John Calvin Commentary Psalms 56:8

"Thou numberest my wanderings: Put thou my tears into thy bottle; Are they not in thy book?" — Psalms 56:8 (ASV)

You have taken account of my wanderings. The words take the form of an abrupt prayer. Having begun by requesting God to consider his tears, suddenly, as if he had obtained what he asked, he declares that they were written in God’s book. It is possible, indeed, to understand the question as a prayer; but he would seem rather to imply by this form of expression that he did not need to multiply words, and that God had already anticipated his desire.

It is necessary, however, to consider the words of the verse more particularly. He speaks of his wandering as having been noted by God, and this so that he may call attention to one remarkable feature of his history: his having been forced to roam as a solitary exile for so long a period.

The reference is not to any single wandering; the singular noun is used for the plural, or rather, he is to be understood as declaring emphatically that his whole life was only one continuous wandering. This he urges as an argument for compassion, spent as his years had been in the anxieties and dangers of such a perplexing pilgrimage. Accordingly, he prays that God might put his tears into his bottle. It was usual to preserve wine and oil in bottles, so the words amount to a request that God would not allow his tears to fall to the ground but keep them with care as a precious deposit. The prayers of David, as appears from the passage before us, proceeded from faith in the providence of God, who watches our every step, and by whom (to use an expression of Christ) the very hairs of our head are numbered (Matthew 10:30).

Unless we are persuaded that God takes special notice of each affliction we endure, it is impossible for us ever to attain such confidence as to pray that God would put our tears into his bottle, so that God might regard them and be induced by them to intervene on our behalf.

He immediately adds that he had obtained what he asked, for, as already observed, I prefer understanding the latter clause affirmatively. He animates his hope with the consideration that all his tears were written in the book of God and would therefore be certainly remembered.

And we may surely believe that if God bestows such honor upon the tears of his saints, he must number every drop of their blood which is shed. Tyrants may burn their flesh and their bones, but the blood remains to cry aloud for vengeance, and intervening ages can never erase what has been written in the register of God’s remembrance.