Psalms 56:8 (KJV)  Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book?

A riddle I heard many years ago asked the question, “What physical thing do we have that Adam did not have”? I had to think about that for a bit before I came up with the answer. My Aunt Dot worked at the North Carolina Museum of Art, and I’ve seen a lot of beautiful pictures of Adam and Eve … and all of them wrong! Look at this picture called The First Kiss of Adam and Eve by Salvador Viniegra. Do you see the error? Adam didn’t have a belly button. We all have a belly button because we had a mother. Adam had no mother, only a Father. He was made as a prototype man from the “dust of the ground” (Genesis 2:7).

Adam had no belly button, but he did have tear ducts.

God doesn’t make useless things. The appendix has a purpose. Web MD notes that researchers think the appendix is designed to protect good bacteria in the gut. When the gut is affected by a bout of illness that empties the intestines, the appendix repopulates the digestive system keeping you healthy.

Tear ducts have a purpose as well. Every normal person has tear ducts. God made us with tear ducts. We were made to cry. The Bible tells us that we are made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). If we are made in His image I often wonder if God cries.

I Wonder If God Cries When We Don’t Trust Him?

Our God is so very faithful. The Psalmist said:

Psalms 36:5-6 (KJV)  Thy mercy, O LORD, is in the heavens; and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds.  [6]  Thy righteousness is like the great mountains; thy judgments are a great deep: O LORD, thou preservest man and beast.

David wrote in Psalm 56 of God’s faithfulness and his unfaithfulness.

Psalms 56:8 (KJV)  Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book?

God sees us when we wander.
I wonder if that hurts Him?
He watches us when when run about in fear instead of faith.
He watches us when we cry.
He keeps our names in His Book, along with our works.

David said of God that when we cry God puts our tears in a bottle.

This was David’s poetic and beautiful way of saying that our God watches over us. Our tears do not go unnoticed by God. In the ancient world the unbelieving GENTILES would collect a mourner’s tears in a small bottle called a lacrymatory. That bottle would then be buried with the body of the loved one. In Psalm 51 David is crying – weeping before God – because he failed to believe in the Lord. David let fear consume him. He took his eyes off of the Lord.

Faith In God Defeats Fear

When David had faith in God nothing could stop him. Do you remember the time David stood in front of a giant called Goliath with no more than a sling and five smooth stones? Fear was not David’s master. God was his Master. The Bible says:

1 Samuel 17:40 (KJV) {David} took his staff in his hand, and chose him FIVE SMOOTH STONES out of the {nearby} brook, and put them in a shepherd’s bag which he had, even in a scrip; and his sling was in his hand: and he drew near to the Philistine.

He trusted the Lord. The giant shouted, but David did not hear. He was looking up. He cried out. “I come to thee in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. This day will the LORD deliver thee into mine hand; and I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee.”

David Was Not Moving Forward On Testosterone, But On Faith.

Without faith it is impossible to please God, for he that cometh to God must believe that He IS, and that He is a REWARDER of those who diligently seek Him (Hebrews 11:6). David refused the armor of King Saul. David refused to fear. Here he goes with five smooth stones.

Five is the number of GRACE!
With FIVE barley loaves Jesus fed FIVE thousand! (John 6:9)
What can we do with so few among so many?
We can trust God. We can believe in Him.

The Philistine cries out. “Am I a dog that you come to me with a STICK? Come on Boy, and I’ll feed you to the animals!” (1 Samuel 17:43-44). David doesn’t hesitate. Looking to God in faith he takes the little he has and in faith puts it in the sling. David ran TOWARD the giant and his army. Not away from the problem, but TOWARD it (1 Samuel 17:48). He let it fly. The one smooth stone hit Goliath in the forehead, and he fell to the ground. Taking the giant’s sword from him David cut off his head.

God is faithful.
God is faithful when we trust Him with our little.
God is there, guiding that stone.
God is faithful.

1 Samuel 17:51 (KJV) … David ran, and stood upon the Philistine, and took his sword, and drew it out of the sheath thereof, and slew him, and cut off his head therewith. And when the Philistines saw their champion was dead, they fled.

2 Thessalonians 3:3 (KJV) … the Lord is faithful, who shall stablish you, and keep you from evil.

The Lord does not care if we have little. If we have but little and give it to Him, He will supply. We must trust Him. When we trust God with our little then He blesses us with His much. God says:

Matthew 25:21 (KJV) …. Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a FEW things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.

God does not give us MUCH then ask us to believe Him. He entrusts us with LITTLE then says “trust ME and I’ll make it MUCH”. He can take one of five smooth stones and kill a Goliath. He can take five little loaves and feed five thousand.

David Later Let Fear Be His Master

Why is David crying? The Psalm starts with:

Psalms 56:1 (KJV) … MICHTAM of David, when the Philistines took him in Gath. …

What is a “Michtam”? No one really knows what a “Michtam” is. This is why the translators just brought the word directly into English rather than translating it. The best suggestion I heard for Michtam (מִכְתָּם miktam) is:

Something Precious Enough To Be Engraved And Cherished

When David wrote Psalm 56 he looked back over a time when he let fear rule his life. When David killed Goliath the current King of Israel became jealous of him. Saul started trying to kill David … and David ran. David should not have ran. The Lord had told David that he would be King of Israel, and God is faithful. God keeps His Word. The Scripture says:

Deuteronomy 7:9 (KJV)  Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which KEEPETH COVENANT and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations;

God was not going to abandon David. But David let fear take control. In 1 Samuel 21 – just four chapters after defeating Goliath – David is running and hiding.

When David Defeated Goliath He Ran Toward The Problem.
When David Was Defeated By Fear He Ran Away From The Problem.

David ran away, and found himself at the Tabernacle of God.

1 Samuel 21:1 (KJV)  Then came David to Nob to Ahimelech the priest: and Ahimelech was afraid at the meeting of David, and said unto him, Why art thou alone, and no man with thee?

The Priest asked David why he was alone. David was not honest. He was frightened. He was driven by fear, not by faith … so HE LIED. He said:

“I’m on a secret mission for the King and my men are elsewhere”

As David tells the lie he notices the Priest has the holy bread in his hands. In ancient times the Priests kept SHOWBREAD (Hebrew: לחם הפנים lechem haPānīm, literally: “Bread of the Presence of God” – see Exodus 25:30) on a specially dedicated table. The bread was there as an offering to God. These twelve loaves of bread (Leviticus 24:5-7) were dedicated to God and those who served Him.

The Showbread was an Old Testament Picture of Jesus Christ.
He is “The Bread of Life” That Feeds Us (John 6:35).

David is hungry, and so he tells the Priest:

1 Samuel 21:3 (KJV)  Now therefore what is under thine hand? give me FIVE loaves of bread in mine hand, or what there is present.

Notice what David asked for. Five loaves. Five smooth stones for Goliath. Five barley loaves for five thousand fed. Five loaves now to feed David. Five is the number of God’s Grace. David is not alone. God is with him. “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5). “Lo, I am with you, even unto the end of the world” (Matthew 28:20). God is present with His people. He sees our tears. He sees as we cry. He would feed David of the Showbread, by His Presence. But fear gripped David. He was still not trusting God. “Do you have a sword I can take with me?” David asks the priest.

1 Samuel 21:9 (KJV)  And the priest said, The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom thou slewest in the valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod: if thou wilt take that, take it: for there is no other save that here. And David said, There is none like that; give it me.

Again David has a reminder of God’s Grace. God gave Goliath into his hands, will not he give Saul over as well? So once more David runs. He takes the sword of Goliath. How big was the sword? I don’t know, but I do know that Goliath was nine feet three inches tall. The commentaries suggest he wore a protective coat that weighed up to 156 pounds, and his spear was perhaps as long as 26 feet! He was a big man, a BIG MAN. So his sword was big. As David runs this sword was no blessing, but a curse. It was too big for David. It was also well known. The Philistines knew Goliath’s sword just like a war buff knows that General Patton carried pearl handled .45 revolvers. There goes little David dragging Goliath’s oversized sword behind him.

David runs to hide out with the Philistines.

1 Samuel 21:10-11 (KJV)  And David arose, and fled that day for fear of Saul, and went to Achish the king of Gath.  [11]  And the servants of Achish said unto him, Is not this David the king of the land? did they not sing one to another of him in dances, saying, Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands?

As they grab David and prepare to kill him David came to his greatest fear. David died that day. Not physically, but spiritually. He had previously kept his eyes on God, but now was doing all the wrong things. He was “sore afraid of Achish the king of Gath”. Fear was driving him.

1 Samuel 21:13 (KJV)  And he changed his behavior before them, and feigned himself mad in their hands, and scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down upon his beard.

David’s faith crashes and burns. The unbelieving Philistines see David act as a mad man. The unbeliever sees the mighty man of God as a little baby. I wonder if God cried? I know David cried. He cried because later when he came to his senses and began to trust God again, he cried. He cried because of his failure.

But God Sees Our Tears And Hears Our Cries

I heard Country Music Hall of Fame Grandpa Jones sing:

No tears in heaven, no sorrows given
All will be glory in that land
There’ll be no sadness, all will be gladness
When we shall join that happy band
No tears (in heaven fair)
No tears, no tears up there
Sorrow and pain will all have flown
No tears (in heaven fair)
No tears, no tears up there
No tears in heaven will be known

God sees our tears, and cherishes our tears. There is coming a day when …

Isaiah 25:8 (KJV) {God} will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD hath spoken it.

God will wipe away our tears. There is coming a day when God will set all things straight. Those who love Him – who cherish Jesus –

Revelation 7:16-17 (KJV) … shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat.  [17]  For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.

There are tears in Heaven right now.

If God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes then it’s logical that tears are there. There are tears in Heaven. What are some of the things that will cause tears in Heaven?

• We have all cried over the trials of this life. There is none without trials. The Christian way of life is a trial in itself. Jesus told us that if we love Him toMatthew 16:24-26 (KJV) … deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.  [25]  For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.  [26]  For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

The very essence of our faith is a Cross. A Cross signifies suffering. We weep often weep when suffering, but we know that one day God will relieve all suffering. We are to keep on following the Lord even when it seems as if Saul is winning, knowing that God is still on His Throne. GOD IS STILL ON HIS THRONE. Mourn, dear one, but do not give up nor give in to fear. God is faithful.

Psalms 93:1-2 (KJV)  The LORD reigneth, he is clothed with majesty; the LORD is clothed with strength, wherewith he hath girded himself: the world also is stablished, that it cannot be moved.  [2]  Thy throne is established of old: thou art from everlasting.

• I believe there will be tears in Heaven when we see what our sins did to our Savior. It has been said that the only man made thing in Heaven is the scars on Jesus’ body.Isaiah 53:5 (KJV)  But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

When we first see Jesus I believe our tears will flow downward like the rains of April or the mighty Niagara.

How could we not weep when we see the marks on His hands and feet, the tears above His brow where the thorny crown was forced? I believe we will weep, but then Jesus will wipe away the tears from our eyes with His nail scarred hands. I believe He will embrace us, and perhaps cry with us. I wonder if God cries?

• I believe there will be tears in Heaven when we recognize the absence of those we failed to witness to, to share the Gospel with them. I believe we will weep over the missing children. I believe we will look around and not see our mate, or our best friend, or the person that sat next to us on the pew every week. The Bible tells us that the Christian shall be judged by Christ. The Scripture says:Romans 14:10 But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.

  2 Corinthians 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

I believe we will all weep over lost opportunities and lost rewards. That time when God called us to serve but instead we slept. That time God told us to do but instead we took our ease. I believe we will weep over what could have been and should have been had we only been more faithful. But God will create new Heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered nor come into mind (Isaiah 65:17). The Bible says:

Revelation 21:4-5 (KJV)  And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.  [5]  And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.

David grew from his failure. In the next Psalm he wrote:

Psalms 57:1-3 (KJV) … Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: for my soul trusteth in thee: yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be overpast.  [2]  I will cry unto God most high; unto God that performeth all things for me.  [3]  He shall send from heaven, and save me from the reproach of him that would swallow me up. Selah. God shall send forth his mercy and his truth.

Psalms 57:7 (KJV)  My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise.

Let us do as David did. Fix your hearts upon God, for God is faithful. Do not let fear rule you. Let faith rule you. Fear has nothing to do with us, dear Christ follower. Whoever is born of God OVERCOMETH the world. This is the victory that overcomes the world, EVEN OUR FAITH (1 John 5:4). Be driven of faith, not fear. Our God is faithful!