Lamentations 3
A. The LORD is against you.
1. The man who was harmed by the LORD, 1–9.
a. I am the guy who has experienced suffering at the hands of God’s wrath: In chapters 1 and 2, Jeremiah primarily personified Jerusalem in his writing. Here, he started to write in the perspective of a single victim. Jeremiah was involved, but he was not the only one. He and many others had witnessed suffering, and they understood that it was God’s rebuke (the rod of His wrath).
● “The afflictions of the people of Judah are spoken of as if one man had gone through them. This chapter can be read as a reflection of Jeremiah’s personal emotions, the personification of a tragic national sorrow or an otherwise unknown person.
● The personal sorrow of Jeremiah serves as a reminder that pain is always personal. When a nation experiences tragedy and adversity, the individual level always experiences the most sorrow.
● The prophet being associated with both the people and God is what I find to be most impressive in this song. He acknowledged that pain was necessary, but he also experienced it.
● “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,” but dear brothers, that is, on the other hand, the sweetest thing about our trial because, if the darkness is in the place where God has led us, it is best for us to be in the dark”
b. Jeremiah did not remain in this forlorn and dismal area, but he would not deny being there, therefore it is certain that He has turned His hand against me. Throughout the suffering, he frequently thought that God was not his friend but rather his foe.
● “A metaphor from buffeters, who double their blows, striking their opponents on both sides, as the smith doth his red hot iron upon the anvil until he hath fashioned it,” states He has turned His hand against me.
c. He has besieged me: Just as Jerusalem was figuratively under siege, Jeremiah (and countless others) sensed God progressively strangling them with bitterness and anguish.
● He has backed me into a corner by saying, “This may also refer to the boundaries drawn around the city during the siege. However, these and similar statements in the verses that follow may be be metaphors meant to emphasize their precarious, oppressed, and distressed position.
● Harrison perceived this as a representation of a harsh prison sentence. He has walled me in. A kind of torture made popular by the Assyrians was walling up victims in small areas so they would pass away quickly.
● He has made my chain heavy: “Just as the criminal occasionally drags about his chain, and has a ball at his foot, so the prophet felt as though God had encumbered him with a heavy chain, so that he could not move because of its horrible weight.”
d. He ignores my prayer: When things are proper in our connection with God, He is our fortress and protection from harm. This was not what Jeremiah and the people of Judah went through in the midst of their greatest suffering. They were barricaded, hedged, and encircled.
2. (10–18) God is a multifaceted foe.
a. He has been to me like a bear laying in wait. Jeremiah detailed all the ways they felt God was against them and even attacking them with the eloquence that only suffering can offer.
● God was like a bear or lion lurking in wait for an opportunity to strike.
● God was compared to an archer who was aiming at a target while bending His bow.
● God resembled a jester who led a teasing song directed at His people.
● God served the condemned with a cup of judgment and wormwood, just like a judge would.
● God was the brute, using gravel to smash my teeth.
i. He has bent His bow, demonstrating the strength of the archer’s arm that used arrows to transfix the poet.
ii. In addition, he smashed my teeth with gravel. “What a figure to represent disgust, pain, and the ensuing inability to take food for the sustenance of life; a guy being forced to eat little stones until all of his teeth are broken to bits by trying to grind them,” the poet wrote. Reading this description practically guarantees a toothache.
iii. It might be suggested that it relates to the kind of bread that Jeremiah must have received near the conclusion of the siege because it was fashioned from granary floor sweepings.
iv. To literally pierce my loins—the kidneys. “Animal kidneys were considered to be one of the sites of life in the Pentateuch’s sacrificial rituals, and human kidneys were also believed to hold this claim. They were also given the emotional qualities of gladness (Proverbs 23:16) and sadness (Job 19:27; Psalm 73:21).
b. It is understandable that Jeremiah and Jerusalem could lament, “My strength and my hope have vanished from the LORD.” What strength is there when God is the enemy? What chance is there for prosperity or peace?
● The poet’s reference to “the LORD” freed him from the grip of his suffering.
B. Growing faith in God’s assistance
1. The sinking soul (19–20).
a. Keep in mind my suffering and wandering: Jeremiah did not advise using positive thinking to treat this severe suffering. In fact, he thought it was beneficial to keep in mind, recognize it for what it was, and not deny its existence.
b. It was beneficial for Jeremiah’s spirit to fall and reach its lowest point so that he could build on the proper basis, my soul still recalls and sinks within me.
● It is clear that the preceding words express a bitterness of complaint against the bitterness of misfortune, which is not befitting of a man when he is under God’s chastisement. As a result, all hope was lost. Here, we discover a new emotion; he submits to God’s overwhelming power, and then his hope is restored.
2. New mercies from a devoted God (21–23).
a. Because of this, which comes to mind, I am hopeful—possibly for the first time in the book. Jeremiah had reached a low point in his soul (Lamentations 3:20), but suddenly he recalled something that gave him cause for hope.
● “The writer looks to the far future with fresh hope in a great declaration of faith in the unfailing mercies of God.”
● “At the southern tip of Africa, the water was frequently so rough that when the Portuguese’s flimsy barks sailed south, they gave it the name Cape of Storms; nevertheless, once that cape had been thoroughly rounded by more daring navigators, they gave it the name Cape of Good Hope. You have encountered many Capes of Storms in your experience, but you have weathered them all; now let them serve as a Cape of Good Hope for you.
b. One of the things Jeremiah recalled was the fact that we are kept from being consumed by the LORD’s mercies. He recalled that despite how demoralized and beaten the citizens of Jerusalem and Judah were, they had not yet been utterly destroyed. There remained still a small portion, and that portion held the hope of repair. God leaves hope wherever He goes.
● The key word in this verse is ese (lit., ‘great love’ [mercies]), which refers to the Lord’s covenant love and fidelity that results in rahamim (lit., ‘compassion,’ or’mercy,’ which is derived from reem, lit., ‘womb’).
● Jeremiah seems to say, “Bad as my plight is, it could have been worse, because I may have been consumed, and I should have been consumed if the Lord’s compassions had failed.'” This is where he derives his solace, according to the scholar.
c. Because His compassions never fail, God’s people experienced severe discipline, but His compassions were still manifest. Knowing that God’s gentle kindness was still present and that it was renewed each morning brought great consolation.
● The text is full of beauty because it discusses God’s compassionate compassion, which was always present even in the process of punishment.
d. They are fresh each morning: The dawning of each day inspires hope in humans for new mercies and compassions from God. God has promised to always send them, and we need a steady supply. God’s people can look forward to the new morning with faith and hope regardless of how awful the previous day was.
● Because they are gifts from God, these mercies are ever fresh. The crystal fount that springs up from the eternal deeps and is always fresh and new is the treasure that God gives us from heaven in providence and grace, not the stagnant pools that we store away as our treasures on earth.
● “Every morning the night ends.”
● Every morning a brand-new day begins.
● Each morning brings fresh supplies for the day.
● Every morning comes fresh atonement for fresh transgressions.
● Every dawn provides fresh energy to face fresh temptations, responsibilities, and hardships.
e. All of this led Jeremiah to reflect on God’s incredible constancy, which is demonstrated by the fact that He consistently sends His mercies and compassions. God was faithful even in their calamity. God proved to be as dependable in carrying out the judgments He had faithfully foretold and declared.
● “The prophet spoke to him directly and personally, saying, “Great is your commitment. Jeremiah was drawn back into active fellowship and close communion with his faithful God as a result of recalling God’s qualities.
3. His kindness to the seeking souls (verses 24–26).
a. The LORD is my portion: Jeremiah discovered the secret to contentment—finding one’s portion in the LORD, as in Psalm 119:57. Whatever measure, inheritance, or future he was to get would all be found in Yahweh.
● These are the contented soul’s words. Jeremiah was content with the portion he was given, which was the LORD Himself, because he lacked any other sources of fulfillment.
● The poet implied that the reason he has had so few of this world’s pleasures and luxuries is because the Lord has provided the majority of them for him.
b. I place my hope in Him because before God became his portion, he could not truly be his hope. For him, this was a means to find hope.
c. All of God’s people’s suffering began because they refused to genuinely seek God and wait for Him. However, the LORD is kind to those who wait for Him and to the soul who seeks Him. For years, they rebelled and rejected, and then they looked to others for help. Re-seeking Him would result in fresh manifestations of His goodness.
● “Do not be in a hurry; do not expect to be delivered out of your trouble the first time you begin to cry unto God. Oh, no: ‘the Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.’’
● “There are times when the only thing a sufferer can do is wait for God. But waiting is good because God is worth waiting for.”
● “Hoping and waiting vary only in that hope is the mother of patience and waiting; alternatively in that hoping and waiting are the same because waiting is a gracious power and habit that has been given to the soul. Waiting requires quietness because it is opposite to every turbulence and impatience of mind under sorrowful providences.
C. Humbly trusting in God through prayer.
1. The insurmountable God.
a. When the Lord has not given a command, who is the one who speaks and it happens? It may be challenging to remember that God is in direct control of everything during a time of extreme pain or calamity. Thoughts of God’s omnipotence would still also give rise to their source of hope. Being at the whim of blind fate was, and still is, worse.
b. Is it not from the Most High’s mouth that suffering and prosperity come? Jeremiah phrased the same query differently to emphasize his point.
c. Why should a live man complain? We can grumble about God’s omnipotence, but doing so is pointless and ungrateful. The living man should be thankful for his continued existence and acknowledge that his sins’ punishment has some element of justice.
● “He who still has his life lent to him has little to complain about. Regardless of how severe his suffering may be, he is still alive and has the ability to seek and obtain compassion leading to eternal life. Death would rob him of this, therefore let no living person
● If he is tempted to complain, he should keep in mind that he is still alive and that is more than what his part entails because it is by the grace of the Lord that he is spared destruction and sent away to hell. Any kind of life is a great mercy, even if it appears to the suffering that way.