Exhortation:
The Bottle of Tears — God’s Comfort and His Promises
By Tom Johns, Texas
“ You number my wanderings; Put my tears into Your bottle Are they not in Your book? ”, Psalm 56:8
The psalmist David, harassed by enemies, expresses deep trust that none of his sorrows or prayers escape God’s notice. In ancient times, mourners sometimes collected tears in small vessels (lachrymatories) as memorials of grief.
Whether or not David had such a custom in mind, the metaphor is clear: God remembers every tear shed by His people. It assures us that “God will never forget nor ever be indifferent to the cares of any one of his much-beloved people”
Our laments are not lost in the void; they are lovingly stored in God’s bottle and recorded in His book, meaning He keeps an account of our wanderings and our weeping knowing that God treasures our tears as precious.
Prayer is often the channel through which those tears flow. In seasons of adversity, God’s people have always turned to earnest prayer, trusting that the Lord sees, remembers, and responds. The following sections explore five biblical examples of prayer in hardship, examining how each exemplifies the truth of Psalm 56:8. In each case—whether it’s Elijah persevering in prayer, Hannah pouring out her soul in anguish, King Jehoshaphat entreating God in crisis, Jesus Himself agonizing in Gethsemane, or the Apostle Paul teaching on divine comfort—we see that God indeed “keeps our tears” and answers in His perfect timing.
Each story will be considered with scriptural quotations, historical and cultural context, and insights from the inspired word of God. Finally, we will reflect on pastoral applications, encouraging us that our own tears and prayers in adversity are noticed by our Heavenly Father and never shed in vain.
Elijah’s Persistent Prayer for Rain
(1 Kings 18:41–46)
The Prophet Elijah’s context was a literal drought of adversity. For three and a half years, no rain had fallen in Israel as judgment on rampant Baal worship (cf. 1 Kings 17:1). After Elijah’s dramatic victory over the false prophets on Mount Carmel, it was time for God to lift the drought. Yet, significantly, the rain did not come until Elijah prayed persistently for it. Although God had promised to send rain (1 Kings 18:1), Elijah “himself retired to pray (for though God had promised rain, he must ask it)”
This aligns with the scriptural understanding that divine promises invite human prayer, not render it unnecessary. Trusting God’s word, Elijah went to the mountaintop to intercede.
“And Elijah went up to the top of Mount Carmel. And he bowed himself down on the earth and put his face between his knees. And he said to his servant, ‘Go up now, look toward the sea.’… And he said, ‘Go again,’ seven times. And at the seventh time he said, ‘Behold, a little cloud like a man’s hand is rising from the sea.’”(1 Kings 18:42–44, ESV)
Elijah’s posture—bowed to the ground with face between his knees—was one of profound humility and earnestness. He sent his servant repeatedly to look for any sign of rain, refusing to give up. Scripture notes that Elijah prayed seven times until a tiny cloud finally appeared. The narrative emphasizes his perseverance.
The old Puritan commentator Matthew Henry admires how Elijah “continued praying, will not be diverted…while he keeps his mind close and intent in prayer, and abides by it, as one that has taken up his father Jacob’s resolution, ‘I will not let thee go except thou bless me’”
Six times the report was “there is nothing,” yet Elijah did not lose heart.
This illustrates the kind of faith-fueled importunity Jesus later commended about the widow who was persistent in her plea to the Judge (Luke 18:1–7). Henry draws a general lesson: “Though the answer of our fervent and believing supplications may not come quickly, yet we must continue instant [devoted] in prayer, and not faint nor desist; for at the end, it shall speak and not lie.” [it will happen.]
Historically and culturally, this event stood in stark contrast to the impotent prayers of Baal’s prophets earlier that day. Baal was supposedly a storm god, yet he had brought no rain. Elijah’s persistent prayer to Israel’s God, on the other hand, unleashed the rains of blessing.
Indeed, “God opened the bottles of heaven, and poured out blessings” that dayvindicating His sovereignty over the land’s fertility. We might recall that in Hebrew thought, the heavens were like waterskins or bottles (cf. Job 38:37). Fittingly, once Israel’s repentance began, “God…opened the bottles of heaven” with rain. It’s a lovely providence that the God who figuratively keeps our tears in a bottle also literally controls the “bottles” of the sky.
From a theological standpoint, Elijah’s prayer exemplifies the relationship between divine promise and human petition. God had declared He would send rain, yet Elijah “must ask it” in prayershowing that God ordains prayer as a means of fulfilling His word. Elijah’s fervency also reflects the truth later expressed in James 5:16–18, that “the prayer of a righteous person has great power.” James specifically cites Elijah’s earnest prayer for rain as an example of effective prayer, stressing that Elijah was a man “with a nature like ours” who simply prayed in faith.
In terms of Psalm 56:8, while the text does not explicitly mention Elijah weeping, we can imagine the emotional toll of those drought years on God’s prophet. Elijah had suffered exile and hardship during the drought (hiding by the brook and then in a widow’s home). Certainly, he had shed tears over Israel’s apostasy and the peoples’ misery.
Now on Carmel, every fervent plea he offered was as if depositing those tears into God’s bottle. And God did respond at Mount Carmel, and each supplication was noted by God until, in the seventh instance, a cloud the size of a man’s hand appeared and then the sky “grew black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain” (1 Kings 18:45).
Elijah’s tossed and turning (to borrow the Psalmist’s term “tossings”) through a long trial were not forgotten by the Lord In response to persistent prayer, God turned those stored-up tears into “showers of blessing” at the proper time.G&P
(Taken from “Tears in the Bottle” – book written by the author. Copies available at https://a.co/d/ir48RsE Kindle and Audio editions also available)
“Our tears are not lost; God catches them in His bottle, marking every sorrow.
No trial is overlooked by His loving heart.” ___ Charles Spurgeon
