Lamentations 3:1-36

The first part of this chapter is one of the saddest in the whole Book of God; yet I expect it has ministered as much consolation as some of the brightest pages of Holy Writ, because there are children of God who are the subjects of great suffering and sorrow, and when they turn to such a passage as this, they see that one of the Lord's own prophet has gone that way before them; and when they see the footprints of another of God's people in the dark and gloomy valley that they are themselves traversing they are encouraged. Besides, the chapter does not end as it begins. There is daylight for the poor sufferer after all, so we shall read the sad utterances of the prophet in the hope that, if we have ever known experiences similar to his, we may learn where to find comfort even as he did.

Lamentations 3:1. I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into light.

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. A child in the dark should derive much comfort from the thought, «My father brought me here, and he loves me so much that he would not bring me where I should be in danger, he must have had some good end and object in view in what he has done.» Surely, there is something comforting to the tried child of God in that thought.

Lamentations 3:3. Surely against me is he turned; he turneth his hand against me all the day. My flesh and my skin, hath he made old; he hath broken my bones. He hath builded against me, and compassed me with gall and travail.

«I am like a besieged city that has strong forts built all round it to shut it in on all sides.»

Lamentations 3:6. He hath set me in dark places, as they that be dead of old. He hath hedged me about, that I can not get out: he hath made my chain heavy.

Ah, dear friends, it is easy for some people to read such a passage as this, but there are others who have read it with aching brows and eyes red with weeping; and often, I doubt not, as they have read the prophet's descriptions of just such sorrows as they are themselves feeling, they have said, «Then after all, we are not alone in our griefs, and we may yet be delivered even as Jeremiah was»

Lamentations 3:8. Also when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer.

What a sorrow is this,--to feel that even prayer itself is unavailing! Yet this suppliant was no graceless sinner, he was a dear child of God, one of the noblest of the Lord's ancient prophets, one of the most faithful of his ministers. You must not think, because sometimes your prayers seem to be unheard or unheeded, and you are allowed to continue in sorrow, that therefore the Lord does not love you. «Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth;» and that word «scourgeth» is a very strong one, meaning much more than just an ordinary whipping.

Lamentations 3:9. He hath inclosed my ways with hewn stone,

«The Lord has shut me right up, as if he had built a wall around me on every side.»

Lamentations 3:9. He hath made my paths crooked. He was unto me as a bear lying in wait, and as a lion in secret places. He hath turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces: he hath made me desolate. He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow. He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins.

The King's arrows had wounded him to the very quick. Perhaps some of you may know what it is to go to the Bible, and yet to find no comfort in it for the precious promises have seemed to be too good to be true to you, and you seem to have hunted out every dark and threatening passage at once, and you have said, «Ah, that belongs to me!» You have written bitter things against yourself, and have thought that surely you were the target at which God was shooting his sharpest arrows.

Lamentations 3:14. I was a derision to all my people; and their song all the day. He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunken with wormwood. He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stone, he hath covered me with ashes. And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace: I forgat prosperity.

«It seems so long since I have had any prosperity that I have forgotten it. I have become so accustomed to trouble and sorrow that it seems as if I had never known what joy was.» The original is even more sad, «I forget good.»

Lamentations 3:18. And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the LORD: Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me. This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.

And as long as your afflictions, poor troubled souls, have really humbled you, you may have hope. Recall to your mind the fact that God's chastising blows have brought you down to his feet in humble submission, and ended all your boastings, and therein you may have hope.

Lamentations 3:22. It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.

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 Lord's compassions had failed.» Ah, brethren and sisters, and we too might have been in hell at this very moment! Amidst the hottest flames of that hopeless place we might have been enduring the wrath of God, but we are not there, and blessed be his name for that! «It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.» He still has compassion upon us; if he had not, he would have given us up altogether; but there is love in his heart, even while there is a frown upon his brow, and while his hand is smiting us, his heart is loving us still.

Lamentations 3:23. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.

If every day brings its trouble, every day also brings its mercy. Up to this day, at all events, we have not perished. The Lord has chastened us, but he has not crushed us. We have been cast down, but we have not been destroyed. «Great is thy faithfulness.» No man can say that so truly as the one who has known what it is to prove that great faithfulness in great affliction. But when there has been a great trial, the believing soul has cast itself upon the ever-faithful God, and so has been able to set its seal to this truth, «Great is thy faithfulness.»

Lamentations 3:24. The LORD is my portion, saith my soul;

What! With his mouth full of gravel stones, and made drunken with wormwood, overwhelmed with sorrow, yet he says, «the Lord is my portion.» Oh, yes, beloved, whatever else we have lost, we have not lost our God. The thieves have robbed us of our little spare cash, but they could not get at the gold that we have in the bank; They could not break into the great treasure-house of everlasting love. John Bunyan says, «Little-Faith lost his spending-money, but the thieves could not find his jewels.» Nor can they find ours; they are all safe. «The Lord is my portion, saith my soul;»

Lamentations 3:24. Therefore will I hope in him.

If I cannot cast the anchor of hope anywhere else, I may «hope in him;» and what better hope do I want than that?

Lamentations 3:25. The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.

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.»

Lamentations 3:26. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation, of the LORD.

God's time is always the best time. To deliver you just now might be to deprive you of the benefit of the trouble. You must bear it till it produces «the peaceable fruit of righteousness.» When the doctor puts on a blister, we are not to take it off the next minute. No; patience must have her perfect work, that we «may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.»

Lamentations 3:27. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him.

When it makes a man get alone, to contemplate and meditate, affliction is already doing him good.

Lamentations 3:29. He putteth his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope.

That is the way to find it;-not lifting your mouth up to defy the Lord, or to murmur at him, nor yet opening your mouth in boastfulness; but putting your mouth in the dust, that is the way to find hope. A humble, penitent, resigned, silent, submissive spirit will soon find hope.

Lamentations 3:30. He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him: he is filled full with reproach. For the Lord will not cast off for ever:

Oh, get a grip of that blessed truth! I pray you, O ye sons of trouble, lay hold of it, and never let it go! The Lord may, to all appearance, cast off for a little while, but he will not cast off for ever.

Lamentations 3:32. But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men. To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth,

That is not God's way of acting. Tyrants may do so, but the tender, compassionate God, our gracious, loving Father, will never do that. If you lie in the dust before him, he will not tread on you.

Lamentations 3:35. To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the most High, To subvert a man in his cause, the Lord approveth not.

Again I say, that is not God's way of acting.