You number my wanderings: put you my tears into your bottle: are they not in your book?
Read Chapter 56
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
13. "O God, my life I have told out to Thee" (ver. 8). For that I live hath been Thy doing, and for this reason I tell out my life to Thee. But did not God know that which He had given? What is that which thou tellest out to Him? Wilt thou teach God? Far be it. Therefore why saith he, "I have told out to Thee"? Is it perchance because it profiteth Thee that I have told out my life? And what doth it profit God? To the advantage of God it doth profit. I have told out to God my life, because that life hath been God's doing. In like manner as his life Paul the Apostle did tell out, saying, "I that before was a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious," he shall tell out his life. "But mercy I have obtained." He hath told out his life, not for himself, but for Him: because he hath told it out in such sort, that in Him men believe, not for his own advantages, but for the advantages of Him. ..."O God, my life I have told out to Thee. Thou hast put my tears in Thy sight." Thou hast hearkened ...
I have. Protestants, "thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle. Are they not in thy book? "St. Jerome, "thou hast numbered my most secret things: place my tears in thy sight "(Haydock)
Septuagint render the sense clearer. (Berthier)
God has promised to relieve the distressed, who confided in him.
