Psalm 56:8 - You have taken account of my wanderings; Put my tears in Your bottle. Are {they} not in Your book?
Put tears in a bottle? What does this passage mean?
In the Old Testament times and continuing through to the Roman times when Christ walked the earth, tear bottles were used by mourners for the purpose of respect to the deceased. Those who sorrowed would fill tiny bottles with tears and placed them in burial tombs. Called "Lachrymatories," these bottles were considered very precious.
Could it have been the woman in Luke 7 poured her bottle of tears first on the feet of Jesus before anointing his feet with alabaster? This would have been a powerful display of emotion and affection, to pour out the treasured bottle of tears!
The commentator Fausset says : "The custom of bottling the tears of mourners as a memorial, which has existed in some Eastern nations, may explain the figure."
The commentator Matthew Henry says: "(God) observes them (sorrowing people) 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. I have seen thy tears, 2 Ki. 20:5.
God cares.
