamed to offer their tears to the Lord openly. Even kings, prophets, women, fornicators — even entire nations like the people of Nineveh and Israel shed tears as a sign of the sincerity of their repentance and love for God.

Fifth : The impact of their tears extended to their descendants and became a blessing and a lesson for the people who came after their departure.

518 St. Ambrose of Milan, Concerning Repentance 2.8.71–73 (NPNF II/10:354) amended.

519 See Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson, 1997): p. 583.

Sixth : Each of these examples teaches us about one or more aspects of the life of tears, that we may learn and seek the life of tears according to what suits our lives, situations, and circumstances.

Seventh : We cannot find even one among the great saints who did not need to weep to receive divine grace.