lamentations 3 explained
i. These streams followed up to the fountain: It is of the Lord's mercies. 7. Perhaps they had some tune or play, some opera or interlude, that was called the destruction of Jerusalem, which, though in the nature of a tragedy, was very entertaining to those who wished ill to the holy city. Jeremiah considers himself as part of these people but thereby repents and puts his hope in spite of all mourning in God. An Arabic poet. You have moved my soul far from peace; 2. We are sinful men, and that which we complain of is the just punishment of our sins; nay, it is far less than our iniquities have deserved. This St. Paul refers to in his account of the sufferings of the apostles. Lamentations is the only biblical book which, for the most part, is arranged in acrostic fashion. "Lamentations" was derived from a translation of the title as found in the Latin Vulgate (Vg.) Poetical Books In addition, emotional attributes of joy (Proverbs 23:16) and sorrow (Job 19:27; Psalm 73:21) were credited to them. (Harrison). Verse Lamentations 3:5. Error: Passwords should have at least 6 characters, Error: Usernames should only contain letters, numbers, dots, dashes, or underscores. And here are two things with which he comforts himself:, I. ( Lamentations 3:1-21) "I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. 16 He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones, he hath covered me with ashes. This and other passages in this poem have been applied to Jesus Christ's passion; but, in my opinion, without any foundation. 3 He has turned his hand against me. i. Or, My eye melts my soul; I have quite wept away my spirits; not only my eye is consumed with grief, but my soul and my life are spent with it, Ps 31 9, 10. b. Till the LORD from heaven looks down and sees: The intense weeping of Jeremiah and those like him must continue until God looks and sees, taking notice of and mercy to their misery. of The complaint renewed, ver 42-54. It is evident that in the preceding verses there is a bitterness of complaint against the bitterness of adversity, that is not becoming to man when under the chastising hand of God; and, while indulging this feeling, all hope fled. He actually felt it useful to remember it, to understand it for what it was, and to not pretend it wasnt there. Are we suffering for our sins? There was rich comfort in realizing that the tender affection of God was not completely spent; these compassions were new every morning. Since the text and audio content provided by BLB represent a That prayer should not pass through. And my hope That first, that last support of the miserable-it is gone! Wisdom Literature 1. Note, The prolonging of troubles is sometimes a temptation, even to praying people, to question whether God be what they have always believed him to be, a prayer-hearing God. Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament. Let us see what these things are which he calls to mind. i. 2 10. Get Your Bible Minute in Your Inbox Every Morning. Because His compassions fail not. Note, It becomes us to have humble hearts under humbling providences, and to renew our penitent humiliations for sin upon every remembrance of our afflictions and miseries. Do not fear: How powerful is this word when spoken by the Spirit of the Lord to a disconsolate heart. God has access to the spirit, and can so embitter that as thereby to embitter all the enjoyments; as, when the stomach is foul, whatever is eaten sours in it: "He has made me drunk with wormwood, so intoxicated me with the sense of my afflictions that I know not what to say or do. "While I have an interest in God, therein I have enough; I have that which is sufficient to counterbalance all my troubles and make up all my losses." Here is one word of comfort. (2.) (3.) God can entangle the head that thinks itself clearest, and sink the heart that thinks itself stoutest. Their case was really pitiable, yet they complain, Thou hast not pitied, v. 43. 29 He putteth his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope. This I recall to my mind, Yet these flashes of light are welcome and necessary. Dr. Blayney thinks that elyon, instead of being referred to God, should be considered as pointing out one of the chief of the people. 6. 1 Cor 4 13, We are made as the filth of the world and are the off-scouring of all things. Our lives are frail and forfeited, and yet we are alive; now the living, the living, they should praise, and not complain (Isa 38 19); while there is life there is hope, and therefore, instead of complaining that things are bad, we should encourage ourselves with the hope that they will be better. Though God was righteous, they were unrighteous. (2.) For he doth not afflict willingly It is no pleasure to God to afflict men. That is, Thou wilt give it to them freely, and without reserve; intimating that God felt no longer any bowels of compassion for them. We need a constant supply and God has promised to send them without fail. Prayer is the breath of the new man, sucking in the air of mercy in petitions and returning it in praises; it is both the evidence and the maintenance of the spiritual life. 23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. Destroy them in such a manner that all who see it may say, It is a destruction from the Almighty, who sits in the heavens and laughs at them (Ps 2 4), and may own that the heavens do rule," Dan 4 26. 21 This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. And covered me with ashes. Yes, certainly it is; and for the reconciling of us to our own afflictions, whatever they be, this general truth must thus be particularly applied. Let them be dealt with," (1.) However it be, yet God is good to them (Ps 73 1), and they may by faith see love in his heart even when they see frowns in his face and a rod in his hand. To turn aside the justice due a man This hindered God's favours from coming down upon them. By proceeding, you consent to our cookie usage. No; they are new every morning; every morning we have fresh instances of God's compassion towards us; he visits us with them every morning (Job 7 18); every morning does he bring his judgment to light, Zeph 3 5. Even in their catastrophe, God was faithful. All the prisoners of the earth, Note, Those that are cast down are commonly tempted to think themselves cast off, Ps 31 22; Jon 2 4. Nor grieve the children of men. It is the heart that God looks at in that and every other service; for what will a sacrifice without a heart avail? A mother listens for the breathing of her babe in the dark. God had said once (Hos 5 14), I will be as a lion to the house of Judah, and now he has made his word good (v. 10): "He was unto me as a bear lying in wait, surprising me with his judgments, and as a lion in secret places; so that which way soever I went I was in continual fear of being set upon and could never think myself safe." Note, We should consider, to our terror and caution, that God knows all the revengeful thoughts we have in our minds against others, and therefore we should not allow of those thoughts nor harbour them, and that he knows all the revengeful thoughts others have causelessly in their minds against us, and therefore we should not be afraid of them, but leave it to him to protect us from them. The afflicted church is drowned in tears, and the prophet for her (v. 48, 49): My eye runs down with rivers of water, so abundant was their weeping; it trickles down and ceases not, so constant was their weeping, without any intermission, there being no relaxation of their miseries. It is before the face of the Most High (v. 35); it is in his sight, under his eye, and is very displeasing to him. We are men, and not children that cry for every thing that hurts them. Praying is lifting up the soul to God (Ps 25 1) as to our Father in heaven; and the soul that hopes to be with God in heaven for ever will thus, by frequent acts of devotion, be still learning the way thither and pressing forward in that way. He is good to those who do so, v. 25. Oh, Book of books, the map of the way to glory; that man invokes a terrible curse upon his own head who refuses to study thee! a. He has aged my flesh and my skin, Jeremiah proposes his own experience under afflictions, as an example as to how the Jews should behave under theirs, so as to have hope of a restoration; hence the change from singular to plural ( Lamentations 3:22 Lamentations 3:40-47 ). Verse 30. "As they deserve (v. 64): Render to them a recompence according to the work of their hands. 2. This may refer to the prophet's personal experience, with which he encourages himself in reference to the public troubles. While there is life there is hope; and instead of complaining that things are bad, we should encourage ourselves with the hope they will be better. (3.) The prophet tells us: 3. God's compassions fail not; of this we have fresh instances every morning. Or subvert a man in his cause In Lamentations 3:34-36, certain acts of tyranny, malice, and injustice are specified, which men often indulge themselves in the practice of towards one another, but which the Divine goodness is far from countenancing or approving by any similar conduct. "When I lay gasping for life, and ready to expire, and thought i was breathing my last, then thou tookest cognizance of my distressed case." 3. The prophet relates the more gloomy and discouraging part of his experience, and how he found support and relief. Had we been dealt with according to our sins, we should have been consumed long ago; but we have been dealt with according to God's mercies, and we are bound to acknowledge it to his praise. "Let us lift up our heart;" let us make fervent prayer and supplication for mercy. To this very day it is asserted by Romanists that Martin Luther was a drunkard. 37 Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not? We must pray to him, with a believing expectation to receive mercy from him; for that is implied in our lifting up our hands to him (a gesture commonly used in prayer and sometimes put for it, as Ps 141 2, Let the lifting up of my hands be as the evening sacrifice); it signifies our requesting mercy from him and our readiness to receive that mercy. Note, The church of God is like Moses's bush, burning, yet not consumed; whatever hardships it has met with, or may meet with, it shall have a being in the world to the end of time. "Let them be dealt with according to the threatenings: Thy curse unto them; that is, let thy curse come upon them, all the evils that are pronounced in thy word against the enemies of thy people, v. 65. Give them a veiled heart; God never hides His ear from our breathing; or from those in- articulate cries, which express, as words could not do, the deep anguish and yearning of the heart. Those whom thou cursest are cursed indeed. We must lift up our hearts with our hands, as we must pour out our souls with our words. (2.) Johannine Writings We are men, and not brutes, reasonable creatures, who should act with reason, who should look upward and look forward, and both ways may fetch considerations enough to silence our complaints. Quietness is necessary to waiting, for all turbulency and impatience of spirit under sad providences is opposed to waiting. (Poole). 1:6 . Cookie Notice: Wisdom Literature With this should go the complete submission to God pictured in v. 29 by the Oriental obeisance. (Lamentations 3:27-29) Hope for the silent soul. it was to no purpose; he remembers, upon all occasions, the affliction and the misery, the wormwood and the gall. Happy shall we be, if we learn to receive affliction as laid upon us by the hand of God. Does God Really Work All Things Together for Good? Let us search out and examine our ways, and turn back to the LORD: Even under the great sense that God was their opponent and adversary (Lamentations 3:1-18), Jeremiah recommended the proper and humble approach. b. 12 He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow. d. You have seen all their vengeance: Jeremiah brought his case to God, telling him of all the ways that his enemies had attacked him. He has turned His hand against me: A metaphor from buffeters, who double their blows, beating their adversaries on both sides, as the smith doth his red hot iron upon the anvil till he hath shaped it. (Trapp). The title of the 102nd Psalm might very fitly be prefixed to this chapterThe prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed, and pours out his complaint before the Lord; for it is very feelingly and fluently that the complaint is here poured out. i. In darkness and not in light. ii. 2. My soul, having them in remembrance, is humbled in me, not only oppressed with a sense of the trouble, but in bitterness for sin. The streams of mercy acknowledged: We are not consumed. It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed Being thus humbled, and seeing himself and his sinfulness in a proper point of view, he finds that God, instead of dealing with him in judgment, has dealt with him in mercy; and that though the affliction was excessive, yet it was less than his iniquity deserved. Desolation and destruction. We are afflicted by the rod of his wrath, but it is of the lord's mercies that we are not consumed, v. 22. Pentateuch Surely He has turned His hand against me: Jeremiah did not stay in this dark and desperate place, but he would not deny being there. Note, It is our duty to make God the portion of our souls, and then to make use of him as our portion and to take the comfort of it in the midst of our lamentations. here are mercies in the plural number, denoting the abundance and variety of those mercies. 1. The poets mention of the LORD broke the spell of misery that had bound him. (Ellison). They had several times complained that God had not pitied (ch. Thus sometimes God seems to be angry even against the prayers of his people (Ps 80 4), and their case is deplorable indeed when they are denied not only the benefit of an answer, but the comfort of acceptance. Blue Letter Bible offers several daily devotional readings in order to help you refocus on Christ and the Gospel of His peace and righteousness. For the Lord will not cast off forever: The suffering endured was not everlasting. 65 Give them sorrow of heart, thy curse unto them. He has mingled gravel with my bread, so that my teeth are broken with it (v. 16) and what I eat is neither pleasant nor nourishing. When the Lord has not commanded it? d. You have made us an offscouring and refuse: In the desire to turn back to the LORD, Jeremiah knew that it was important to honestly see their condition. Like the dead of long ago. To turn aside the right of a man To make a man lose his right, because one of the higher orders opposes him. Matthew Henrys Bible Commentary (concise), Matthew Henry Bible Commentary (complete), California - Do Not Sell My Personal Information. The Gospels It has already been noticed in the introduction, that this chapter contains a triple acrostic, three lines always beginning with the same letter; so that the Hebrew alphabet is thrice repeated in this chapter, twenty-two multiplied by three being equal to sixty-six. He who has his life still lent to him has small cause of complaint. Because of all the daughters of my city. Judge thou my cause, v. 59. It is good that a man should both hope Hope is essentially necessary to faith; he that hopes not, cannot believe; if there be no expectation, there can be no confidence. Though He causes grief, Lamentations 3 is the third chapter of the Book of Lamentations in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible, . Johannine Writings He is the Most High, whose authority over them they contemn by abusing their authority over their subjects, not considering that he that is higher than the highest regardeth, Eccl 5 8. Lamentations 3 Hebrew with Rashi's Commentary; Christian. Pauline Epistles Proud member He has pulled me in pieces; he has torn and is gone away (Hos 5 14), and has made me desolate, has deprived me of all society and all comfort in my own soul." We are men, and not angels, and therefore cannot expect to be free from troubles as they are; we are not inhabitants of that world where there is no sorrow, but this where there is nothing but sorrow. It is good because it keeps from bearing the devils yoke. 1. translation of the Greek OT, the Septuagint (LXX) 1, and conveys the idea of "loud cries.". 3. To every mourner we may say, on the authority of God, Fear not! d. It is good that he should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD: Everything previous in Lamentations was deep in despair, and the misery was by no means over. Like many psalms (see Psalms 22 and 88 for examples), the poem begins with painful and heartfelt statements about the horrors of the author (Lamentations 3:1-20). They complain of the afflictions they are under, not without some reflections upon God, which we are not to imitate, but, under the sharpest trials, must always think and speak highly and kindly of him. Fear and a snare have come upon us, 2. 8. While we wait for him by faith, we must seek him by prayer: our souls must seek him, else we do not seek so as to find. a. To report dead links, typos, or html errors or suggestions about making these resources more useful use the convenient. Because God has laid it on him; III. (1.) And God's causing our grief ought to be no discouragement at all to those expectations. According to the multitude of His mercies. The contempt and calumny wherewith they loaded him, all that they spoke slightly of him, and all that they spoke reproachfully: "Thou hast heard their reproach (v. 61), all the bad characters they give me, laying to my charge things that I know not, all the methods they use to make me odious and contemptible, even the lips of those that rose up against me (v. 62), the contumelious language they use whenever they speak of me, and that at their sitting down and rising up, when they lie down at night and get up in the morning, when they sit down to their meat and with their company, and when they rise from both, still I am their music; they make themselves and one another merry with my miseries, as the Philistines made sport with Samson." (Lamentations 3:48-51) Weeping over destruction. If you turn to the life of Whitfield our great and mighty Whitfield in more modern times, what was his character? From under the heavens of the LORD. Through the good hand of our God upon us we are alive yet, though dying daily; and shall a living man complain? In the midst of the peoples. They complain of the lamentable destruction that their enemies made of them (v. 47): Fear and a snare have come upon us; the enemies have not only terrified us with those alarms, but prevailed against us by their stratagems, and surprised us with the ambushes they laid for us; and then follows nothing but desolation and destruction, the destruction of the daughter of my people (v. 48), of all the daughters of my city, v. 51. That great is his faithfulness. It is good for young people to take that yoke upon them in their youth; we cannot begin too soon to be religious. The yoke in his youth: Early habits, when good, are invaluable. He has made my chain heavy: As the convict sometimes drags about his chain, and has a ball at his foot, so the prophet felt as if God had clogged him with a heavy chain, so that he could not move because of its terrible weight. (Spurgeon). None of these makes any material change in the meaning of the words. That God will graciously return to his people with seasonable comforts according to the time that he has afflicted them, v. 31, 32. A sad complaint of God's displeasure and the fruits of it, ver 1-20. The lips of my enemies I am their song, their neginath, or hand-instrument of music, their tabret (Job 17 6), that they play upon, as Nero on his harp when Rome was on fire. and has broken my bones. He marvels that God should have drawn near to him, for his condition was a very pitiful one. That God has compassions and comforts in store even for those whom he has himself grieved. c. In Your anger, pursue and destroy them from under the heavens of the LORD: Jerusalem and Judah had faced the anger of God and the destruction that came from it. In a season of great suffering or calamity, it may be difficult to remember that God rules over all things if not directly, then in what He allows. 4 He has made my skin and flesh grow old. a. I have eaten ashes like bread," Ps 102 9. But the weakest believer is wrong, if he thinks that his strength and hope are perished from the Lord. The Lord is my portion Psalms 119:57. It hindered their prayers from coming up unto God (v. 44): "Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud," not like that bright cloud in which he took possession of the temple, which enabled the worshippers to draw near to him, but like that in which he came down upon Mount Sinai, which obliged the people to stand at a distance. It was an affliction that was misery itself; for sin makes the cup of . Persecute and destroy them in anger, as they persecute and destroy us in their anger. Their enemies persecuted and slew them, but that was not the worst of it; they were but the instruments in God's hand: "Thou hast persecuted us, and thou hast slain us, though we expected thou wouldst protect and deliver us." More is implied than is expressed. - Blayney. If you will turn to the lives of any of the saints of God, you will discover that they were the victims of slanders of the grossest kind. This verse seems to allude to the Chaldaic prediction, in Jeremiah 10:11. Words of comfort to God's people when they are in trouble and distress, ver 21-36. You have slain and not pitied. My soul has them still in remembrance. It is good that one should hope and wait quietly Surely He has turned His hand against me He has blocked my ways with hewn stone; Looks down and sees. Yet most people today have never heard of John Gill. To the soul who seeks Him. He has led me and made me walk in darkness: This seems to be the hardest part of our lot, that God should lead us into darkness: He hath led me, and brought me into darkness. Yet dear brethren, that is, on the other hand, the sweetest thing about our trial; because, if the darkness be in the place where God has led us, it is best for us to be in the dark. (Spurgeon). Hab 1 13, Wherefore lookest thou upon those that deal treacherously? The sum is, If tribulation work patience, that patience will work experience, and that experience a hope that makes not ashamed. Though God serves his own purposes by the violence of wicked and unreasonable men, yet it does no therefore follow that he countenances that violence, as his oppressed people are sometimes tempted to think. The New Testament V. That afflictions are really good for us, and, if we bear them aright, will work very much for our good. We are living men. I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of His wrath, He has led me and made me walk in darkness, He has been to me like a bear lying in wait, My strength and my hope have perished from the LORD, My soul still remembers and sinks within me, This I recall to mind, therefore I have hope, Through the LORDs mercies we are not consumed, The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him, It is good that he should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD, It is good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth, Let him give his cheek to the one who strikes him, according to the multitude of His mercies, For He does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men, To turn aside the justice due a man before the face of the Most High. He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth He has that love that is not provoked. But waiting is good because God is worth waiting for. (Ryken). They complain that there was a wall of partition between them and God, and, (1.) My enemies without cause hunted me down like a bird: Jeremiah and those like him felt under constant pressure from capture or killing. 3. I do not see that we gain any thing by this. If tribulation work patience, that patience will work experience, and that experience a hope that makes not ashamed. What is said of the idols is here said of their worshippers (who in this also shall be like unto them), They shall perish from under these heavens, Jer 10 11. again and again, all day long. We have been with him, and it has never been well with us since we forsook him; let us therefore now turn again to him." Who is he who speaks and it comes to pass, when the Lord has not commanded it? That though we may seem to be cast off for a time, while sensible comforts are suspended and desired salvations deferred, yet we are not really cast off, because not cast off for ever; the controversy with us shall not be perpetual. 1. He has also broken my teeth with gravel, That God appears against him as an enemy, as a professed enemy. c. And turn back to the LORD: All the self-examination in the world does little good if it does not lead us back to this place. When we are in affliction, 1. Instead of Adonai, seventeen MSS., of Kennicott's, and one ancient of my own, have Yehovah. The Gospels But he does not do it willingly, not from the heart; so the word is. Is it not what he has ordained and appointed for us? Shall a man complain? That which is most impressive in this song is the identification of the prophet with the people and with God. Like a lawyer pleading for his client, God pleaded the case for his life. They have created us a great deal of vexation; now, Lord, give them sorrow of heart (v. 65), perplexity of heart" (so some read it); "let them be surrounded with threatening mischiefs on all sides, and not be able to see their way out. Note, Men are but tools which the great God makes use of, and manages as he pleases, in the government of this lower world; and they cannot accomplish any of their designs without him. Spurgeon suggested many reasons why it is good to bear the yoke when young: b. Note, Though we are cast into ever so low a dungeon, we may thence find a way of access to God in the highest heavens. 10 He was unto me as a bear lying in wait, and as a lion in secret places. Note, When we draw nigh to God in a way of duty we may by faith see him drawing nigh to us in a way of mercy. Let us observe the particulars of it. i. Though all this take place, yet let his "trust be in God, who will not cast off for ever." Email / username or password was incorrect! Here Jeremiah fulfills that role with tears that flow and do not cease, without interruption. 2. Blue Letter Bible is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. It will tell her so much. Afflictions do and will work very much for good: many have found it good to bear this yoke in their youth; it has made many humble and serious, and has weaned them from the world, who otherwise would have been proud and unruly. II. He has hedged me about, that I cannot get out." They were against him like a fowler is against a bird. It was only a breathing. Waters of affliction flowed over my head. 63 Behold their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their music. In His wise judgments God caused grief, but promised to also show compassion, and would do so according to the multitude of His mercies. It is added (v. 51), "My eye affects my heart. 1. Of all the men who lived through that terrible period, no one had a better right to say this than Jeremiah. Verse 29. General Epistles God is an inexhaustible fountain of mercy, the Father of mercies. Why, said the master, I have first to teach you to hold your tongue, and afterwards to instruct you how to speak. The Lord teaches true penitents how to hold their tongues. (Spurgeon), ii.
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