What does it mean that "even in laughter the heart may ache" (Proverbs 14:13)?

The house of the wicked, though it may be great and wide, backed by great riches, will be overthrown (v. 11), while the upright, though he has only a tent, will find himself flourishing, for God is faithful. Men are usually adept at devising a way that seems right to them (v. 12), not realizing that the end of such a way is death, for it lacks the simplicity of faith in the living God, Verse 13 certainly shows that laughter is not always an expression of happiness, for people can laugh even when torn with sorrow. The result of such laughter is then bound to be grief. We can never trust appearances.

The world is full of broken hearts. It may endeavour to cover up its sorrow with a mirth and laughter but, says the preacher, in the book of Proverbs, "Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful" (Prov. 14:13). Underneath all the outward gaiety of the world there are secret sorrows and broken hearts.

Turning to the word of God, we discover for our comfort that God is not indifferent to these broken hearts. The Psalmist tells us that God is One that "heals the broken in heart, and binds up their wounds." Moreover, the Psalmist immediately adds, "He tells the number of the stars, He calls them all by names. Great is our Lord" (Ps. 147:2-5). The number of the stars is too great for us to tell; the sorrow of a broken heart too deep for us to fathom; but God can count the stars in heaven and heal the broken hearts on earth. In the greatness of His love He gave His only begotten Son to come into this world to heal the brokenhearted.

Here is another deep saying, which shows that behind this wisdom uttered by the wise king, there is another who knows all what is going on in human life and in the heart. "Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful, and the end of that mirth is heaviness" (10:13). How often the sorrowful, the downcast covers all with forced laughter and no one suspects that underneath the mirth there is heaviness. This is true of children of the world, the foolish who reject true wisdom and know not the Lord Jesus Christ.

The saint's joy and peace is not such a light, frothy joy as the world's. The parlour wherein the Spirit of Christ entertains the Christian is an inner room, not next the street, for every one that goes by to smell the feast. "A stranger doth not intermeddle with his joy" (Prov. 14:10). Christ and the soul may be at supper within, and thou not so much as see one dish go in, or hear the music that sounds so sweetly in the Christian's ears. Perhaps thou thinkest he wants peace, because he doth not hang out a sign in his countenance of the joy and peace he has within. Alas, poor wretch! may not the saint have a peaceful conscience, with a solemn, yea, sad countenance, as well as thou and thy companions have a sorrowful heart, when there is nothing but fair weather in your faces? "In laughter the heart is sorrowful" (Prov. 14:13).

Ah, beneath many a smiling face, behind many a ringing laugh, underlying much forced activity and unnatural effort, there is to be found a heart of misery, that seeks by these means to conceal the fact of its departure from God.

It is truly a dreary world of grief, where man seeks pleasure and mirth in lieu of a happiness which cannot be where the conscience is not purged after a divine sort, and the heart has not Christ before it — God's object, as ours too.

"Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful, and the end of mirth [is] sadness. "The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways, and the good man from himself. "The simple believes every word, but the prudent heeds his going. "The wise one fears and departs from evil; but the foolish is overbearing and confident. "One soon angry deals foolishly, and a man of mischievous devices is hated. "The simple inherit folly; but the prudent are crowned with knowledge. "The evil bow before the good, and the wicked at the gates of the righteous. "The poor is hated even of his own neighbour; but the rich have many lovers. "He that despises his neighbour sins; but he that is gracious to the afflicted [or, meek] happy [is] he. "Do they not err that devise evil? But mercy and truth [are] for those that devise good. "In all labour there is profit; but the talk of the lips [is] only to want. "The crown of the wise [is] their riches; the folly of the fools [is] folly. "A true witness delivers souls; but deceit utters lies. "In the fear of Jehovah [is] strong confidence; and his children shall have a place of refuge. "The fear of Jehovah [is] a fountain of life, to turn away from the snares of death." vv. 13-27.

"Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful, and the end of mirth [is] sadness." So it is till man receives Christ. All otherwise is hollow, and the passing levity leaves its sting. "Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thy heart and in the sight of thine eyes, but know thou that for all these God will bring thee into judgment."

135 James also touches upon the foolish joy of this world, which leads to eternal ruin, and he calls on those who have ears to hear, to be afflicted, to mourn, and weep, and to change their laughter into mourning. The heart that has intelligence, that thinks of others, and is stirred by love - the Christian, who partakes of the Spirit and thus of the mind of Christ, will have a sense of the moral and actual misery that is around him. He will have joy in Christ, but sorrow as to the condition of men of the world.

Sin has made the world unhappy and miserable; it is itself the greatest of all miseries and one sees on all sides the ills it has brought in. Nevertheless the heart will feel the love of God in the midst of all; it will rejoice in eternal salvation, and in His goodness which has obtained it. It will also rejoice in the daily mercies of God; but this will not be the foolish joy of the world, which seeks to hide its emptiness, and with laughter to stifle the sense of its misery. Now in solitude, emptiness, and often pain, makes itself felt, which in the company of others is forgotten in laughter. Men do not like to burden others; they must make them believe they are happy. The world cannot be real with itself; yet sorrow and affliction are but too real. The Lord could weep but not laugh; Christian love and feeling follow His example; they follow it heartily, and from a like feeling. James desires that worldly joy should give place to Christian feelings, sentiments of love, and wisdom. Moreover, in chapter 5, we see that judgment is soon to put an end to the false joy of the world. Here the exhortation is moral; there it refers to the cutting short of this joy by the hand of the Lord.

And wherein lies the secret of a merry heart? It is not found in the worldling. His gaiety is forced, “as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool” (Ecc. 6:6). His merriment is not spontaneous. It is dependent on his circumstances.

(V. 9). Sixthly, the Apostle says, “Be afflicted and mourn.” If led by the grace of the Spirit of God, we shall feel the solemn condition of the professing people of God, and in their sorrowful condition we shall find no ground for rejoicing. The Christian has indeed his joys which no man can take from him, and he can rejoice in the grace of God that works in the midst of the evil of the closing days. Nevertheless, the hollow laughter of the professing religious world and its false joys, by which it deludes itself and seeks some relief from its miseries, will lead the heart that is touched by grace to mourn and weep.

The world is weary. Beneath a mask of gaiety there are empty hearts. There are plenty of tears and anguish, and sharp cries of pain, and millions of graves are being dug every year.