As he finished speaking, the king's sons came in, wailing loudly. The king, too, and all his servants wept very bitterly. 2 Samuel 14:36

Absalom had just killed his brother Amnon. A few years earlier Amnon had raped his sister, Tamar. It was obvious to all around (and they said so) that Absalom had killed him to avenge the rape. The King of Israel, King David, wept.

The king is weeping over his family. He had everything a man could want and yet his children were out of control. One son was a rapist; another was a murderer. Even David himself was a rapist who had his lover's husband murdered. It's not hard at all to imagine David weeping and weeping over what his family had become. His weeping showed his sorrow and his compassion.

It's not hard nowadays to weep when we read the news. Children are slaughtered senselessly; homes and fortunes are confiscated by ruthless dictators; genocidal evil men roam many countrysides in Africa. Unfortunately the list could go for pages on as there is a great amount of wickedness in the world.

Fortunately, though, we can weep in our prayers to God. We can weep over the wickedness; we can weep over the injustice; we can even weep over the state of our own souls.

When was the last time you wept?