Day 9/2 – The House of Mourning

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Thoughts from the Diary of a Desperate Man by Walter A Henrichsen (“Walt”)
The House of Mourning
Day Two Hundred Forty-five

“It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting; for this is the end of all men, and the living will lay it to heart.” Ecclesiastes 7:2

If you want an accurate estimation of life, you must face it at its worst. When you face life like it is, you prepare yourself for difficulty, for you realize when it comes, you are not alone, an isolated case. For this reason, you have opportunity to learn more going to a funeral than to a wedding; to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting. When you face life like it is, you develop empathy for others. When you yourself experience tragedy, it alters your character, for good or for bad. Time in the house of mourning, as you comfort others, prepares you for your own encounter with grief.

Angry people resign themselves to the hurts of life. Blaming God, others, or life itself, they say, “I cannot avoid life’s pain. The cruel experiences that crash around my head destroy any hope of happiness. Don’t blame me for being cynical; life is a sick joke.” Such people learn nothing from the house of mourning. Instead of softening their character, making them more empathetic and thus able to minister to others, tragedy has the opposite effect in their lives. They refuse to “lay to heart” the lesson God intended that they learn.

Solomon says that this life is the seedtime for eternity. No one escapes the “grim reaper.” Mortality is 100 percent. God brings grief into your life to sober and prepare you, not to discourage you. God sees “the end from the beginning,”322 and He invites you to the house of mourning so that you can do the same thing.

322 Isaiah 46:10

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Psalm 137-139 1 Corinthians 13 (New King James Version)

Psalm 137-139
Longing for Zion in a Foreign Land
137
By the rivers of Babylon,
There we sat down, yea, we wept
When we remembered Zion.
2
We hung our harps
Upon the willows in the midst of it.
3
For there those who carried us away captive asked of us a song,
And those who plundered us requested mirth,
Saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”
4
How shall we sing the Lord’s song
In a foreign land?
5
If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
Let my right hand forget its skill!
6
If I do not remember you,
Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth—
If I do not exalt Jerusalem
Above my chief joy.
7
Remember, O Lord, against the sons of Edom
The day of Jerusalem,
Who said, [a]“Raze it, raze it,
To its very foundation!”
8
O daughter of Babylon, who are to be destroyed,
Happy the one who repays you as you have served us!
9
Happy the one who takes and dashes
Your little ones against the rock!
The Lord’s Goodness to the Faithful
A Psalm of David.
138
I will praise You with my whole heart;
Before the gods I will sing praises to You.
2
I will worship toward Your holy temple,
And praise Your name
For Your lovingkindness and Your truth;
For You have magnified Your word above all Your name.
3
In the day when I cried out, You answered me,
And made me bold with strength in my soul.
4
All the kings of the earth shall praise You, O Lord,
When they hear the words of Your mouth.
5
Yes, they shall sing of the ways of the Lord,
For great is the glory of the Lord.
6
Though the Lord is on high,
Yet He regards the lowly;
But the proud He knows from afar.
7
Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You will revive me;
You will stretch out Your hand
Against the wrath of my enemies,
And Your right hand will save me.
8
The Lord will [b]perfect that which concerns me;
Your mercy, O Lord, endures forever;
Do not forsake the works of Your hands.
God’s Perfect Knowledge of Man
For the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.
139
O Lord, You have searched me and known me.
2
You know my sitting down and my rising up;
You understand my thought afar off.
3
You [c]comprehend my path and my lying down,
And are acquainted with all my ways.
4
For there is not a word on my tongue,
But behold, O Lord, You know it altogether.
5
You have [d]hedged me behind and before,
And laid Your hand upon me.
6
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
It is high, I cannot attain it.
7
Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
8
If I ascend into heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in [e]hell, behold, You are there.
9
If I take the wings of the morning,
And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
10
Even there Your hand shall lead me,
And Your right hand shall hold me.
11
If I say, “Surely the darkness shall [f]fall on me,”
Even the night shall be light about me;
12
Indeed, the darkness [g]shall not hide from You,
But the night shines as the day;
The darkness and the light are both alike to You.
13
For You formed my inward parts;
You [h]covered me in my mother’s womb.
14
I will praise You, for [i]I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Marvelous are Your works,
And that my soul knows very well.
15
My [j]frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
16
Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.
And in Your book they all were written,
The days fashioned for me,
When as yet there were none of them.
17
How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God!
How great is the sum of them!
18
If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand;
When I awake, I am still with You.
19
Oh, that You would slay the wicked, O God!
Depart from me, therefore, you [k]bloodthirsty men.
20
For they speak against You wickedly;
[l]Your enemies take Your name in vain.
21
Do I not hate them, O Lord, who hate You?
And do I not loathe those who rise up against You?
22
I hate them with [m]perfect hatred;
I count them my enemies.
23
Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me, and know my anxieties;
24
And see if there is any wicked way in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting.
Footnotes:
• Psalm 137:7 Lit. Make bare
• Psalm 138:8 complete
• Psalm 139:3 Lit. winnow
• Psalm 139:5 enclosed
• Psalm 139:8 Or Sheol
• Psalm 139:11 Vg., Symmachus cover
• Psalm 139:12 Lit. is not dark
• Psalm 139:13 wove
• Psalm 139:14 So with MT, Tg.; LXX, Syr., Vg. You are fearfully wonderful
• Psalm 139:15 Lit. bones were
• Psalm 139:19 Lit. men of bloodshed
• Psalm 139:20 LXX, Vg. They take Your cities in vain
• Psalm 139:22 complete

1 Corinthians 13
The Greatest Gift
13 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. 2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body [a]to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.
4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not [b]puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, [c]thinks no evil; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part. 10 But when that which is [d]perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.
11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.
13 And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Footnotes:
• 1 Corinthians 13:3 NU so I may boast
• 1 Corinthians 13:4 arrogant
• 1 Corinthians 13:5 keeps no accounts of evil
• 1 Corinthians 13:10 complete