This life is a vale of tears: so have declared countless hymns and sermons.
While some of us don’t cry easily and drops of water only rarely appear at the corners of our eyes, hearts can be drenched with hurt. Whether the illness of a friend, the pain of mankind’s brutality, the tired fight against sin, the confusion of life, or simply the accumulation of stress to a breaking point—tears, real and unwept, have streamed down every face.
What gain is there in tearful suffering? Some opine, “Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” But Scripture gives more wisdom than the mottoes of man.
From Scripture we know our struggle against sin will continue until our last breath. We know God disciplines those He loves. We know we don’t walk through the fire and water alone. We know God works all things for the good of those who love him. We know that the Christian’s suffering is inevitable.
Scripture depicts a world groaning as in the pains of childbirth and waiting for the final deliverance. On that day, John tells us, eyes long wet with mourning will be made dry as God wipes away every tear. No tears is a beautiful image of hope, for an accurate portrait of life on this side of the grave is the red eyes and puffy faces of the mourner. Yet one day sad tears will be obsolete—perhaps there will be only tears of joy as we rejoice in the presence of the Lamb.
On that day will we remember the vale of tears from whence we came? Will our memory of this life’s pain be wiped away too? Consider David’s words in Psalm 56:8,
Put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book?
Intriguing to think that there is a tally somewhere of our tears. Is every heartache remembered by God, recorded for posterity? Might we page through his book one day and reread all our old laments?
In Psalm 56:8 David requests that God not forget his suffering and tears. The psalm’s title notes his circumstances: “When the Philistines seized him in Gath.” This points us to 1 Samuel 21:10-15, where David pretends to be insane in the presence of Achish the Philistine king. Scripture says he resorts to such tactics in great fear. David is worn out from running, scared for his life, and pleads on the mercy of God.
He cries out, “Put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book?” Literally, in the Hebrew it says: “Put my tears in your waterskin.” Such a bag for liquids was made of stitched animal skins, a leak-proof leather bag with a small opening to allow for pouring. Think of the Gibeonites’ cracked and mended waterskins in Joshua 9, when they pretended to be travelers from afar.
David desires that God collect and keep his tears of sorrow.
Why does David make this strange request? It seems that he has despaired of God’s answer to his prayers. Long days on the run have gone by without a response from heaven. Here is David, tears streaming down his face, a list of laments as long as his spear, and where is God? So he pleads, “Record my lament, put my tears in your bottle.” Take notice of all my tears and let them prompt you to action!
It’s an earnest prayer that God would see the depths of David’s suffering—its every detail and sigh—and respond in mercy and power.
There is urgency in Psalm 56 and there is confidence: David is assured that God will not forget. David’s tears will not sink into Philistine soil and disappear, but God will see them and respond. The Lord collects David’s tears as precious and He records his lament, because He will certainly answer his prayer.
What David knew, and what we know, is that God isn’t far from those who cry out to Him. He who numbers the hairs of our heads will not overlook the tears on our faces.
He sees what we suffer and assures us that all this is in preparation for something greater. As Psalm 126 says, “Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy. He who goes out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with him” (vv. 5-6).
The tears that we cry, real and watery or only those in the heart, do not escape God’s notice. Psalm 56 speaks firstly of the tears wept when saints are persecuted by their enemies—these tears, like the blood of the martyrs, testify against the wicked before God who will vindicate his children. But God sees all our tears, the daily laments because of loneliness, guilt, fatigue, anxiety—these tears too, are seen by our God and never drip unheeded.
In deep compassion, the Father puts all our tears in his bottle. He does it for Jesus’s sake, the one He sent as a man of sorrows into this groaning world. While He was here, Jesus wept, mourning death, brokenness, and sin, and then conquering them by his cross.
Now in Jesus’s name, God hears all our laments and helps us in every struggle. And Christ promises us that one day soon all such tears will be a memory: our faces forever wiped dry, God’s wineskin forever empty.
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