See where Jeremiah gets his comfort; he seems to say, Bad as my case is, it might have been worse, for I might have been consumed, and I should have been consumed if the Lords compassions had failed. (Spurgeon). Your partnership makes all we do possible. It will tell her so much. Let him sit alone and keep silent, This may refer to the prophet's personal experience, with which he encourages himself in reference to the public troubles. Judge thou my cause, v. 59. He has also broken my teeth with gravel: What a figure to express disgust, pain, and the consequent incapacity of taking food for the support of life; a man, instead of bread, being obliged to eat small pebbles till all his teeth are broken to pieces by endeavouring to grind them. I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of His wrath. 2. They rejected and rebelled for generations, then looked to others for rescue. Our seeking will help to keep up our waiting. Note, The distresses of God's people sometimes prevail to such a degree that they cannot find any footing for their faith, nor keep their head above water, with any comfortable expectation. That God sees them. Peculiarities 4 He has made my skin and my flesh grow old. Johannine Writings The Blue Letter Bible ministry and the BLB Institute hold to the historical, Pursue and destroy them 1. Yet He will show compassion Where there was a way open it is now quite made up: He has compassed me on ever side with gall and travel; I vex, and fret, and tire myself, to find a way of escape, but can find none, v. 7. (2.) Lamentations 1:3 Commentaries: Judah has gone into exile under 2 He has driven me away and made me walk in darkness rather than light; 3 indeed, he has turned his hand against me again and again, all day long. When we are meek and mild towards those who are the instruments of our trouble, and are of a forgiving spirit, v. 30. 57 Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not. You drew near: Jeremiah seems to record this fact with a considerable amount of surprise. I said, I am cut off! Their eyes, which now run down with water, shall still wait upon the Lord their God until he have mercy upon them, Ps 123 2. Did he endeavour as Job did (Job 9 27), to forget his complaint? 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. When our comforts fail, yet God's compassions do not. Did ever man paint sorrow like this man? The Old Testament i. 2. Many of the young men were carried into captivity. I forget prosperity; it is so long since I had it, and so unlikely that I should ever recover it, that I have lost the idea of it. Though we be but weak in prayer, cannot cry aloud, but only breathe in groanings that cannot be uttered, yet we shall not be neglected if we be sincere. 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. That, when we are cast down, yet we are not cast off; the father's correcting his son is not a disinheriting of him. Without interruption, But when do we bear the yoke so that it is really good for us to bear it in our youth? He faithfully announced His judgments and performed them, and God would prove to be just as faithful in His promised restoration. Pauline Epistles Here the clouds begin to disperse and the sky to clear up; the complaint was very melancholy in the former part of the chapter, and yet here the tune is altered and the mourners in Zion begin to look a little pleasant. To save the heart from being quite broken, here is something called to mind, which gives ground for hope (v. 21), which refers to what comes after, not to what goes before. Such burdens can best be borne in youth when a man has the requisite vigour, and when his personality needs to be disciplined more than would be the case in his more mature years. (Harrison). Lamentations 3 Commentary - Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible The streams of mercy acknowledged: We are not consumed. Lamentations 3 - I am the man who has seen affliction by - Bible Gateway 39 Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins? (Lamentations 3:19-20) The sinking soul. The malice they had against him: "Thou hast seen all their vengeance, how they desire to do me a mischief, as if it were by way of reprisal for some great injury I had done them." However, while Job dealt with unexplained evil, Jeremiah lamented a tragedy entirely of Jerusalem's making. i. The Old Testament The prophet relates the more gloomy and discouraging part of his experience, and how he found support and relief. Copyright 2023, Bible Study Tools. Historical Books 37 Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not? Note, It is common for base and ill-natured men to run upon, and run down, those that have fallen into the depths of distress from the height of honour. We must lift up our hearts with our hands, as we must pour out our souls with our words. Minor Prophets Thank you for registering. 2 15, 16. If tribulation work patience, that patience will work experience, and that experience a hope that makes not ashamed. Thus restless was the enmity of their persecutors, and yet causeless. It is good because it gives you more years to serve God. (3.) He has covered me with ashes, as mourners used to be, or (as some read it) he has fed me with ashes. Life in any sense is a sweet mercy, even that which to the afflicted may seem a lifeless life. (Trapp). Who is he who speaks and it comes to pass, when the Lord has not commanded it? 20 My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me. Here he began to write as the voice of an individual sufferer. Of this, death would deprive him; therefore let not a living man complain. 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. 2. Lamentations - Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary - StudyLight.org i. It will make our duty the more acceptable to God, and easy to ourselves, if we engage in it when we are young. Verse 36. Poetical Books Pentateuch Who is he who speaks and it comes to pass, when the Lord has not commanded it? Those who in their haste have chidden with God must, in the reflection, chide themselves for it. Lamentations 3:32 (HCSB) Verse Thoughts Jeremiah is often called 'the weeping prophet' for he was to prophecy to deaf ears and witness to blinded, callused hearts. 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. Verse 57. A verification email has been sent to the address you provided. This I recall to my mind, &c. Here the prophet begins to suggest motives of patience and consolation: as if he had said, I call to mind the following considerations, and thereupon I conceive hope and comfort. Like a lawyer pleading for his client, God pleaded the case for his life. 23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. Instead of Adonai, seventeen MSS., of Kennicott's, and one ancient of my own, have Yehovah. (Lamentations 3:27-29) Hope for the silent soul. 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. 1:6 . My eyes flow and do not cease, ii. David Guzik :: Study Guide for Lamentations 3 Early habits, when good, are invaluable. We must look up to God as a God in the heavens, infinitely above us, and who has an incontestable dominion over us; for the heavens do rule, and are therefore not to be quarrelled with, but submitted to. He comes out of his place to punish, for his place is the mercy-seat. Surely He has turned His hand against me From my sighing, from my cry for help.. 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. i. How great soever his affliction may be, he is still alive; therefore, he may seek and find mercy unto eternal life. Lamentations 4 Commentary - Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible (Lamentations 3:64-66) Giving vengeance to God. b. My seeing eye affects my heart. 65 Give them sorrow of heart, thy curse unto them. Give them a veiled heart; See Jeremiah 38:6, &c. Verse 56. "We have transgressed;" let our confession of sin be fervent and sincere. He had silenced their fears and quieted their spirits (v. 57): "Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee; thou didst graciously assure me of thy presence with me, and give me to see thee nigh unto me, whereas I had thought thee to be at a distance from me." Verse 20. Quietness is necessary to waiting, for all turbulency and impatience of spirit under sad providences is opposed to waiting. (Poole). This intimates, (1.) II. We must keep silence under the yoke as those that have borne it upon us, not wilfully pulled it upon our own necks, but patiently submitted to it when God laid it upon us. Every morning brings new forgiveness for new sins. In the process of remembering Gods attributes, Jeremiah was drawn back into living fellowship and intimate communion with his faithful God. (Ryken). 4 He has made my skin and flesh grow old. a. 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. The prophet addressed him personally and directly: Great is your faithfulness. 4. We must set ourselves to answer God's intention in afflicting us, which is to bring sin to our remembrance, and to bring us home to himself, v. 40. 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.
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