Welcome friend.
Wherever you are right now,
Find a place to be still.
Let your body settle.
And feel the surface beneath you.
Whether you're seated in a chair.
Or lying on the floor or the bed.
Allow it to hold your weight.
You don't have to hole yourself up right now.
Something else is holding you.
Let your hands rest open.
Palms up.
In your lap or on your side.
An open palm or hand cannot grip.
An open hand can only receive.
Breathe in.
Breathe out.
Breathe in slowly.
And gently release.
Today we sit with one verse.
A verse about tears.
About being seen in the hardest moments of your life.
And about a God who doesn't just witness our sorrow,
But keeps it.
Allow the scripture to wash over you.
Psalm 56 verse 8 you number my wanderings.
Put my tears into your bottle.
Are they not in your book?
Let's stay here for a while.
Imagining God putting your tears into his bottle.
To understand this verse.
We have to understand where David was standing when he wrote it.
He wasn't safe.
David was not settled.
He was a fugitive,
Running from King Saul,
Who wanted him dead.
And in his desperation.
David fled to Goth.
Enemy territory.
The very home.
Of Goliath.
He was captured there by the Philistines,
Surrounded,
Afraid,
And exposed.
And it's in that moment,
Cornered and far from home.
That David writes this psalm.
And what's remarkable is what he doesn't do.
He doesn't perform strength.
He doesn't pretend that fear isn't there.
He names it.
My enemies would daily swallow me up,
He says.
David is afraid.
And then from that place of real fear he turns not to a clever escape plan.
But to the character of God.
He says,
You know.
You know my wandering.
Every place I've had to run.
Even my tears.
The ones no one else witnesses.
The tears he shed it alone.
This isn't a poetic exaggeration.
A tear is not something to hide.
It was something worth recording.
David takes that picture even further.
God himself is the one who catches.
Every tear.
And keeps it.
Not in the earth.
But in his own bottle.
Not in a passing record.
But in his own book.
You see beloved this is what makes psalm 56 verse 8 so tender It isn't just that God saw David cry.
Is that nothing about David's suffering was small enough to overlook.
And nothing about your suffering is small enough to overlook either.
If you've ever cried alone.
Like I have.
In a car.
In a bathroom.
In the middle of the night when no one else was awake.
This verse says,
That tear was seen.
That tear was known.
That tear was kept.
Begin to bring your attention to your eyes.
No need to strain them.
Just notice your eyes.
And the small muscles around them.
You see so much of what we carry lives right there in the tension.
Around the eyes.
The tightness in the jaw.
The place where tears would come if we let them.
Lament is good for the soul.
If there are nerd tears,
You don't have to let them come right now unless you want to.
There's no requirement here.
This is simply a place to notice.
Now begin to bring awareness to your chest.
You may begin to place your hands over your chest.
A place where grief often settles low and heavy.
And just feel the rise and the fall of your breath under your palms.
Breathe.
Breathe.
Breathe as you picture an empty bottle.
In your mind's eye.
A simple bottle made of glass.
Or clay.
Or something ancient.
And picture God.
Not distant.
Not indifferent.
Reaching towards you,
Holding that bottle open.
Every tear you have cried that no one saw.
Every tear from weariness and grief.
You never fully explain to anyone.
Every tear you swallowed.
Because there wasn't time or space to let it out.
God says.
I see that one too.
Let me have it.
I'll keep it.
Rest here for a moment.
And silent reflection.
If there is a wandering season in your life right now.
A place you feel far from home.
Far from safety.
Far from where you thought you'd be.
Let that come to mind gently.
You don't need words.
Just let God see it.
Beloved,
Lament is not a lack of faith.
David laments in this very song.
And still trust God by the end.
Lament is simply telling the truth about what hurts.
Out low.
Or in the quiet of your own heart.
To the one.
Who already knows.
You might silently say to God.
Here is what I'm carrying.
Here is what has cost me tears this year.
Here is what I have not said out loud to anyone.
Let the silence hold whatever comes.
Begin to feel and notice your breath.
Keep studying.
And unhurried.
David's song doesn't end in the fear where it began.
By the final verses,
He says,
And God,
I have put my trust.
I will not be afraid what man can do unto me.
You see the tears were real.
The record of them were real.
And the trust that grew from being known was just as real.
Beloved.
You are not wandering unseen.
You are now weeping unnoticed.
Every tear has a place.
Counted.
Cherished.
By the one who calls you his own.
Carry this with you today.
You number my wandering.
Put my tears into your bottle.
Are they not in your book?
Beloved.
Yes,
They are.
Now go in peace.
In Jesus name.
Amen.
