Lamentations 3

Lamentations 3:1-20

The hope of this chapter is the same with that of the two foregoing chapters, but the compulsion is somewhat different; that was in long verse, this in short; that in single alphabet, this is a treble one. Here is, 1. A few complains of God’s delphigism, and of the fruits of it, ver. 1—20. 2. Words of comfort to God’s people when they are in trouble and distress, ver. 21—36. 3. Duty prescribed in this afflicted state, ver. 37—41. 4. The complaint removed, ver. 42—54. 5. Encouragement taken to hope on God, and continue waiting for his salvation; until an appeal to his justice against the persecutors of the church, ver. 55—63.

1. I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. 2. He hath led me and brought me into darkness, but not saw light. 3. Surely against me is he turned, he turned his hand against me all the day. 4. My flesh and my skin hath he made old, ‘he hath broken my bones. 5. He hath builded against me, and compassed me with gall and travel. 6. He hath set me in dark places, as they that he dead of old. 7. He hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out: he hath made my chain heavy. 8. Also when I cry and shout, ‘he shouteth out my prayer. 9. He hath inclosed my ways with hewn stone: he hath made my paths crooked. 10. He may unto me at a beat lying in wait, and at a bon in secret places. 11. He hath turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces: he hath made me desolate. 12. He hath beat his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow. 13. He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins. 14. I was a derision to all my people, and their song all the day. 15. He hath filled me with his tresses, ‘he hath made me drunken with wormwood. 16. He hath also broken my teeth with gravel-floors, he hath covered me with ether. 17. And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace:

peace: I forget; I prosperity. 18. And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the LORD, 19. Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. 20. My soul hath them still in remembrance, * and is humbled in me.

The prophet here mingles his lamentations over his own sufferings with those of the people; or he perishments the church in general, and some, with good appearance of reason, suppose him herein a type of Christ.

1. He laments over his afflictions as singularly heavy, embittered with a sense of God’s wrath, v. 1. for, though God chastifies his own children ever in love, they are apt, especially when the red lies heavy upon them, to think it is in anger.

2. Darkness surrounded him: he saw no light, no cheating beam of hope, no door of escape out of his victories, and seemed as one already in the grave, v. 6. which may refer to the dark dungeon in which he was shot up; or to the captivity of the people, wherein they thought themselves as buried among the heathen. Note, (1.) A child of light tomestime walks in darkness. (2.) We are too apt to be giving way to our unbelieving fears, and to think, when cast down, we are utterly cast off.

3. God appears his enemy, v. 3. He is the hurt of all the arrows of his indignation, v. 12, 13. So surely was the land afflicted with all that variety of judgments which seemed as it were to exhaust God’s quiver. And herein the prophet seems not to speak of himself, but personates his people.

4. God hath shut him up in the hand of his enemies, hedged him in with their forces, builded the mounts against him, and compelled him with gall and travel, v. 5. every effort to discontinue himself riveted the chain but the father, and made it the more heavy, v. 7. His ways are misled as with brain from, he cannot break through; all his schemes are uncurfed, and all his paths crooked; the farther he advances the more he is bewildered, v. 9. Now, Such will the crooked paths of his he found; the farther we go in them the more miserable we shall grow.

5. The Lord seemed to have made an utter end of him, emaciated through famine, his strength broken, v. 4. As a lion and a bear waiting to seize their prey, So God watched over him for evil, v. 10. He was filled with bitterness under the head of what he felt, and with the apprehension of the greater evils he feared; and staggered as one drunk with affliction, v. 25. covered with ashes, in the dull he lay, and eat waste than the bread of mourners, his teeth broken with gravel-shoots, that were mingled with the meal; nay he hath pulled me in pieces, as one torn limb from limb. Thus had God dispersed the Jews, and laid their land utterly desolate, v. 11.

6. The Lord refused to be intreated. The loudest cries are in vain, he would neither hear the prophet’s intercession nor the peoples prayer for themselves; and, when prayer fails of producing, the case appears desperate indeed.

7. He was a derision to all the people: they mocked at and made mercy with him, endeavouring his sorrows, and pleased with his sufferings, v. 7. and to a generous spirit very hard is this to be born.

8. He almost sunk into despair. Then hast removed my soul far off from peace; no prospect of it remained: I forget prosperity, never expecting its return: and I said, my strength and hope are perished from the Lord; abandoned by him, and no more expecting help and support from him, and then despair was unavoidable: So deeply are the faithful sometimes dejected; and this arose from the view of his affliction and misery, which seemed more than he was able to bear, v. 19.

The Lord Jesus was emphatically this man of sorrows, delirium, afflicted, tormented, stricken, sinister of God, endearing all the wrath our iniquities deserved, derided in his agony, his soul in darkness and dereliction, and his misery compleat.

5. 21. This I recall to my mind, * therefore have I hope.

6. ¶ It is of the LORD’s mercies that we are not convinced, because his compassions fail not. 23. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. 24. The LORD is my portion, saith my soul, * therefore will I hope in him. 25. The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. 26. It is good that a man should both hope, and * quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD. 27. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. 28. He stretch alone, and keepeth silence, because he hath born it upon him. 29. He puttereth his mouth in the dust, if so he there may be hope. 30. He giveth his cheek to him that stretch him, he is filled full with reproach. 31. For the LORD will not call off for ever. 32. But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. 33. For * he doth not afflict willingly, nor greve the children of men. 34. To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth. 35. To turn aside the right of a man before the face

§ of the most High, 36. To subvert a man in his cause, ¶ the LORD approves not.

Lamentations 3:21-36

At last a gleam of cheating hope breaks through the dreadful gloom. My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled within me; and real humiliation is the sure way to returning confidation; or the words may be more truly rendered. Then with surely remember, expressing his faith in God, notwithstanding all his sorrows; for my soul meditates within me, on thy grace, mercy, truth, and faithfulness; this I recall to mind, therefore have I hope, that still excludes despair. A variety of reasons he suggests to encourage this hope, and comfort his heart in God.

1. It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not confirmed, as we have deserved to be. It is mercy, infinite mercy, that spares any sinner for a moment: we may wonder we are out of hell, and he ashamed to complain, when all temporal affliction is so much less than our iniquity deserves. His compassions fail not, though sometimes they seem exhausted, and his loving-kindness quite gone for evermore; yet it is our infirmity when we bear it, and a little patience will grow it so; for they are not every morning, both temporal mercies, that every day fall thick around us as the drops of dew, and spiritual mercies in Christ Jesus, the source of which is inexhaustible.

2. Great is thy faithfulness. His truth eternally confirms what his mercy promises; and his everlasting covenants, well ordered in all things and fairs, affords the most solid foundation for faith and hope in every time of need.

3. The Lord is my portion, saith my soul. Since God hath engaged to be such to his people, saith embraces the promise; and they who have an interest in his love and favour have all that heart can with, and a possession which, when we are deprived of every earthly good, is enough to make us happy, and satisfy all our wishes. Therefore I hope in him, when every other support fails. And this hope will never make ashamed, for the Lord is good to them that wait for him, and will not disappoint their expectations, bestowing on them, according to their necessities, a rich supply for every want; to the soul that seeketh him, in earnest prayer and humble perseverance, in the life of those means of grace he hath appointed; for, though the answer may be delayed, the mercy is sure to be granted to all who hope, and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord, not murmuring against God, but acquiescing in his holy will, patiently expecting his salvation, temporal, spiritual, and eternal; for it is great to do so; our highest interest as well as our hounded duty.

4. Our very troubles are designed of God for our benefit. It is good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth: the yoke of afflictions, which serve to wean the mind from earthly vanishes, and teach us to seek our better rest above; as the yoke of the commandments, Christ’s early yoke, which the sooner we take upon us, from the earliest days of youth, the predilection we shall find it: though the former sense seems particularly here intended. Such a one attach alone, retired to commune with God, to march out his own spirit, and to die and humbly his soul under the cause of his afflictions; and keepeth silence, no murmuring word escapes him, he is dumb and openeth not his mouth, he could be both born it upon him, willingly yielding his neck to the yoke, or because his (God) hath laid it on him, and therefore this consideration induces every thought of discontent. He puneth his mouth in the dust, confessing his vileness, and just desert of all he suffers, and humbly hears before the chattering end, if so he there may be hope, or paradoxation there is hope; not as if doubting of the promises, but as confessing his own unworthiness to abstain the mercy he seeks. Thus humbled, he puneth his mind in him that seeketh him, can bear without resentment every malignity; he is filled full with reproach, but for of all who follow Christ, but never returns raising for raising, but contrariwise blessing, learning of him to be meek and lowly of heart. Such is the spirit and temper of a real penitent, and the issue of such sufferings and submission cannot but be good, very good for us.

5. The Lord will not call off for ever, which is the great argument both for patience and repentance. Though the faithful are cast down, they are not call off: their sufferings may be long, but they shall not be far ever. His purposes of grace and love towards them are unchangeable, and in their lowest state they can still hope in his mercy. Our heaviness indeed for a time may be great, through manifold temptations; but, though he can’t give, his chastisements all flow from his paternal heart towards us, and are designed to work Godly sorrow that leads to eternal salvation; and therefore, when the end of the affliction is answered, he said yet have compelled according to the multitude of his mercies, which are in Christ Jesus boundless and infinite; for with no other view death he ever carried his dear children, he doth not afflict willingly, nor greve the children of men, he takes no delight in our miseries; by our sins we provoke him, as a tender father, with reluctance to take the rest; but he tends for us when he chastises, and is grieved in our affliction, and gladly lays down the rest when it hath answered the end for which he sent it. Oh how great are the tender mercies of our God! How can we but kiss the end of such a father!

6. Though he permits, for wise and holy ends, the oppression of the wicked, he is far from approving it. To crush under his feet

holdened his hope that the Lord would yet deliver them. Note, (1.) There is no prison so deep, but prayer can find a ready way out of it to the throne of God. (2.) Puff mercies should encourage present hope. (3.) That is the effectual prayer, when the foul breathes forth its fervent desires, and still feels more than it can utter. (4.) They who by faith commit their souls to God, need fear no evil. (5.) If God hath redeemed our souls, then, however fore befet and thrust it by our enemies, we shall never perish.

2. He refers his cafe and his people’s unto the Lord. God had first the wrong his enemies had done him, their malicious designs, and their revengeful spirit, v. 60. he had heard their reproaches and insults, and how they daily made themselves merry in drinking him, v. 61-63, and therefore he appeals to him for judgment against them, v. 65. not in a spirit of revenge, but that the justice of God may be firm in the righteous retaliation of their unprovoked malignity, v. 64. Gave them fervors of heart, thy wife unto them, the heaviest of all plagues, and the full defeat of their wickedness. Presence and defray them in anger, from under the heavens of the Lord, their deeds of darkness having made them unworthy the light of day. Nor. (1.) Though fools still mock on, and sport at God’s people, the day is near when their minds will be turned into mourning. (2.) We to those against whom God’s oppressed people appeal to him for justice.