“You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book?”
(Psalm 56:8 ESV)
It was a rainy afternoon, and I was reading. An article I read included a line that pierced through to my heart. Out came one big tear, that fell to my desk and splashed. That article had hit a nerve in my soul. The tear I let out didn’t relieve the slight ache that made its home in my chest. Longing came as an unwelcome guest again.
Did I drink too much coffee? Am I overtired? Has it just been a long day? I tried to reason away that tear, and the few that were on its heels. Until I remembered the verse above (Psalm 56:8).
God Counts My Tears
God counts my tears, I remembered. Every single one.
The Lord counted that one. He who searches hearts, saw mine flex and sigh in that quiet moment (Romans 8:27).
This small verse from the Psalms teaches us the nearness of our God. Everyone who belongs to God through faith in Jesus is exceedingly precious to him. Their pain, their sadness, their emotions get his attention. And he lingers over their hurt; he attends to our hearts.
God Cares About My Sorrow
Friend, if you have put your faith in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins, you are a friend of God, and very precious to him. You are so precious to God that he counts all your tears. All of them. The big ones and the small ones. He doesn’t just count your tears when you are flooding your pillow with them (Psalm 6:6). He counts them when one escapes your face without your permission or when you don’t understand why it snuck out.
When you do cry, instead of shooing away the feelings as we often do, make it an opportunity for praise. Oh Lord, thank you for counting my tears, and considering my sorrow.
Let that remembrance of his love lead you to share with him what is on your heart. In fact, a few pages over from Psalm 56 you will find the beautiful invitation to “pour out your heart before him” (Psalm 62:8).
God Wants to Be My Refuge
We serve a God well-acquainted with sorrow, who has felt the rugged earth under his own feet and felt the wet stream of tears run down his own face (John 11:35). He has even known what it is to bleed. The Lord Jesus, reigning now in heaven, once knelt and wept in a garden so that he might save you from your sins, bring you close to God, and be the comfort you need (Luke 22:44; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 Peter 3:18).
Today if you shed tears, see them as the Lord’s invitation to remember his care, and then to carry your grief or hurt or joy or whatever incited that stream to him in prayer. The God who counts your tears, cares about your sorrow, and loves when you draw near to him. Take refuge in him today.
In the words of an old hymn:
What a friend we have in Jesus,
all our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
Everything to God in prayer!(Joseph M. Scriven, 1865)