It’s kind of interesting to think about the things God counts . . . and the things God doesn’t count. I work in a world where, if we care about it, we measure it . . . track it . . . report it on a dashboard. Now, I don’t think God has a “dashboard” He updates with His latest numbers . . . but I have read about a book or two where He keeps track of stuff. And not the stuff I might track if I were the eternal Sovereign. In fact, there’s stuff I might keep track of which He blots out and forgets (Isa. 43:25) . . . removing it far from us . . . as far as the east is from the west (Ps. 103:12). No, instead, that which God counts . . . that which He keeps track of . . . is intended as a reminder of His constant care for us . . . and becomes the basis for our determination to trust Him in all circumstance.

You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in Your bottle. Are they not in Your book?   (Psalm 56:8 ESV)

Psalm 56 is another one of those Psalms, where David’s taking it in the teeth . . . “man tramples on me; all day long an attacker oppresses me” (v.1) . . . “all day long they injure my cause” (v.5) . . . “they watch my steps, as they have waited for my life” (v.6). Relentless! It just doesn’t stop! The attacks keep coming . . . the oppression keeps squeezing the breath out of him . . . desperation sets in. And where does David turn when there’s nowhere else to turn? “Be gracious to me, O God . . . When I am afraid, I put my trust in You . . . in God I trust, I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to me? . . . What can man do to me?” (v.3, 4, 11). And David turns to the Lord with unwavering faith, because David knows that God counts stuff . . . that God is intimately aware of the situation . . . that He tracks with every detail.

David felt like a ball in a pinball machine . . . getting bounced here and there . . . tossed to and for . . . feeling kind of out of control . . . wandering, it seemed, aimlessly, as he endured the gauntlet. But David knew that God knew. That his Deliverer was keeping track of each step . . . that his Refuge was intimately familiar with each staggering path he was taking . . . that his Fortress was aware of every unsure step and would keep his feet from falling (v.13b).

I don’t think of David as a crier . . . but he must have shed a tear or two (or three) along the way . . . for he believed that the God of Creation collected his tears and put them in a bottle. That the drops that fell from his eyes, and ran down his cheeks, were collected, counted, recorded in a book (along with the associated reason for their being shed, I’m thinkin’) and stored by a God who is big enough to notice and track the smallest details of our lives. And, as the Spirit interceded with David’s spirit . . . assuring Him of God’s divine collection and counting ministry . . . in the midst of the tempest, David could pen with confidence, “This I know, that God is for me” (v. 9b).

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? . . . No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.  (Romans 8:31, 37 ESV)

Oh, to be reminded that God is intimately aware of the details of our lives . . . even to the shedding of our tears.

” . . . in God I trust, I shall not be afraid . . .”