In one Talmudic text, the passage made famous by Handel's Messiah is markedly recast to suggest that God, burdened by the sins of the world, appeals to His people to console Him, not the other way around.  "Comfort me, comfort me, my people, " the text reads.  As early as the days of Noah, the pain of humankind "grieved him to his heart."  In this connection, it is significant that the God of the Old Testament asks His people to "Make me a sanctuary, so that I may dwell among them."  In other words, the temple Solomon builds, like the tabernacle in the wilderness, is God's sanctuary and place of refuse, not ours.  For a being as good and pure as God to enter into this realm of darkness and depravity must be exquisitely painful on every level.  His love impels Him to visit His people in their distress, and the temple is His shield and refuge from the full onslaught of worldly pain and evil.

Terryl & Fiona Givens, The God Who Weeps, pg. 26