Revelation 5:4

I wept much - Because the world and the Church were likely to be deprived of the knowledge of the contents of the book.

And I wept much, because no man was found worthy ... - Greek, as in Revelation 5:3, no one. It would seem as if there was a pause to see if there were any response to the proclamation of the angel. There being none, John gave way to his deep emotions in a flood of tears. The tears of the apostle here may be regarded as an illustration of two things which are occurring constantly in the minds of people:

(1) The strong desire to penetrate the future; to lift the mysterious veil which shrouds what is to come; to find some way to pierce the dark wall which seems to stand up before us, and which shuts from our view what is to be hereafter. There have been no more earnest efforts made by people than those which have been made to read the scaled volume which contains the record of what is yet to come. By dreams, and omens, and auguries, and astrology, and the flight of birds, and necromancy, people have sought anxiously to ascertain what is to be hereafter. Compare, for an expression of that intense desire, Foster's Life and Correspondence, vol. i. p. 111, and vol. ii. pp. 237, 238.

(2) The weeping of the apostle may be regarded as an instance of the deep grief which people often experience when all efforts to penetrate the future fail, and they feel that after all they are left completely in the dark. Often is the soul overpowered with grief, and often are the eyes filled with sadness at the reflection that there is an absolute limit to the human powers; that all that man can arrive at by his own efforts is uncertain conjecture, and that there is no way possible by which he can make nature speak out and disclose what is to come. Nowhere does man find himself more fettered and limited in his powers than here; nowhere does he feel that there is such an intense disproportion between his desires and his attainments. In nothing do we feel that we are more absolutely in need of divine help than in our attempts to unveil the future; and were it not for revelation man might weep in despair.

5:4 And I wept much - A weeping which sprung from greatness of mind. The tenderness of heart which he always had appeared more clearly now he was out of his own power. The Revelation was not written without tears; neither without tears will it be understood. How far are they from the temper of St. John who inquire after anything rather than the contents of this book!yea, who applaud their own clemency if they excuse those that do inquire into them!