In a world full of troubles and difficulties, our biggest problem is our own sin. Sometimes, even to think of the mercy of God only adds to our realisation of how sinful we are, because how can we explain why we continue to rebel against the Lord our God who is so full of mercies and forgiveness? (Dan. 9:9). It can from time to time be appropriate, or indeed unavoidable, to sit for a while with a sense of our sinfulness and sorrow over it. In the following updated extract, this is what the scholar-poet and Glasgow minister Zachary Boyd (c.1585–1653) invites us to do, as a salutary exercise which will help us both loathe our own sins more and have more compassion for our brothers and sisters in their afflictions. We have no reasons for self-congratulation; if the Lord saves sinners like us, it must be for His own sake (Dan. 9:17).

I come now to you, brothers and sisters, and I entreat every one of you, for the Lord’s sake, to lament your own sins first, and thereafter, let us come and lament for the sins and afflictions of our brethren. As you profess yourselves to be the fellow-members of your brethren, have also a fellow-feeling for their troubles. It is not possible that someone who cannot weep for his own misery can be moved to compassion towards others. Also, the Lord will laugh at your lamentations for others, if He finds you playing with your own sins, and turning His grace into wantonness.

By mourning for our sins and for the sins and afflictions of God’s people, we shall reap this comfort, that we shall be hidden in the day when the Lord comes to judge.

Let us therefore prepare ourselves for lamentations. Let it not be grievous to us to weep today, for better is the house of mourning than the house of dancing. It is far better to be at the cross of Christ, weeping with good Mary, than dancing in King Herod’s hall with the daughter of Herodias (Matthew 14). I would rather be washing the blessed feet of Jesus with my teras in Simon’s house with the sinful woman (Luke 7), than be eating dainty meals with Dives clothed in purple and scarlet (Luke 16). I would rather be lying in the stocks with Joseph (Genesis 39) than dancing around the golden calf with idolaters (Exodus 32).

Lamentations for the fear of sin not yet committed

Before a sin is committed, while it is but being conceived, in the concupiscence, the regenerate person will mourn and lament, for he perceives the devil busy looking to bring forth sin so that death may ensue. He continually laments and groans and cries, “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Romans 7:24). The brittleness of our nature, and the strong inclination that we have to sin, should always make our heart tremble.

For this reason, the Lord has given a precept to every one of His servants to “work out the work of their salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil. 2:12), and where fear and trembling are present, lamentation and mourning cannot be absent.

Lamentations for sins already committed

Lamentation, mourning and misery follow after sin as the shadow follows the body. Where sin is present, shame will not be absent. Where shame is, pain is. Where pain is, there is mourning. “We have sinned,” said Daniel, “we have committed iniquity” (Dan. 9:5). And what follows? “To us appertains open shame” (Dan. 9:8).

But there is something worse than the shame that comes by sin. That is when the soul is so darkened that in God’s light it cannot see light. It is only sin that hides God’s face from the soul. It is only sin that separates between God and the soul. Hence lamentations like, “Will the Lord absent himself for ever? Will he show no more favour? Is his mercy clean gone for ever?” (Psalm 77:7–9).

Sin is like a pill of aloes covered with sugar, sweet on the outside but bitter inside. All the painted pleasures of sin are only like tombs, having nothing inside but rottenness and stink. Sins in youth cost old age many a sore sigh. You will feel the truth of this one day, if either grace or glory are appointed for you. Go to those who are old, and enquire of them what profit they have now from those things of which they are now ashamed. They will say to you, “If only we had not been fools! If only we had been wise, and had done all the good which we have not done, and not done the evil which we have done! Woe is us now because we have sinned!” (Lam. 5:16).

When Peter denied his master, he thought he had achieved a lot for himself in saving his own life. But after Christ turned and looked on him, he went out and wept bitterly (Luke 22:62). See David in his palace, glancing towards Bathsheba, pursuing her from a distance till he obtained his desire. After that, he covered his adultery with murder. “Now,” he thought to himself, “I have wisely sorted things! Now instead of adultery I shall have a wife!” But while this sugar was in his mouth, in comes Nathan with the bitter parable of the sheep, ending in, “Thou art the man!” Then all his joy was turned into mourning, so that out of the bitterness of his heart he cried out with a heavy lamentation, “I have sinned against the Lord!”

Who now would buy these deceitful pleasures with such terrible terrors of a conscience crammed with the horrors of hell? Solomon’s advice to the young man is to keep himself from the sins of youth. The reason he gives is because he shall mourn in the end, when he has consumed his flesh and his body (Proverbs 15:11). The least taste of sin shall set your teeth on edge, it is so sour.

As for the wicked, though they seem to sin securely and be very happy, yet in laughing their heart is sorrowful. When Judas kept the money bag, the stolen pennies were sweet. To Judas, thirty pieces of silver for the life of his master seemed to be great gain. “Now,” said Judas to himself, “I am rich! I have my wages in my hand!” But as soon as the devil began to rake up his conscience and show him the blood of God which he had betrayed, he threw bag and silver and all away, and went and hanged himself. Where was all Judas’ joy now?

Lamentations for the judgments which follow sin

Few lament for fear of the inclination they have to sin, wishing they were delivered from the body of death. There are also only few who lament after sin is committed. But everyone, both good and bad, will weep and lament when the judgments of the Lord come upon them. Some say, “Woe to us now because of murderers!” (Jeremiah 4:31). But only the godly can cry from the heart in time of trouble, “Woe to us now, for we have sinned!” (Lamentations 5:16). The wicked man’s woe is not for his sin. He howls like a dog only because he is beaten, not because he is at fault. But the godly man’s woe is not only because he is beaten with stripes, but chiefly because of his sins.

The wicked man’s cry to God is always, “Deliver me from this plague!” But the godly man’s cry is chiefly, “Forgive me my sins, which are the cause of the plague!” It often happens that a child of God will laugh and loiter in sin, when he should lament for it. But when the Lord brings judgments, then he will arise from his complacency and weep, lament, and confess.

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