“Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book?” (Ps 56:8 AV)
There is a difference between telling and naming or recording. Wanderings are the events of David’s
life. In particular, his times of deep
trials, loss, or failures. David is
stating a fact which we would do well to remember. God knows all things. He even knows them before they happen. He has ordained all things according to His
perfect will. Times of suffering, whether
God sent or self-inflicted to not take God by surprise. However, the mere fact of the event does not diminish
from the intensity of it. God is
interested not only in the fact of the events of our lives but also in the
nature of those events. How they
affected us or what was the lasting result are important to Him. What these occurrences did to us internally
as well as externally. In other words,
the LORD does care how we feel and the anguish we suffer because of the
wanderings of our lives. The depth of
which He cares is expounded by David as he mentions a bottle of tears and a book.
The bottle of which David mentions is called a lachrymatory. A lachrymatory is a small bottle or jar into
which tears were gathered and kept. If a
mourner suffered an especially tragic event, like the loss of a loved one, his
friends would come to his side and in the process, tears shed by his friends
would be gathered by cloths and then rung out into the lachrymatory. These
tears would be mixed with the tears of the mourner. After the mourning ended, the lachrymatory
was sealed. It would then be memorialized
by identifying the event that caused the tears.
That lachrymatory would be kept by the mourner as a record of the friendship
and mutual support his friends gave him at the deepest time of his life. Note especially whose bottle to which David
is referring. It is God’s bottle. Not David’s bottle. It was customary for the one offering comfort
to bring the bottle. Not the mourner. In other words, God’s tears are mixed with
David’s tears and a way of the LORD associating Himself with the sorrow which comes
in our lives.
What makes this truth even more touching is the mention of a book. David is taking the fact of his trouble as
recorded in a book to God actually empathizing with that which He already
knows. Think about that a bit. If I know a fact to be certain, I am going to
react to that fact differently than if something of the same nature happened
without notice. For instance, I have had
several loved ones pass away. Mostly expected. Failing health was a harbinger of the
inevitable. Knowing that dear one was
coming close to the end of their earthly pilgrimage makes it a bit easier to
deal with. However, I have had a few who
met the end of their pilgrimage in a totally unexpected and tragic way. One mourns differently. With the former, the mind and heart have time
to adjust to what one knows is coming.
There are tears. There is
sorrow. The latter is quite
different. IT is even perhaps a bit surreal
when someone lies in their coffin who was taken suddenly and without
warning. Shock, anger, and sorrow all
meet. With God, nothing is of any surprise.
There is no sudden loss. There is
no unplanned tragedy. These things are
written in the book of His will. David
is asking the LORD to empathize with his trouble even though God knows it and
always knew it, as fact. In short, David
is seeking God’s empathy and association with his sorrow and grief. Something our LORD and Savior accomplished by
coming in human form. He is acquainted
with our griefs. He is a man of sorrows. He feels what we feel because He lived
through it. He has a lachrymatory filled
with our tears mingled with His own.
What a wonderful and compassionate Savior we have!
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