SUMMARY: What is it that is making you cry today? A heart broken by a fractured relationship? A dashed hope or the death of a dream? A failed family? A personal sin? The consequences of a past mistake that continues to haunt you? What is it that is making you feel such deep sadness? Entrust those tears to God. And let the very next tear that fills your eyes and spills down your cheek be a reminder that your tears never really just dry up and fade into a painful memory; they go right into the bottle of that One who truly knows, cares, remembers, and acts!
God Speaks—I Obey // Psalm 56:8
You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book.
Tears are a mysterious part of what it means to be human. Strangely, people have the capacity to cry—to expel water from their eyes when they are sad. Crying seems to serve no real purpose—although science can explain the physiological “why” and mental health experts can explain the psychological “why”.
That still leaves the question of “why” tears—why were we created with that capacity?
Perhaps this psalm provides a clue. Maybe they are to remind us that God cares about the things that make us sad enough to shed tears. So much does he bear our sorrow that he collects our tears in a bottle, as the New Living Translation says, or as other versions put it, “he records them in his ledger.” In other words, God takes note—implying that he is not only aware of our sadness, but he will not forget it.
What is it that is making you cry today? A heart broken by a fractured relationship? A dashed hope or the death of a dream? A failed family? A personal sin? The consequences of a past mistake that continues to haunt you? What is it that you feel such deep sadness over?
“While others will move on long before your pain is healed, there is One who sees, who cares, who never forgets, and who will never move on—your Heavenly Father, who simply asks you to take comfort in His compassion for you!
Dr. Ray Noah
It is likely that no one truly knows the depth of what you are feeling right now. Maybe no one will ever see those tears that have rolled down your cheek—and the intense hurt that caused them. But God knows. As the Yiddish proverb says, “A child’s tear rends the heavens.” The psalmist reminds us,
The Lord is like a father to his children,
Tender and compassionate to those who fear him. (Psalm 103:13)
And that compassionate, loving Heavenly Father likewise asks you to place your trust in him. In fact, so strongly does he desire your trust that he extends the invitation twice in Psalm 56 just to make sure you really know his heart for you:
In God, whose word I praise, in the Lord, whose word I praise—in God I trust and am not afraid. What can man do to me? (Psalm 56:4,10-11)
I hope you will do that. Entrust those tears to God. And let the very next tear that fills your eyes and spills down your cheek be a reminder that your tears never really just dry up and fade into a painful memory; they go right into the bottle of that One who truly cares!
Choose You This Day: Whatever is breaking your heart today, whatever is causing anguish in your soul, whatever is making you cry, take your upset and put it through the filter of Psalm 56. And above all, practice remembering that while others may not understand the depth of your broken-heartedness, God does. And he is able to comfort you in the midst of your inner turmoil.
“Jesus lost all his glory so that we could be clothed in it. He was shut out so we could get access. He was bound, nailed, so that we could be free. He was cast out so we could approach. And Jesus took away the only kind of suffering that can really destroy you: that is being cast away from God. He took that so that now all suffering that comes into your life will only make you great. A lump of coal under pressure becomes a diamond. And the suffering of a person in Christ only turns you into somebody gorgeous.”
Tim Keller