Lamentations 3:19

SHADOW AND SUNSHINE

‘The wormwood and the gall … the Lord’s mercies.’

Lamentations 3:19; Lamentations 3:22

I. Speaking for himself, the prophet personifies his people (Lamentations 3:1).—His description of the miseries through which they were passing is very pitiful—the wrinkled skin, the broken bones, the darkness as of the grave, the lofty walls that encompassed them, the penetration of the sharp arrows into their flesh, the derision of the people, the grit of the coarse flour that broke his teeth, the wormwood and the gall of his cup.

II. Full suddenly he draws out another stop in the organ, a stream of hope and comfort pours upon the ear (Lamentations 3:22).—It is as though he had caught the cadence of some angel minstrelsy. His heart forgets its grief, as he dwells on the Lord’s mercies and unfailing compassions. Every morning of those dark days witnessed some new provision of God’s care. Forlorn as might be his lot, he could still reckon upon the faithfulness of his never-failing Friend. And the conclusion of his soul amid all his trouble was that God was good. Hold to that, soul, in spite of all appearances, and dare to believe that the Lord is good. Say it to thyself a thousand times. He will not cast off. Though He may have caused grief, yet is His compassion in proportion to the multitude of His mercies.

III. As our confessions and petitions ascend to God, as we search and try our ways and turn again to Him, we shall become conscious that He is drawing near (Lamentations 3:57).—‘ Thou saidst, Fear not.’ How often God will utter those words as the years pass! When dreaded evils assail and threaten to overwhelm, as the waves the barque on the Lake of Galilee, that voice, mightier than the noise of many waters, will reassure, and, finally, as we pass into the gate of eternity, our first utterance will be, ‘O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; Thou hast redeemed my life.’

Illustration

‘There is nothing like the Lamentations of Jeremiah in the whole world. There has been plenty of sorrow in every age, and in every land; but such another preacher and author as Jeremiah, with such a heart for sorrow, has never again been born. Dante comes next to Jeremiah, and we know that Jeremiah was that great exile’s favourite prophet. Both prophet and poet were full to all the height and depth of their great hearts of the most thrilling sensibility; while, at the same time, they were both “high towers,” and “brazen walls,” and “iron pillars” against all unrighteousness of men. And they were alike in this also, that, just because of their combined strength, and sternness, and sensibility, no man in their day sympathised with them. They made all men’s causes of suffering and sorrow their own, till all men hated them and put a price on their heads.’