Page 44 - Psalms Ebook

wanderings in a book. Graphic language designed to put a song in your
heart. They have collected old ancient bottles that are called tear bottles
and they have a wide mouth with a big lip. They would hold it under
your eyelid and then you would cry inside, especially at funerals. They
would collect the tears and give it to the family or else bury the bottle
with the loved one to show how much they cared.

It is not one hundred percent certain what bottle was used. Some think it
is the old wine bottle and some think it is the perfume bottle that is being
referred to, but whether it was for the fruit of the vine or the perfume
bottle, I think the principle is the same. And that is, your tears are
precious to God. He collects them in His bottle. Your tears are
preserved by the Lord as a very costly ointment would be. Do you
remember in the New Testament, the alabaster box and the perfume and
so on? Every tear you have ever shed in the will of God is more
precious to God then all of the precious perfume on the earth, and every
tear I have ever shed in the will of God is more precious to Him than
priceless wine. The point is exactly the same whichever figure it is.
Whether it is rare wine or costly perfume, God records and considers
your tears His treasure.

You have to remember that God is omniscient. He knows everything.
He does not forget. He does not have to recall. He does not have your
tears in His bottle so He can remember. He does not record your
wanderings in His book so that it can jog his memory. Why does God
have a bottle and a book? Not for Him. It is for you. It is not for Him.
It is for me. He does not need to jog His memory, but He wants me to
know that He has collected my tears and collected my wanderings.

Every tear that you have ever shed, whether it was a tear of sorrow or a
tear of concern or a tear of sympathy or a tear of remorse, has all been
collected by God and is in His bottle. Someday when you are burdened
for your loved one, or for your children because they got off the path and
wandered from the Lord. It is all in the book. You say, well, God keeps
records like the police keep records and it is on file like the FBI. No, it is
not a record book. It is a diary. It is a precious diary, and God keeps all
your wanderings in His diary. He knows what you are going through.
He knows what is burdening your heart. He knows what is breaking
your heart. He keeps all your tears in a bottle and keeps all your
wanderings in a book. Diaries are for precious things.

I remember when I was first dating Lillian. We were both so terribly
shy. One day she had to go to the bathroom and I sat on the bench with