Tears

You number my wanderings;
Put my tears into Your bottle;
Are they not in Your book? Psalm 56:8


God has a bottle and a book for his people’s tears, both those for their sins and those for their afflictions. This intimates that he observes them with compassion and tender concern; he is afflicted in their afflictions, and knows their souls in adversity. As the blood of his saints, and their deaths, are precious in the sight of the Lord, so are their tears, not one of them shall fall to the ground. [This also intimates] that he will remember them and review them, as we do the accounts we have booked. Paul was mindful of Timothy’s tears and God will not forget the sorrows of his people. The tears of God’s persecuted people are bottled up and sealed among God’s treasures; and when these books come to be opened, they will be found vials of wrath, which will be poured out upon their persecutors, whom God will surely reckon with for all the tears they have forced from his people’s eyes; and they will be breasts of consolation to God’s mourners, whose sackcloth will be turned into garments of praise. God will comfort his people according to the time wherein he has afflicted them, and give to those to reap in joy who sowed in tears. --Matthew Henry