EXEGETICAL NOTES.—
(צ) Lamentations 3:52. They have hunted me down like a bird is hunted when pursued with the eagerness of those who are my enemies without cause, and who will not relax efforts till they catch the quarry.
Lamentations 3:53. He was haled to prison by them. They have cut off my life in the pit. Shut in from all activities and society, he was as a man dead, as in a tomb over which they have cast stone on me. Taking such illustrations to be chiefly figurative, yet here the first clause is a probable allusion to the treatment of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 38:6), and the second may refer to an unmentioned incident of the same time, for which corroboration may be found in the case of Daniel (Daniel 6:17.)
Lamentations 3:54. The peril was aggravated by waters that flowed over my head; the plural perhaps indicating the influx of a spring and the condensation of vapour in the closeness of a pit. In a state so desperate to the eyes of flesh, I said, I am cut off as a man that has no help (Psalms 88:4), as He was who became sin for us (Isaiah 53:8).
The remaining verses of the chapter take the form of prayer, as at the close of Chapter s
1. and
2. In it there are thanksgivings for relief (Lamentations 3:55-58), an appeal because of the evil which enemies had done and were doing (Lamentations 3:59-63), and a call for recompense therefor (Lamentations 3:64-66).
(ק) Lamentations 3:55. I called upon thy name, O Jehovah, asking with some true idea of what the words and works of the God of Israel revealed concerning Himself, suggestive, too, of the manner in which the Lord Jesus would have His friends to pray—Ask the Father in My name—out of the depths of the pit into which he had been thrown.
Lamentations 3:56. A more true position is secured than that which was held previously (Lamentations 3:8; Lamentations 3:44). My voice thou heardest at that time when I besought thee with my spirit and voice, Hide not—close not—thine ear at my breathing—my sighing for relief—at my cry. It is questionable if the rendering, Hide not thine ear for my cry for relief, is not rather an explanation than a fair version.
Lamentations 3:57. Thou drewest near in the day I called upon thee. Only spiritual apprehension of God as He who is behind all events and plenteous in mercy can bring a conviction of accepted prayer. The heart is then in a state to hear His comforting words, Thou saidst, Fear not.
(ר) Lamentations 3:58. There were rights to be maintained, wrongs to be redressed, and in both help was received from a present God. Thou, O Jehovah, hast pleaded—contended for—the causes of my soul. One thing had hurt his soul (Lamentations 3:51), but others also saddened and weakened thought and effort, and the Lord had counteracted them. He had also interfered when hope of living was cut off, Thou hast redeemed my life by Thy power over all.
HOMILETICS
A FAITHFUL PROPHET IN TROUBLE
I. Cruelly treated by his enemies. “Mine enemies chased me sore like a bird, without cause: I am cut off” (Lamentations 3:52-54). In these verses, and to the end of the chapter, Jeremiah deals with his own personal afflictions. Without the least provocation, he was treated with the most malignant enmity. He was harassed, as a bird is tired out, and at length run down by continuous pursuit. He is overwhelmed with trouble, and is as one imprisoned in a dungeon, shut off from the current of active life. He acknowledged the righteousness of the Divine dealings, but he was keenly alive to the unrighteousness and undeserved cruelty of his persecutors. Had he been the aggressor, he might have expected retaliation, but he was oppressed without cause. His enemies were actuated by sheer hatred. His only fault was his faithfulness to God and to his own conscience. Simple goodness often rouses the wanton animosity of the wicked.
II. Seeks refuge in prayer. “I called upon Thy name, O Lord; hide not Thine ear at my cry” (Lamentations 3:55-56). It is a relief to turn from the cruelty of man to the compassion and power of God. The soul is never so helpless but that it can pray. When we can do nothing else, we can pray. Prayer is the language of need, and we are comforted with the assurance that God will hear, and not only hear but help. It seemed at one time that prayer was useless (Lamentations 3:44); but better thoughts prevailed, and the soul discovered that the cry for help was not in vain. “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.”
III. Rescued by Divine aid. “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; Thou has redeemed my life” (Lamentations 3:57-58). When we draw near to God in prayer, He draws near to us. Our troubles are overwhelming when God is absent and we are left to ourselves. With His manifested presence our troubles vanish, and we are inspired with strength to endure and to triumph.
LESSONS.—
1. Fidelity makes many enemies.
2. The nation that ill-uses its best men courts its own ruin.
3. The Lord is ever on the side of the faithful.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
Lamentations 3:54-57. The efficacy of prayer. I. These words show to what a state God’s most favoured servants may be reduced—extreme suffering, tears, despondency. II. The remedy open to them. Prayer expressed in cries, groans, breathings, sighs. III. The efficacy of that remedy whenever it is applied. “Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon Thee; Thou saidst, Fear not.” In these words we hear the consolatory voice of God. Marvellous condescension; certainty of help and deliverance.—Simeon.
Lamentations 3:57. A wonder explained by greater wonders. I. An explanation of this wonder. God doth draw near to men.
1. Men have ever been in the thoughts of God.
2. God came tenderly near in nature.
3. The Lord Jesus was specially near in the days of His life on earth.
4. He came still nearer to us in His death.
5. In heaven He is perpetually near us.
6. Jesus may well come near to His people, for there is a mystical union which ensures it. II. Consider the wonder itself.
1. By no means is this wonder at all contrary to expectation.
2. God draws near by strengthening us to bear up under pressure.
3. By vouchsafing a doubly vivid sense of His love.
4. By granting a sensible assurance of His sympathy.
5. By speedy and remarkable deliverance out of trouble.
6. The text indicates surprise concerning the memorable graciousness of God.
7. The promptness of God.
8. The extreme tenderness of God.—C. H. Spurgeon.
Lamentations 3:58. God pleading for saints and saints pleading for God. I. The Divine pleading.
1. The Lord pleads our cause in the court of Providence by silencing enemies and by raising up friends for His people.
2. He pleads for them in the court of Divine law.
3. In the court of conscience.
4. In the court of heaven.
5. And at the last great day of judgment. II. If the Lord hath pleaded the causes of our soul, we should plead His cause while we have breath to pray.
1. This is the life-work of the Christian.
2. Should be done in witnessing for Christ by our consistency of conduct.
3. We can all plead for Christ in a private way. Be it mine to weep for the sins of the time and prophesy against them. Be it yours in your own private walk and conversation to rebuke private sin, and by your loving earnestness to make Jesus Christ dear to many souls!—C. H. Spurgeon.
ILLUSTRATIONS.—Faithfulness in service. If you and I show that we attach importance to the solemn performance of even the slightest duty connected with our dear Master’s service; that we consider even the office of doorkeeper in His house an office of honour; that, convinced of His presence, we are as devout in offering the prayers when only two or three are present as when there are two or three hundred—we shall find His blessing attending us, and we shall be the means of converting others.—Dean Hook.
—A carpenter was once asked, Why he troubled to finish off a certain magistrate’s bench so carefully? His reply was, “I can’t do otherwise; besides, I may have to sit on it one of these days.”
Faithful to death. When Commodore Joseph Smith saw by the first despatch that reached Washington from Fortress Monroe that the Congress, on which his son was commander, had shown the white flag, he said, “Then Joe’s dead.” It was so.
Prayer an ever-open refuge. St. Cuthbert was once in a snowstorm that drove his boat on the coast of Fife. “The snowstorm closes the road along the shore,” mourned his comrades; “the storm bars our way over the sea.” “There is still the way of heaven; that lies open,” said the devoted saint.
Divine aid works a marvellous change. Probably there is nowhere on the globe so marked a climatic boundary as that of the Cascade Mountains in both Washington Territory and Oregon. West of this boundary the winters are mild and the summers cool and showery; east of it the winters are sharp and dry and the summers very hot. On one side are gigantic firs and cedars, while on the other all are of poor size and condition. Even the flowers are of new species, and all the atmospheric conditions are changed. The line that lies between the unsaved and the saved, once crossed, what changes are manifest! “If any man be in Jesus Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; lo, all things have become new.”