Regarding this Scripture, last year John Piper had posted on Facebook:

The Hebrew word for "weep" in Jeremiah 9:1 is bakah... From Strong's Concordance:  1058 bakah baw-kaw' a primitive root; to weep; generally to bemoan:--X at all, bewail, complain, make lamentation, X more, mourn, X sore, X with tears, weep. Plus, the Valley of Baca (Baka) in Psalm 84 (the root word is bakah) is known as the "Weeping Valley" as well as the "Thirsty Valley."

In my last post/prayer, I highlighted Hannah's example in I Samuel 1:10 –– and how in contrast to most of Israel, this woman of faith sought the help of the LORD of hosts in prayer. Hannah wept in anguish (wept sore - KJV) because she thirsted for the power and the glory of the Living God to be made manifest. She knew there was no where else to go, but to the LORD of hosts!

"And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed to the LORD and wept in anguish."

Photo credit: William de Brailes Hannah Prays in the Temple (edited) / {{PD-Art|PD-old-100}}

Because Hannah was a woman who acutely and keenly felt those sorrows, because she thirsted for Christ, she was enabled to pray with importunity and boldness –– her prayers were bakah prayers. In fact, in Hebrew, the phrase wept in anguish is bakah bakah!

May God grant each of us such an overwhelming thirst and desire for Jesus Christ, His Kingdom, His will, His glory, His renown, His preeminence, His Gospel, and His people that our prayers might be of the type of Jeremiah and Hannah:  bakah bakah prayers!

Regarding the incident of Jesus' entering and cleansing the temple in his commentary on Matthew 21, John Calvin wrote that the zeal of our Lord ought to serve as an example to us who are living in the day of small things, a day in which we are in sore need of reformation and revival:

That zeal, indeed, by which Christ was animated to do this, ought to be held in common by all the godly; but lest any one, under the pretense of imitation, should rush forward without authority, we ought to see what our calling demands, and how far we may proceed according to the commandment of God. If the Church of God have contracted any pollutions, all the children of God ought to burn with grief; but as God has not put arms into the hands of all, let private individuals groan, till God bring the remedy. I do acknowledge that they are worse than stupid who are not displeased at the pollution of the temple of God, and that it is not enough for them to be inwardly distressed, if they do not avoid the contagion, and testify with their mouth, whenever an opportunity presents itself, that they desire to see a change for the better. But let those who do not possess public authority oppose by their tongue, which they have at liberty, those vices which they cannot remedy with their hands. (emphasis mine)

I'm no ordained minister, but my desire is that God might be pleased to use the sorrow, groaning, and zeal which God has been working in me to stir you up and spur you on in the good work of prayer in particular –– and, as God might also lead you under His authority and under the authorities He has set up within His Body, to speak and act according to His good pleasure for the cause of Christ. May our God give all of us eyes to see the declension of the Church of God today, and subsequently fill our hearts with godly groaning, burning grief, and animating zeal, such as our Lord possessed, so bakah bakah prayer after the manner of Jeremiah and Hannah might arise day and night as incense to His throne of grace in this great time of need.

Matthew Henry described Hannah in this way:

She mingled tears with her prayers. It was not a dry prayer: she wept sore. Like a true Israelite, she wept and made supplication (Hosea 12:4), with an eye to the tender mercy of our God, who knows the troubled soul. The prayer came from her heart, as the tears from her eyes.

May we show ourselves to be true Israelites. May our prayers not be dry, but may God's Spirit work in us to weep in anguish, bakah bakah, until the LORD of hosts awakes and arises and brings the remedy, until His Holy Spirit descends and baptizes us afresh, comforts all our waste places, and establishes and makes His Church a praise in the earth.

In my last post, "Follow me and I will make you fishers of men" ... , I asked: "How are we to follow Jesus?" I was emphasizing that apart from our following and walking in Christ's example of full reliance on the Holy Spirit, we can do nothing at all, much less desire to do anything at all for the cause of Christ.

I read John Baillie's "Memoir of the Rev. W.H. Hewitson, Late Minister of the Free Church of Scotland, at Direlton [1852]"  last year and have been continuing to dabble in it on and off. Along with reading of Scripture, I cannot commend to you enough the reading of good Christian biography so we might begin to see the "glorious possibilities" of the Christian life, as Martyn Lloyd-Jones put it. (Please see my other posts on Hewitson here, here, here, here, and here.) Reading Christian history and Christian biography is one of God's blessed means to put into our hearts a desire to see His church reformed and revived ~ though not equivalent to Scripture, we must agree this great cloud of witnesses is indeed set forth as warnings and examples to us for our instruction and strengthening and encouragement to run the race set before us.

I recently came across this excerpt in Chapter VII (pp. 105-106) in Hewitson's Memoir. In it we find testimony to the vital necessity of the power of the Holy Ghost.

Though not all Christians are called by God to the pastoral office, we are all new creations who are all called to be ministers of reconciliation and ambassadors for Christ (II Corinthians 5). The Church in the book of Acts "went about every where preaching the word" (Acts 8:4, KJV). Let us pray our Lord might open our eyes to see that it is NOT by might, NOR by power, by but His Spirit – for it is only then that we will seek in earnest to be baptized afresh (or for the first time) with the Holy Spirit of God and ordained by the Spirit of Christ, so we might not trifle with our own souls and the souls of hundreds.

O, Lord God, forgive us our sinfulness as we have turned away from You, we have taken our eyes off You, we have dispensed of Your blessed Holy Spirit and have turned our eyes on self and have tried to rely on ourselves, and now we are in a sad state, as we are reaping what we have sown!

Show us the depth of our poverty, open our eyes to see our vital need of Your blessed Holy Spirit, this indispensable element which we have so tragically dispensed of! Our lands are dry. Our churches are a ruin and a reproach. Our people are lukewarm. Have mercy upon us. Hear our cries. Give us a thirst for You alone, and pour our Your Spirit upon Your seed once again, ordain us by the Holy Spirit of Christ, so we might be zealous once again for You and Your Kingdom and be sent out to preach Your glorious Gospel and bless the nations to Your glory.

Christ for the World We Sing
(Samuel Wolcott, 1869)

Christ for the world we sing,
The world to Christ we bring, with loving zeal,
The poor and them that mourn, the faint and overborne,
Sin sick and sorrow worn, whom Christ doth heal.

Christ for the world we sing,
The world to Christ we bring, with fervent prayer;
The wayward and the lost, by restless passions tossed,
Redeemed at countless cost, from dark despair.

Christ for the world we sing,
The world to Christ we bring, with one accord;
With us the work to share, with us reproach to dare,
With us the cross to bear, for Christ our Lord.

Christ for the world we sing,
The world to Christ we bring, with joyful song;
The newborn souls, whose days, reclaimed from error’s ways,
Inspired with hope and praise, to Christ belong.

Psalm 57:7  My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise. 8  Awake up, my glory; awake, psaltery and harp: I myself will awake early. 9  I will praise thee, O Lord, among the people: I will sing unto thee among the nations. 10  For thy mercy is great unto the heavens, and thy truth unto the clouds. 11  Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens: let thy glory be above all the earth. (KJV)

Fix our hearts, O God, on You and on Your Kingdom, so we might sing and give praise unto You with joyful song among the nations. We confess our hearts are often fixed on so many other things apart from You and Your Kingdom and Your purposes. And we confess that we may be choosing the good things, but they may not be the best things. Help us to lay aside each and every weight and the sin that so easily entangles us. Forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Renew us and turn our affections once again to You so we might praise You as we ought and offer ourselves to You with a whole heart to walk in the works You have ordained for us.

Fill our hearts with a loving zeal for Your Gospel and the glory and honor of Your name. Having been called out of darkness into Your marvelous light and having been given the ministry of reconciliation, may we walk worthy of the calling You have given us: to be ambassadors for Christ and to shine as lights in this dark world. Fill us with a loving zeal for the world so we might be fervent in prayer for the world and be bold in our proclamation of Your Gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ to a world filled with lost souls, for in the Gospel alone is Your righteousness revealed: the just shall live by faith and that there is salvation found in no other name but the name of Jesus.

Fill our hearts with a loving zeal for You and for our brothers and sisters in Christ. May our love for You knit us together with Your children who are born again by Your Spirit and filled with Your Spirit, all who are seeking Your will be done here on earth and Your glory to be manifested here on the earth in the revival of Your Church and the ingathering of lost souls to Your Kingdom by the lifting up of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. May Christ's love constrain and propel Your Church to stand fast in one spirit and strive together for the faith of the Gospel.

Lord Jesus, You are our Good Shepherd. We are Your people, the sheep of Your pasture, and we confess we are all prone to wander. Forgive us and have mercy upon us, for we know we too easily sway and gad about and how quickly our hearts become unfixed. Send Your Holy Spirit to purify us with Your holy fire, to awaken us out of our slumber and lethargy and lukewarmness so we might be zealous and repent. Make us single-eyed for You and Your Kingdom, so we might be diligent and make the most of the time, to work while it is day because the days are evil, that we might praise You among the peoples and sing unto You among the nations. How will the world know of Your great mercies and truth in Jesus Christ apart from our singing the new song You have put into our hearts?