God's bag and bottle
(Thomas Brooks, "Paradise
Opened" 1675)
"My transgression is
sealed up in a bag,
and You sew up my iniquity." Job 14:17
"You keep track of all my sorrows.
You have
collected all my tears in your bottle. You have
recorded each one in Your book." Psalm
56:8
God
counted all those weary steps which David took
in passing through those great forests, when he fled
from Saul. While David was hunted up and down like
a partridge, and chased out of every bush, and was
driven from one country to another—God was all
this while, a-noting down and a-numbering of all
his sorrows, and a-bottling up all his tears, and
a-booking down all his sighs!
Not a single tear of mine is ever lost, but kept safe
in God's bottle—as so much sweet water.
God is said in Scripture to have a bag and a bottle:
a bag for our sins, and a bottle for our tears. And
oh
that we would all labor to fill His bottle with our tears
of repentance, as we have filled His bag with our sins!