7/17/2024
Elijah McSwain, Sr.
Psalm 56:8 NKJV — You number my wanderings; put my tears into Your bottle; are they not in Your book?
“Thomas A. Dorsey’s song “Take My Hand, Precious Lord” is one of the most beloved gospel songs of all time. The song’s power comes from profound personal tragedy. In August 1932, Dorsey, an African American band leader and accompanist, was on top of the world. He had recently been hired as director of the gospel chorus at Pilgrim Baptist Church in Chicago, and he was about to become a father for the first time. Dorsey was nervous about traveling to a gospel music convention so close to his wife’s due date, but she gave her blessing. While he was in St. Louis, Dorsey received word that there had been complications with Nettie’s childbirth. He raced back to Chicago, but both mother and child died during childbirth. The double funeral took place at Pilgrim Baptist Church. Dorsey later said, “I looked down that long aisle which led to the altar where my wife and baby lay in the same casket. My legs got weak, my knees would not work right, my eyes became blind with a flood of tears.” Dorsey fell into a deep depression. He questioned his faith and thought about giving up gospel music.
Dorsey’s friend and fellow chorus director Theodore Frye persuaded him to accept a dinner invitation. After dinner, Dorsey meandered over to the grand piano and began to play the hymn “Must Jesus Bear the Cross Alone,” with its lyric “There’s a cross for everyone, and there’s a cross for me.” Dorsey began to play variations on the hymn’s melody, adding new lyrics. He called Frye over and began to sing, “Blessed Lord, take my hand.” Frye stopped him: “No man, no. Call him ‘precious Lord.’” Dorsey tried it again, replacing blessed with precious. “That does sound better!” he told Frye. “That’s it!” Dorsey returned home and finished the song “in the next day or two.” Dorsey debuted “Take My Hand, Precious Lord” for the Pilgrim congregation at a Sunday worship service. The lyrics filled the sanctuary that morning: “Precious Lord, take my hand / Lead me on, let me stand / I am tired, I am weak / I am worn.” Dorsey was shocked to find congregants out of their seats and in the aisles, crying out in prayer. His song of deliverance from unbearable pain touched the heart of a congregation of African Americans with testimonies of their own—of illness, death, poverty, oppression, and the daily struggles of discrimination." 1 Similar to this account in the life of Thomas Dorsey, we face a variety of trials, tribulations, problematic issues, setbacks, health scares, confrontation from enemies and much more that causes us to shed tears as a result of our anguish and grief.
We have cried countless tears, too many for us to trace and number one by one.
This was the circumstantial reality of David who penned this psalm when he was in exile among the Philistines in Gath because his own countrymen had him on the run. David found himself to be distressed due to the oppression from his enemies, the tactics and plots that they set against him, and they twisted his words against him. Therefore, in much affliction, David is overwhelmed with emotions that are evidently seen in the shedding of tears. The writings of Psalm 56:8 encourages us that God is attentive to our moments of adversity and discomfort. He keeps a record our pain and the tears that we shed as we undergo difficult circumstances in life.
God’s Attentiveness To Our Affliction
The life of David was filled with times of adversity, upheaval, and misfortune. He faced various situations that caused agony, pain, stress, anxiety and panic due to the nature of the overwhelming problems that he encountered.
David faced many obstacles, challenges, and disturbances in various forms.
Psalm 63 informs us of his wilderness wandering while he is in exile while fleeing from his enemies.
David faced several threats from the ploys and schemes of King Saul to kill him due to Saul’s jealous spirit (1 Samuel 19:11).
David’s own son, Absalom, led a rebellion against him in an attempt to overthrow David’s throne (2 Samuel Ch. 16 to Ch.17).
During his reign David experienced a famine in the land for three consecutive years (2 Samuel Ch. 21).
David lost three sons, one that he conceived immorally with Bathsheba (2 Samuel 12:10,13, &19), David's son Ammon who was killed by his other son Absalom (2 Samuel 1314-32) and Absalom was killed in the battle that he waged against his father, David (2 Samuel 18:14-15).
These are just a few critical moments in the life of David that caused misery, discomfort, heartbreak, and despair. As a result of experiencing these moments of grief, no doubt David shed his share of tears. Here in Psalms 56, David is once again in a sticky situation. He is on the run from his foe Saul and his accomplices. According to 1 Samuel 21:10-15, David seeks refuge in Gath which is the background setting of Psalm 56. As David is in Gath, he makes allies with the Philistines in 1 Samuel 27:4. However, two chapters over, his allies turned against him as recorded in 1 Samuel 29:2-11. This is where Psalm 56 picks up. David finds himself back in the pressure cooker of life. Things have heated back up for him. Donald Fleming provides an overview of what occurred in Gath relating to Psalm 56.
He stated that “David is in great distress in Gath, as he learns that certain people in the city are planning to kill him (56:1-2). The increased danger he faces drives him to an increased dependence on God (3-4). Enemies watch his every move, plotting how they can best attack him (5-7). He is so tense with fear that he cannot sleep at night. He knows God takes notice of his distress, and this reassures him that God will protect him (8-11).” 2
Half of the difficulties that David faced is more than enough to bring tears to our eyes and cause us to crumble. In the midst of his times of sorrow, David affirmed in verse 8a that the Lord numbered his wanderings. Every place that David had to flee to, God knew the places where he sought refuge and solitude. God knew his whereabouts. Today, we may not have to physically flee like David, but God knows our whereabouts as well when we are faced with dire situations. He knows our progression or regression in the matters that we face. He knows where we are at in our moments of struggle mentality, spirituality, and physically from a standpoint of the stress that our problems impose on us. In knowing his wanderings, David emphasized that God was attentive to the details. As a matter of fact, God is interested in the details of His children’s life.
If the Lord is interested in the very hairs of our head being all numbered (cf. Matthew 10:30) then surely, He cares about every detail of our lives.
Every moment that has ever caused us to wander, God has numbered them because He is aware of what we encounter and go through.
For every challenge, every valley, every obstacle, every setback, every hurdle, every trial, every pain, and every heartache God has a record of them, and He knows the tears that we had to cry.
The Lord does not overlook our pain. He takes note of what we have to endure and is ever near us in times of unrest. Psalm 34:18-19 (NKJV) reveals "the LORD is near to those who have a broken heart and saves such as have a contrite spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all." The Life Application Study Bible explains that “no matter what our sorrows are, God cares! Often, we waver between faith and fear. When you feel so discouraged that you are sure no one understands, remember that God knows every problem and sees every tear.” 3
The connectivity of our problems and His omniscience is where His divine providential care intervenes on our behalf. Divine intervention in our human calamity is proof that the Lord is attentive to our sorrows as a measure of His compassion for us.
We should be thankful that He sees and knows what we go through but better yet, He responds to us in our times of distress.
God’s Divine Archive
David acclaimed that God put his tears into a bottle; are they not in Your book? Albert Barnes concluded that “the word here rendered “bottle” means properly a bottle made of skin, such as was used in the East; but it may be employed to denote a bottle of any kind. It is possible, and, indeed, it seems probable, that there is an allusion here to the custom of collecting tears shed in a time of calamity and sorrow and preserving them in a small bottle as a memorial of the grief. The Romans had a custom, that in a time of mourning – on a funeral occasion – a friend went to a person in sorrow and wiped away the tears from their eyes with a piece of cloth and squeezed the tears into a small bottle of glass or earth, which was carefully preserved as a memorial of friendship and sorrow.” 4 Whether David was familiar with this custom or not, he desired that God would keep a collection of his tears.
John Calvin inscribed that “the prayers of David, as appears from the passage before us, proceeded upon faith in the providence of God, who watches our every step. Unless persuaded in our mind that God takes special notice of each affliction which we endure, it is impossible we can ever attain such confidence as to pray that God would put our tears into His bottle, with a view to regarding them, and being induced by them to interpose in our behalf. David animates his hope by the consideration that all his tears were written in the book of God and would therefore be certainly remembered.” 5
David avowed are not my tears in Your Book? God by no means is forgetful but He keep exact records of our weeping in His divine archive. Albert Barnes wrote “all the tears that we shed “are” remembered by God. If “properly” shed – shed in sorrow, without murmuring or complaining, they will be remembered for our good; if “improperly shed” – if with the spirit of complaining, they will be remembered against us. But it is not wrong to weep. David wept; the Savior wept; nature prompts us to weep; and it cannot be wrong to weep if “our” eyes “poured out” its tears “unto God”; that is, if in our sorrow we look to God with submission and with earnest supplication.” 4
Job summarized in Job16:16-20 (NKJV) that his face was flushed from weeping over his circumstance and that his friends scorned him because of his trouble and as a result his eyes poured out tears to God. In his mourning, he cried out to God as he felt forsaken by his friends and the effects of his trouble devastated him. God was the focal point of both Job and David as they lamented in their times of sorrow. When we lament God should be our focal point as well. The sorrow of our hearts should be directed to the only One who can bear our burdens, comfort our hearts, console our crushed spirit, regulate our troubled minds, and renew our strength.
Charles Spurgeon wrote “a tear is enough water to float a desire to God……is it not sweet to believe that our tears are understood even when words fail! Let us learn to think of tears as liquid prayers and of weeping as a constant dropping of importunate intercession which will wear it way right surely into the very heart of mercy, despite the stony difficulties which obstruct the way.” 6
Life is challenging at times and life brings about groaning that are too much to bear. As Psalm 6:6-7 (NKJV) alludes to that we can become weary with our groaning; all night we make our beds swim. We drench our couches with tears. Our eyes waste away because of grief. Be encouraged that God knows our tears and has a record of them in His Book.
God’s record of our tears is not just confined to Him being aware of our tears, but His record is also a futuristic promise of comfort, ultimate deliverance and peace from the problematic issues of this life.
John the Revelator penned that we have a blessed hope to look forward to in regard to a land that is worry free, pain free, sorrow free and trouble free. Revelation 21:1-4 (NKJV) is written "now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also, there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. “And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” Paul Morton wrote a song that is written "your tears are just a temporary relief. Your tears are just a release of the pain, sorrow, and grief. Your tears are expressions that can′t be controlled. A little crying out is alright, but after a while you won’t have to cry no more. Don′t you worry, God’s is going to wipe every tear away. I won’t have to cry no more, when I reach the other shore. You promised me joy and peace, oh what a blessed, sweet relief. He’s going to wipe all of my tears away." The Jackson Southernaires composed lyrics that mentioned "there are no tears in heaven, no crying in glory. All of God's children will be happy, don't you see. No pain and sorrow. No more worrying about tomorrow. No tears in heaven, for you and me."
This is good news for us that God is not only attentive to our adverse circumstances that cause immense pain, but He promises to bring our sufferings to an expected end.
Psalm 56:8 is a compelling verse that reiterates that God is concerned about our pain, He displays compassion in our moments of affliction, and is present with us in every difficulty. The tears that we shed do not go unnoticed. In every moment of anguish and grief, let us find solace in knowing that our tears are cherished by our compassionate and loving Father. Understanding this is vital as it helps us as His children to seek His face continually and trust in His providential care for us throughout life. Remember that God is in the details of our lives, and He is able to comfort us when we shed tears. Therefore, we should know that God is for us and in turn, we should praise Him, put our trust in Him, and not be afraid because He will keep our feet from falling that we may continue to walk before Him in the light of the living (Psalm 56:9-13).
Resources
https://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/2023/march/story-behind-take-my-hand-precious-lord.html
Fleming, Donald C. “Commentary on Psalms 56:3”. “Fleming’s Bridgeway Bible Commentary”. https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/bbc/psalms-56.html. 2005.
The Life Application Study Bible
Barnes, Albert. “Commentary on Psalms 56:8”. “Barnes’ Notes on the Whole Bible”. https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/bnb/psalms-56.html. 1870.
John Calvin. Commentary on The Book of Psalms.
Spurgeon’s Quotes. The Definitive Collection.