Big Idea: To ask God to store our tears “in his bottle” is to affirm our trust in God’s attentive care to the detail of our miseries.

Understanding the Text

Psalm 56 is an individual lament that, suggested by the Greek and Aramaic translations of “A Dove on Distant Oaks,” came to be used as a community lament (see the comments on the title below). As is often the case with laments, the psalm is tempered by statements of trust (56:3, 4, 11), so much so that we would not go entirely wrong if we called it an individual psalm of trust.

A lament typically contains the lament proper and the reason for the lament, although the reason is not always given in a lot of detail. Here, however, there is some detail. The lament, found in verses 1b–c, 2, and 5–6, informs us that the suppliant’s enemi…