August 29: Exceeding Sorrowful … Exceeding Glad

Narrator: Chris Genthree
 •  1 min. read  •  grade level: 4
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The sorrows of the past, the very sorrow that may be pressing heavily at this moment; all yours, all mine; all the sorrows of all His children all through the groaning generations; all that were "too heavy" for them—Jesus bore them all. "Is it nothing to you?" It is when the Lord says, "Now will I gather them" (the rebels and wanderers), that He adds, "And they shall sorrow a little for the burden of the King of princes." Have we this proof that He has indeed gathered us? But look forward! Because He has drunk "of the brook in the way, therefore shall He lift up the head." Already the "exceeding sorrowful" is exchanged for "Thou hast made Him [the King] exceeding glad"; and when the ransomed and gathered of the Lord shall return with everlasting joy, "their King also shall pass before them.”
"He suffered!" Was it, Lord, indeed for me,
The Just One for the unjust; Thou didst bear
The weight of sorrow that I hardly dare
To look upon, in dark Gethsemane?
“He suffered!" Thou, my near and gracious Friend.
And yet my Lord, my God! Thou didst not shrink.