Word of Salvation – Vol. 26 No. 44 – August 1981
Lonely Deep Down
Sermon by Rev. John Goris on Proverbs 14:10
Scripture Readings: Romans 12:9-21; Proverbs 14:1-13
Psalter Hymnal: 303:1,2,4; 288; 104; 458; 492.
We have a saying,
Distributed joy is doubled joy,
Distributed grief is halved grief.
That is true….. to some extent, but there is also a point where grief is so intensely personal that it cannot be fully shared. We could say the same thing of joy. There is a point at which our text speaks:
“The heart knows its own bitterness,
And a stranger does not share its joy.” (NASB)
Let us look at these words together this morning/evening:
LONELY DEEP DOWN
1. Deep indeed
2. Deeper Still
3. Deepest thrill or agony?
1. DEEP INDEED.
“The heart knows its own bitterness, and a stranger does not share its joy”.
The word used for ‘bitterness’ is a word that reflects severe pain or distress, even to the point of anger, on account of some happening or situation in life. We find it used in the story of Naomi who calls herself Mara (= bitter). Likewise the lives of the Israelites were made bitter because of their slavery in Egypt. But it is not only the deepest experience of pain that is beyond sharing. Also the greatest heights of joy cannot be shared with a stranger. The word stranger in this context can simply mean “another person”.
God made no two people alike, not even identical twins. No person can completely enter into another’s deepest feelings. Although marriage brings about a unity that is extremely close, also for husbands and wives there can be experiences of pain or joy which cannot be fully fathomed by the other.
There is something quite astonishing about this: It tells us that personality made by God is deep and mysterious. No one can fully analyse us, place us into a category where we precisely fit, or label us.
Let us take care how we judge each other. There is much about another that we do not know, and cannot know. Look for instance at verse 13 (read). There is also something else that our text teaches us, and that is an agonising truth: There is an area of our life’s experience in which we are entirely on our own. That utter loneliness can be very frustrating. We must bear one another’s burdens, to be sure, but we also have our own burdens to bear (Gal.6).
The Negro spiritual brings out that thought of loneliness somewhat: “Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen, Nobody knows….!” The Bible gives us many illustrations of the truth of this proverb. Think of Hannah, Samuel’s mother, as she prayed in the temple and poured out her heart to the Lord. Think also of David, when the news comes about the death of his rebellious son Absalom, “O Absalom, my son, my son, Absalom! Would I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son!”
Or, take the case of Job. “Miserable comforters you are!”, he says, when they have done nothing but accuse him. And who would not think of Jeremiah when Jerusalem had been devastated by the armies of Nebuchadnezzar’. Listen to some of these words from the book of Lamentations:
“He has filled me with bitterness,
He has made me drunk with wormwood.
He has broken my teeth with gravel;
He has made me cower in the dust.
Remember, my affliction and my wandering,
the wormwood and bitterness.” (Lam.3:15ff)
Don’t we also know something of that experience? There were highlights in our lives too great for sharing. Oh, the time when we first felt the wonder of God’s forgiving love! Oh, the particular experience of God’s nearness in a time of great trial! The apostle Peter refers to a “joy unspeakable and full of glory” (1Peter 1:8).
On the other hand, we also know something of deeply agonising moments, and we could well have said with the apostle Paul, “Wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Rom 7:24). Who can describe the pain in a parent’s inmost heart when a child is torn away by death? Who does not know the grief of having a loved one who refuses to turn to the Lord? Yes, so powerful is that penetrating pain at times, that experience of loneliness deep down, that we feel like Jeremiah and cry out: “Look and see, if there is any sorrow like my sorrow?” (Lam.1:12).
IS THERE?? Yes, the Bible says, THERE IS!
2. DEEPER STILL
There was a loneliness deeper than anyone of us has ever, and can ever experience: that is of the Son of Man, Jesus Christ! Did not Isaiah speak of Him as “a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief”? (53:3).
Who can fathom the pain and sorrow of Jesus?
Who can tell what the great grief of Gethsemane must have been like to his sinless soul? Said he to his nearest disciples, “My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death; remain here and keep watch with Me.” (Mat.26:38). And those who were closest to Him could not even watch with Him, let alone, sense something of his grief.
Was there any way in which He could share the bitter agony of God’s judgment on the sin of this world? Was it not entirely and only His heart – yes, His whole being – that had to cope with that unique burden of sin?
In this He was alone, He trod the winepress alone (Isa 63:3). In unapproachable loneliness He suffered like no other person ever had suffered or will suffer. Think again of the rejection by those for whom He suffered this utter loneliness (Isa 53:3).
Think again of His rejection and being forsaken by the Father whom He never failed to love with a total love; He did all that for the sake of the people whom He loved. Truly, HE could say, “Behold, and see, if there is ANY sorrow like unto MY sorrow?” (Lam,1:12).
He ALONE knows the DEEPEST experience of these words: “The heart knows its own bitterness, and a stranger does not share its joy.”
He ALONE knows that exuberant JOY, — although He invites us to share in that!! — the JOY of SAVING HIS PEOPLE, when He says, REJOICE with ME, for I HAVE FOUND MY SHEEP!
3. DEEPEST THRILL OR AGONY?
Now, my dear brother or sister, teenager or child, NOW do you know He went through all this for YOU? For you! Some of you may well be going through some utter bitterness of soul yourself! (At this very moment!).
Isaiah, again, says,
“SURELY He has borne OUR griefs, and carried OUR sorrows” (53:4).
That is why He can so fully understand your inmost heart!
Remember the lines of that spiritual:
“Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen,
Nobody knows……….. BUT JESUS!”
The Bible shows us God knows our innermost being:
“O LORD, Thou hast searched me and known me,
Thou dost know when I sit down and when I rise up;
Thou dost understand my thoughts from afar.
Thou dost scrutinise my path and my lying down,
And art intimately acquainted with all my ways.” (Psalm 139:1f).
These words also apply to Jesus Christ.Look what the apostle John writes in John 2:24,25:
“But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men, and because He did not need any one to bear witness concerning man for He Himself knew what was in man.”
It is not without purpose that the Bible calls Jesus the Comforter, or Counsellor. That is also the name which Jesus gives to the Holy Spirit who would come as Christ’s Deputy after His ascension.
And when you and I as Christians are called to “rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep” (Rom. 12:15), we can only do so when we are sensitive to the Holy Spirit. It is only possible in love that is careful not to offend, or to intrude where we should not enter. We realise that it is not an easy task, but the Lord calls us to do it.
Ultimately we are cast back on Him, who alone knows the heart. We have a high priest who can sympathise with our weaknesses and to whose throne of grace we may draw near with confidence! (Hebrews 4:15,16).
Do you know what it is like to be able to go to Him at such times? Do you know that Lord to whom your deepest feelings are known?
Oh, I would commend Him to you, as one would commend His prize wares to you – and they do so, don’t they? – (on all those radio and TV commercials).
But I would commend HIM even MORE! You can live without Bushells Coffee – although they say it puts the life in you! You can live without the latest model Ford – although it may make good driving! BUT you CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT JESUS CHRIST, God’s unspeakable gift. Yet all my prizing HIM up may leave you cool. You must taste Nestle’s new Fine Blend Nescafe, and you must TASTE to see that the LORD IS GOOD! (Ps.34:8).
God’s unspeakable gift is FREE: “You will seek Him and find Him when you search for Him with all your heart”.(Jer.29:13).
Don’t forget that the agony of that loneliness deep down won’t disappear; and what will you do in ALL eternity without the ONLY Comforter?
“Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen…!” BUT DON’T STOP THERE!
“Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen, nobody knows…… but JESUS.”
DON’T STOP THERE!
GO TO HIM, and be assured that when you come to Him He will in no wise cast you out!
AMEN