The wanderings and tears of David and a sinner woman
Psalm 56:8, “You have taken account of my wanderings.” David spent a great part of his life wandering like a vagabond from place to place; from the slaying of Goliath till the death of Saul, he was hunted by Saul as an enemy. He is assured that God is with him wherever he goes and that God is aware of his circumstances as he hides in various caves and wildernesses. David adds, “put my tears in your bottle.”
The Romans had a custom of using ‘lachrymatory’, or bottles of glass, clay, or skin, to store tears shed over the distress and afflictions of their lives and of their friends and loved ones. They would bury this bottle of tears with the deceased loved one. David is saying here, “let my distress and the tears I have shed over it be before you and grant me relief.” David goes on to say, “are they not in thy book?” He is confident that God takes account of every circumstance, of every tear, and records each one in a book, and in due time would remember his sufferings, and comfort him. God records our conception, Psalm 139:15, our birth, Psalm 87:6, our actions, Malachi 3:16, and what shall happen to us, Jeremiah 22:30, Daniel 12!
These ‘lacrima’ (tear) jars were used to keep the tears of families from multiple generations. These were not only used by the Romans, but were also used by the Hebrews as referred to by David in Psalm 56:8.
With this understanding of the ‘tear’ bottle in mind, take another look at the woman washing the feet of Jesus in Luke 7:36-38;
“One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment.”
At first reading, with our American culture worldview, we think this woman is crying in repentance over her sins as she kneels before the holiness of her Lord Jesus Christ. I’m sure this is part of it, as she had lived a life of a sinner. But if you look at it closer and ask yourself; “how many tears would it take to wash someone’s feet?”
What if she had brought the bottle of tears that she had shed in her life, and that also held the tears shed in her loved ones’ lives, to wash the feet of Jesus? This would give this passage a much deeper meaning.
As David was asking God to keep all the tears he had shed in a bottle and written in a book, so that in due time God would remember his sufferings, and take action to comfort Him, so too, this sinner woman was asking Jesus to remember her tears over her and her family’s sins and from their sufferings as she washed His feet with them! She was literally pouring out all the pain and hurt from her generations onto the feet of her Lord!
The Pharisee responded with accusation against Christ for not knowing what manner of woman was washing His feet. Jesus instructed him that the one who is forgiven much is the one who loves much! The woman felt in the deepest part of her being that she was forgiven, not only of her sins, but of the sins of her ancestors as well, and her heart overflowed in thankfulness as her tears not only flowed from her eyes, but as she poured generational tears from her ‘lachrymatory’!