We are about to read a chapter which is very full of sorrow; while you are listening to it, some of you may be saying, «We are not in that condition.» Well then, be thankful that you are not, and while you hear of the sorrows of others, bless God for the joys you yourself experience. At the same time, remember that there is a way of sorrow which leads at last to rest and peace. There is truth in the words of the poet Cowper,
«The path of sorrow, and that path alone,
Leads to the land where sorrow is unknown.»
If you have never known the sorrows of the weeping prophet, or anything like them, I am not sure that you should congratulate yourselves, for there is a brokenness of heart that is worth more than the whole world, there is a crushed and bruised spirit in which the Lord delights, and which is a token for good to the one who possesses it.
Lamentations 3:1-2. 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.
Some of us recollect when we used to go into our own room, and shut the door, and read such a chapter as this, and say, «Here is a description of my true condition.» We were once broken in pieces, torn asunder, through a terrible sense of sin. Our thoughts were like a case of knives perpetually pricking us, and, at such a time, these were our words as well as the words of Jeremiah, «He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into light.»
Lamentations 3:3-4. 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.
Conviction of sin seems to dry up the very sap of our life till we become withered with age. Worse than the agony of a broken bone is the pain of a broken heart. When the Holy Spirit convinces of sin, believe me, it is no child's play; in the case of some of us, it was sore wounding.
Lamentations 3:5. He hath builded against me,
«As if he deliberately built walls to stop up my way, and erected castles from which to attack my soul, ‘He hath builded against me,'»
Lamentations 3:5. And compassed me with gall and travail.
«He has shut me up in a circle of bitterness.»
Lamentations 3:6-7. He hath set me in dark places, as they that be dead of old. He hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out: he hath made my chain heavy.
Like a prisoner in his dungeon, who has to wear manacles and fetters.
Lamentations 3:8. Also when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer.
That is the worst trial of all, for there is comfort in prayer; but when even that seems denied you, into what a terrible state of sorrow is your heart brought!
Lamentations 3:9-11. He hath enclosed my ways with hewn stone, 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.
You who remember that experience, bless God that you have passed through it, that you have gone over that rough road into the place of peace and rest in Christ. You who have never known this path, it will be well for you when you do, trying as you may find it.
Lamentations 3:12. He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.
«Every sermon I hear seems a shot at me, every text of Scripture seems an arrow aimed at me.»
Lamentations 3:13. He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins.
«They are not merely shot at me, but they have actually hit me; they have wounded me; they have pierced me in vital parts.»
Lamentations 3:14-17. 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 stones, he hath covered me with ashes. And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace: I forgat prosperity.
«It seems so long ago since I was prosperous that I forget what it was like. I have been so troubled that I do not remember what it was to be at ease.»
Lamentations 3:18-21. 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.
Notice that, in all his sorrow, this man still had hope. His soul was humbled, and therefore he had hope. I think that, in the New Zealand language, the word for hope is «swimming thought» the thought that swims when everything else is drowned. Oh, what a mercy it is that hope can live on when all things else appear to die!
Lamentations 3:22. It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.
Hear that, troubled heart; you are not yet destroyed, you are still in the land of the living, as we say «on praying ground and pleading terms with God.» «It is of Jehovah's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.»
Lamentations 3:23-24. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.
«With all my troubles, and losses, and griefs, I still have a God; therefore will I hope in him.»
Lamentations 3:25. The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.
Even though it be out of the depths of the utmost distress that you seek God, you shall find him to be good to you. He is hard to none, unkind to none. Only go thou, and test him and try him, and thou shalt find that it is even as I say.
Lamentations 3:26-27. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
And it is not bad for him if he keeps on bearing it in his old age. Our shoulders ever need the yoke; we are such uncertain creatures that we cannot bear too much freedom, even from sorrow.
Lamentations 3:28-31. He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him. He putteth his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope. He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him: he is filled full with reproach. For the Lord will not cast off for ever:
What music there is in that line! He may put thee away for a while, and seem to leave thee; but «the Lord will not cast off for ever.» God may seem to put us away from him, but it is written, «He hateth putting away.» There is no divorcement between Christ and the soul that is once espoused to him. Their separation shall not be perpetual, for nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Lamentations 3:32-33. 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.
Now notice in the 55 th verse, what came to the prophet after all this sorrow.
Lamentations 3:55-56. I called upon thy name, O LORD, out of the low dungeon. Thou hast heard my voice: hide not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry.
Sometimes our prayers get to be so very weak that they are only a breathing; yet we must never forget that, «Prayer is the breath of God in men, returning whence it came,» and «Praying breath is never spent in vain.»
Lamentations 3:57-58. Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not. O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul;
What a comfort it is that Christ in heaven is our great Advocate, and that he has pleaded the causes of our soul before the throne of God!
Lamentations 3:58. Thou hast redeemed my life.
He who is our Advocate is also our Redeemer, and therefore we are doubly safe. Glory be to his name!