Hi Brian!

The word for this week is "mourning". We will be looking at Psalm 30:10-12:

10 Hear, O Lord, have mercy and be gracious to me! O Lord, be my helper! 11 You have turned my mourning into dancing for me; You have put off my sackcloth and girded me with gladness, 12 To the end that my tongue and my heart and everything glorious within me may sing praise to You and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to You forever.  AMP

This is the Hebrew word "micepd". Strong's Concordance says: lamentation and that it is also translated as lamentation, mourning, wailing. Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Lexicon says: a wailing. The Theological Wordbook of the Old Tetsament says: wailing, 'beat the breast as a sign of wailing'. It is also found in reference to mourning rites at someone's death. "At such times, all who sensed the loss of the departed would come to share their grief with the members of the family. Their grief could be demonstrated in many ways: going barefoot, stripping off one's clothes, cutting one's beard or body, fasting (or banqueting), scattering ashes, or beating some part of the body. Some of these rituals were proscribed for the Israelite, doubtless because of pagan association (Leviticus 19:28). Shrill cries or loud wailing often accompanied the mourning, which in time became stereotyped and structured into formal laments. Of course, weeping, especially by the women, was greatly in evidence. These verses above show that we, as born again believers have had our mourning turned into a celebration as we KNOW that our loved one has simply moved on to Heaven and is among those who are waiting for our reunion one day! THAT is why we can DANCE! Here is Hillsong with "Delight (The Sower Never Wastes a Tear)" Those with no hope will continue to mourn, but we who do know our God will rejoice that the believer is about to see JESUS! 

Love and Shalom from the Swoveys!