Psalm 119:136 NKJV

136 

Rivers of water run down from my eyes,
Because men do not keep Your law.

Tears That Flow from Truth

My Notes

Scripture: “Rivers of water run down from my eyes, because men do not keep Your law.” — Psalm 119:136 (NKJV)

This verse reveals a heart broken not by personal suffering, but by the spiritual ruin of others. David’s grief flows like rivers—not a trickle of sadness, but a flood of holy sorrow. His tears are not sentimental; they are anointed. They mirror the mourning of Christ over Jerusalem (Matthew 23:37–39) and the anguish of prophets like Jeremiah (Jeremiah 9:1). David weeps because God’s law is ignored, and souls are endangered.

This is the mark of a mature believer—one who sorrows not only over sin’s consequences, but over its offense to God. David’s lament is not self-centered; it is God-centered. He mourns because God’s name is dishonored, His truth rejected, and His people misled.

Such grief is a form of intercession. It is the weeping of one who stands in the gap, who feels the weight of rebellion and longs for revival. It is the cry of one who has studied the Word deeply and sees the world clearly. Carnal hearts weep over loss; spiritual hearts weep over sin.

David had just prayed for the light of God’s face (v. 135), and now he shows he is one of those who mourn in Zion (Isaiah 61:3). His tears qualify him for comfort, not because they earn it, but because they reveal a heart aligned with God’s own sorrow over sin.

This kind of mourning is not weakness—it is strength. It is the soil from which revival springs. When the church weeps over sin, it begins to pray with power, labor with urgency, and depend on grace. And then, the Spirit moves.

Cross-References

Scripture	NKJV
Matthew 23:37–39	“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate; for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’”
Jeremiah 9:1	“Oh, that my head were waters, And my eyes a fountain of tears, That I might weep day and night For the slain of the daughter of my people!”
Isaiah 61:3	“To console those who mourn in Zion, To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.”
Psalm 119:120	“My flesh trembles for fear of You, And I am afraid of Your judgments.”
Lamentations 2:18	“Their heart cried out to the Lord, “O wall of the daughter of Zion, Let tears run down like a river day and night; Give yourself no relief; Give your eyes no rest.”

Time to Reflect

1. What brings sorrow in my heart today? Is it aligned with God’s grief over sin and brokenness?

2. Have I ever wept over the spiritual condition of others?

3. How does deep study of God’s Word shape my emotional response to the world around me?

4. How can I grow a heart that feels what God feels and responds with compassion and prayer?

Prayer

Abba, my heart breaks for what breaks Yours. Teach me to mourn rightly—not with despair, but with hope. Let my sorrow lead to intercession, my tears to action, and my grief to grace. Make me one who weeps for the lost, prays for the broken, and labors for revival. May my heart reflect Yours, and may my tears water the seeds sown. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.

Proverb for Today

The Lord will not allow the righteous soul to famish, But He casts away the desire of the wicked. Proverbs 10:3 NKJV

Summary of Commentaries:

Psalm 119:136 reveals David’s deep sorrow over the sins of others, not his own suffering. His tears—described as “rivers”—reflect a mature, godly grief that mirrors Christ’s lament over Jerusalem and the prophets’ anguish over Israel’s rebellion. Spurgeon and Henry note that this sorrow stems from love for God’s law and compassion for those under judgment. Barnes and Gill emphasize that such mourning is a mark of true piety, often preceding revival. Enduring Word highlights the power of compassion over anger. David’s tears show a heart aligned with God’s—grieving dishonor and longing for repentance and restoration.

NOTE: Psalm 119 has 22 sections which each section is represented by a letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Today, we’re looking at verse 135, which is in the 17th section, which is called “Pe פ”. The website https://www.abarim-publications.com/Hebrew_Alphabet_Meaning.html has this to say about the letter “Pe פ”: The word פה (peh) means mouth, but is often synonymous with speech. With a little goodwill, one may recognize a face with a mouth in the shape of this letter. The letter peh is written ף when it occurs at the end of a word, and פ when it occurs at the beginning or halfway through a word.

……..Bill

Commentaries:

Charles Spurgeon

“Rivers of waters run down mine eyes, because they keep not thy law.” He wept in sympathy with God to see the holy law despised and broken. He wept in pity for men who were thus drawing down upon themselves the fiery wrath of God. His grief was such that he could scarcely give it vent; his tears were not mere drops of sorrow, but torrents of woe. In this, he became like the Lord Jesus, who beheld the city, and wept over it; and like unto Jehovah himself, who hath no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, but that he turn unto him and live. The experience of this verse indicates a great advance upon anything we have had before: the psalm and the Psalmist are both growing. That man is a ripe believer who sorrows because of the sins of others. In Psa 119:120, his flesh trembled at the presence of God, and here it seems to melt and flow away in floods of tears. None are so affected by heavenly things as those who are much in the study of the word, and are thereby taught the truth and essence of things. Carnal men are afraid of brute force, and weep over losses and crosses; but spiritual men feel a holy fear of the Lord himself, and most of all lament when they see dishonor cast upon his holy name.

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Enduring Word

Rivers of water run down from my eyes: This is a good example of poetic hyperbole in the psalms. Though there were not literal rivers of water coming down the face of the psalmist, he spoke truly according to the literary style of poetry. There is not the slightest problem in understanding his meaning. (Guzik)

i. “The idiom ‘streams [lit., “irrigation canals,” see Psalm 1:3] of tears’ is a hyperbole for deep sorrow and anguish of soul.” (VanGemeren)

ii. “Tears show compassion, and compassion wins others far more effectively than belligerent arguments and certainly more effectively than anger.” (Boice)

Because men do not keep Your law: The psalmist here did not sorrow over his own troubles, but over the sins of others and the consequences those sins would bring. As Jesus grieved over Jerusalem (Matthew 23:37-39) and over the hard hearts of the religious leaders (Mark 3:5), so the psalmist grieved here. (Guzik)

i. “It grieveth me greatly to see thy law violated, and the transgressors thereof so careless of their own eternal good.” (Trapp)

ii. “…plentiful and perpetual tears, witnesses of my deep sorrow for God’s dishonor and displeasure, and for the miseries which sinners bring upon themselves.” (Poole)

iii. “The want of this spirit is ever a feature of hardness and pride – a painful blot upon the profession of the gospel…. The same yearning sympathy forms the life, the pulse, and the strength of Missionary exertion, and has ever distinguished those honored servants of God who have devoted their time, their health, their talent, their all.” (Bridges)

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Albert Barnes

Rivers of waters run down mine eyes – My heart is sad, and my eyes pour forth floods of tears. It is not a gentle weeping, but my eyes are like a fountain which pours out full-flowing streams. See Jeremiah 9:1. “Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears,” etc. Compare Jeremiah 14:17; Lamentations 1:16; Lamentations 2:18.

Because they keep not thy law – On account of the sins, the follies, the stupidity, and the transgressions of people. So the Savior wept over Jerusalem, Luke 19:41; and so the apostle said that he had “great heaviness and continual sorrow” in his heart, on account of his “brethren,” his “kinsmen according to the flesh.” Romans 9:2-3. Such a feeling is right. There is nothing for which we should be excited to deeper emotion in respect to our fellow men than for the fact that they are violators of the law of God, and exposed to its fearful penalty. There is nothing that more certainly indicates true piety in the soul than such deep compassion for people as sinners, or because they are sinners. There is nothing which is more certainly connected with a work of grace in a community, or revival of true religion, than when such a feeling pervades a church. Then Christians will pray; then they will labor to save sinners; then they will feel their dependence on God; and then the Spirit of God will descend and bless the efforts put forth for the salvation of people. It may be added, nothing is more remarkable than that pious people ordinarily feel so little on account of the danger of their friends and fellow-sinners – that the occasions are so rare on which they imitate the example of the psalmist and of the Savior in weeping over the condition of a perishing world!

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John Gill

Rivers of waters run down mine eyes,…. That is, “out of” them; as the Syriac version: or, “mine eyes let down rivers of waters”; see Lamentations 3:48; that is, an abundance of tears, which flowed like a river; a hyperbolical expression, setting forth the excessiveness of grief. The reason follows,

because they keep not thy law; the persons are not mentioned, but must be understood of wicked men; whose open and impudent transgression of the law in innumerable instances, and in the most flagrant manner, gave the psalmist great distress, as it does all good men; because the law of God is despised, his authority is trampled on, his name is dishonored, and he has not the glory which is due unto him. The gloss of Arama is, “because Adam and Eve kept not thy law,” which transgression brought ruin on all mankind. The Septuagint and Arabic versions very wrongly read, “because I have not kept thy law”: as if his grief was on account of his own sins: and so Kimchi indeed interprets it; and both he and Ben Melech by “they” understand his eyes, from whence his tears flowed in such abundance; because they were the caterers for sin, and the cause and occasion of the transgressions of the law of God by him: and this sense is made mention of by Aben Ezra.

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Matthew Henry

Here we have David in sorrow.

1. It is a great sorrow, to such a degree that he weeps rivers of tears. Commonly, where there is a gracious heart, there is a weeping eye, in conformity to Christ, who was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. David had prayed for comfort in God’s favor (v. 135), now he pleads that he was qualified for that comfort and had need of it, for he was one of those that mourned in Zion, and those who do so shall be comforted, Isa. 61:3.

2. It is godly sorrow. He wept not for his troubles, though they were many, but for the dishonor done to God: Because they keep not thy law, either because my eyes keep not thy law, so some (the eye is the inlet and outlet of a great deal of sin, and therefore it ought to be a weeping eye), or, rather, they, that is, those about me, v. 139. Note, the sins of sinners are the sorrows of saints. We must mourn for that which we cannot mend.

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Miscellaneous Comments

“Rivers of waters run down mine eyes,” etc. David’s afflictions drew not so many tears from him as the sins of others; not his banishment by his son, as the breach of God’s law by the wicked. Nothing went so to his heart as the dishonor of God, whose glory shining in his word and ordinances, is dearer to the godly than their lives. Elijah desired to die when he saw God so dishonored by Ahab and Jezebel. The eye is for two things, sight and tears: if we see God dishonored, presently our eyes should be filled with tears.

—William Greenhill, 1591-1677.

“Rivers of waters run down mine eyes, because they keep not law.”—The vices of the religious are the shame of religion: the sight this hath made the stoutest champions of Christ melt into tears. David was one of those great worthies of the world, not matchable in his time, yet he weeps. Did he tear in pieces a bear like a kid? Rescue a lamb will the death of a lion? Foil a mighty giant, that had dared the whole of God? Did he like a whirlwind, bear and beat down his enemies before him; and now, does he, like a child or a woman, fall weeping? Yes, had heard the name of God blasphemed, seen his holy rites profaned, his statutes vilipended, and violence offered to the pure chastity of that virgin, religion; this resolved that valiant heart into tears: “Rivers of waters run down mine eyes.”

—Thomas Adams.

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Additional Cross-References

Jeremiah 9:1 (KJV)

Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears,

That I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!

 

Jeremiah 14:17 (KJV)

¹⁷ Therefore thou shalt say this word unto them;

Let mine eyes run down with tears night and day, and let them not cease:

For the virgin daughter of my people is broken with a great breach, with a very grievous blow.

 

Jeremiah 9:18 (KJV)

¹⁸  And let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us,

That our eyes may run down with tears,

And our eyelids gush out with waters.

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Pe פ: Steps directed by God’s wonderful word.

129 

Your testimonies are wonderful;
Therefore my soul keeps them.

130 

The entrance of Your words gives light;
It gives understanding to the simple.

131 

I opened my mouth and panted,
For I longed for Your commandments.

132 

Look upon me and be merciful to me,
As Your custom is toward those who love Your name.

133 

Direct my steps by Your word,
And let no iniquity have dominion over me.

134 

Redeem me from the oppression of man,
That I may keep Your precepts.

135 

Make Your face shine upon Your servant,
And teach me Your statutes.

136 

Rivers of water run down from my eyes,
Because men do not keep Your law.

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Posted on 10/10/2025 by Bill Stephens

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