In a Bottle

Psalm 56 [KJV]


1 Be merciful unto me, O God: for man would swallow me up; he fighting daily oppresseth me.
  2 Mine enemies would daily swallow me up: for they be many that fight against me, O thou most High.
  3 What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.
  4 In God I will praise his word, in God I have put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me.
  5 Every day they wrest my words: all their thoughts are against me for evil.
  6 They gather themselves together, they hide themselves, they mark my steps, when they wait for my soul.
  7 Shall they escape by iniquity? in thine anger cast down the people, O God.
  8 Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book?
  9 When I cry unto thee, then shall mine enemies turn back: this I know; for God is for me.
  10 In God will I praise his word: in the LORD will I praise his word.
  11 In God have I put my trust: I will not be afraid what man can do unto me.
  12 Thy vows are upon me, O God: I will render praises unto thee.
  13 For thou hast delivered my soul from death: wilt not thou deliver my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living?

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God is good. Always. But especially, God is good when we most need Him to be. A lot of times, as one goes through life, it is very easy to think as if God is not watching. As if He doesn't care. As if when someone goes through life and fails, and starts dropping everything that they had previously been able to juggle, and collapses and cries out for someone to help them--a lot of times it may seem as if God is cold to such agony. But He isn't. In fact, in this Psalm it is easy to see the heart of our Saviour. "You number my wanderings; you put my tears in a bottle. Are they not in Your book?" (v8). God is not simply concerned--He is dedicated. He loves to such a degree, and cares so much about our sorrow, that He would go as far as to collect them in a bottle, to write each instance down in His book. I don't think anyone else exists who is like that. No one one earth could possibly love someone else to such a degree--the human being is simply not capable. Not on our own, anyway; that is certain. Not without Christ can we even begin to understand love, or sorrow, or pain, or peace. We cannot understand. But He does--and that is why we can come to Him. The shortest verse in the Bible is as follows: "Jesus wept." That is such a beautiful picture of a God who knows what His people experience, and who loves them beyond all measure. He is a magnificent King, but He knows our pain--indeed He has taken it for us.

I know not who shall read, but it pleases me that I, unworthy as I am, might live in some small way for Christ.