The Lord Jesus says, "Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted," MAT 5:4.

Let's consider how these blessed mourners shall be comforted. Our comfort is found in seeing Jesus by the eye of faith. MAR 5:2-6 says, "And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, Who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no man could bind him, no, not with chains: Because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces: neither could any man tame him. [He was a maniac living in total insanity.] And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones. [But see the remedy!] But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him."

That is how the Lord comforts us. By nature we are spiritual maniacs. Spiritually we destroy ourselves among the things of death and of this world. Then Jesus is lifted up before the eyes of our faith. We see how He paid the penalty of our sin. We see how He stepped into death by His perfect obedience. Jesus was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. By an act of obedience, He stepped into the wrath of the Father to pay the penalty of our sin.

Beloved, what a comfort it is for a sin-sick soul to understand this, to see God's displeasure upon our sin satisfied by the price that Jesus paid, to see how in the garden of Gethsemane He sweat blood when the wrath of the Father came upon Him for our sin. His life's blood was pressed out through the pores of His skin by the pressure He was under for our sin. When we see the sinfulness of sin, we become comforted by seeing that Jesus paid the price and took the penalty for us. We are comforted when this Jesus is lifted before our eyes by the eyes of faith.

The man in the tomb is a beautiful illustration of who we are by nature. We are among the stench of death. When our souls are quickened to see the beauty of life in Christ, we see the stench of the things of this world. They are spiritual death.

Then Jesus becomes so beautiful. ISA 53:2 says, "For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him." If we have learned to see the thick clouds of our sin which have separated us from our God, we can understand what a wonderful comfort the blessed Sun of Righteousness is when He comes shining through those clouds, "...with healing in His wings," MAL 4:2.

We see also the comforts of the dew of the Spirit in DEU 33:27-28. We do not always have that blessed nearness of Christ. Sometimes we have to long after Christ. Sometimes we have to cry after Him and mourn over our sins. Then we receive the comfort of the dew of the Spirit day by day.

When you walk in the grass early in the morning, your shoes will get wet with the dew. It is tremendously refreshing at that moment, but an hour later when the sun has come up, the dew is gone. Then the grass becomes hard and dry again. When we have such a coldness and hardness in our hearts, a little dew of the Spirit will refresh us for the morning, but it doesn't have a lasting effect.

We can have this on a day to day basis. The Lord comes with a little dropping in of His Spirit or some little revelation of Christ and the beauty of His love. Then an hour later it is withdrawn, and we are just as hard and dry as before. It doesn’t have a lasting effect, but while it lasts our souls are watered with His love.

The Spirit coming down as the rain also comforts us. A rain leaves a more lasting and durable effect as we see in PSA 72:6-7. The Lord gives us the comfort of coming with the Holy Spirit as a rain in our soul to reveal more and more of the blessedness of Christ. V:6 says, "He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass: as showers that water the earth."

What does this mean? "He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass." The Lord will not come with His Spirit in our hearts while we are living in rebellion and sin. He will not nourish us in our sin. He will come down upon the mown grass; He will mow us to the ground and haul away all of our rubbish. He will bring us to where we are no longer self-centered serving ourselves in sin. He will bring our desires to be right before the Lord. Then He will come down as rain upon the mown grass. Isn't that blessed?

Then you will see a new growth. The Lord will not put rain upon the old rubbish and expect it to grow. After it has been hauled away, He will put rain upon the mown grass. V:7 describes that new growth. "In his days shall the righteous flourish; and abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth." This comfort received by those who have become spiritual mourners is so blessed.

The Lord comes to comfort those spiritual mourners with His time of refreshing. Spiritual mourners are the ones who know they have sinned and offended God. The Spirit comes as the rain upon that mown grass with a refreshing in the soul and is such an assurance of faith.

We are reassured that Christ has forgiven our sins. Then the cloud of sin is removed. Again we can bathe in the Sun of Righteousness. We can have His love in our soul. Then we won't have to cry like Job, "Oh that I knew where I might find him! That I might come even to his seat!" JOB 23:3.

We will know His presence. We will have the nearness and the fellowship of His Spirit in our heart. He will come into our soul.