EXEGETICAL NOTES.—
Lamentations 3:59. Trials are not things of the past only. Under their continuous pressure endurance is sought for in the truth that the eye and ear of the Lord are ever open for all sights and sounds. Thou, O Jehovah, hast seen my wrong, that which is done to me, and that sight forms a plea for the righteous sentence of Him who sitteth on the throne judging right.
Lamentations 3:60. There was the keenest of vengeance in the treatment to which the Lord’s servant was subjected, and there were devices against me; but it was a certain fact that the All-seeing One had observed every secret or open scheme.
(ש) Lamentations 3:61. The revengeful, bad feeling expressed itself in reviling words. Thou hast heard their reproach, O Jehovah, and all the evil machinations they framed against me.
Lamentations 3:62 is a variant expression of the idea of the former verse, Thou hast heard the words of the lips of those that rose up against me, and their meditation, which occupied their minds all the day.
Lamentations 3:63. Their downsitting and their uprising behold thou, all their proceedings when at rest, and when they get up to do what they resolve. In hilarious and scornful mood they taunt and deride me; I am their song. It was not a momentary outburst of passion, not one hour’s lapse into jocoseness, but the tenor of the life which was manifested.
(ת) Lamentations 3:64. The evil life cannot pass without condemnation. Thou wilt render a recompense to them, O Jehovah. A man may pray that revilings and machinations may be thwarted, not from a desire for personal revenge, but from the knowledge that striving with the Maker incurs guilt and fixes the destiny of the striver according to the work of their hands, reaping what they sow (2 Timothy 4:14).
Lamentations 3:65. Thou wilt give them blindness [Heb. a covering] of heart, that which is turned into a veil (2 Corinthians 3:14) by their not becoming sons of the light, by their walking in darkness into the ditch. Thy curse to them. Cursed be the man who maketh flesh his arm.
Lamentations 3:66. Evil shall slay the wicked. Thou wilt pursue them in anger and destroy them, so that the wicked may be no more in Thy dominion under the heavens of Jehovah. So let thine enemies perish, O Jehovah, and thy will be done, at in heaven so on earth.
HOMILETICS
A CONFIDENT APPEAL TO DIVINE JUSTICE
I. That Jehovah recognises the wrongs suffered by His servants. “O Lord, Thou has seen ray wrong; judge Thou my cause” (Lamentations 3:59). It seemed at times as if the chosen people were forgotten and left to the mercy of their oppressors. Years passed away, and still there was no prospect of rescue. The valiant stand made by the prophet involved him in great and unjust suffering, and it seemed as if Heaven was indifferent to the issue. But things are not what they seem. All the time the eye of Jehovah was watching the struggle and noting every act of injustice and wrong. Every pang of suffering is faithfully registered. When the soul is conscious that Jehovah is cognisant of its distress, it is nerved with courage and patiently waits God’s time of deliverance.
II. That Jehovah infallibly observes the cruel plottings and malicious reproaches of His people’s enemies. “Thou hast seen all their vengeance. Thou hast heard their reproach, O Lord, and all their imaginations against me,” &c. (Lamentations 3:60-63). Not a single movement, not a word of scorn of His enemies escapes the eye and the ear of Jehovah. How vain and foolish their opposition appears to Him! Their cleverest combinations are but the work of helpless imbecility; their wildest rage is but a momentary flash of aimless malignity. In a moment their schemes are shattered and their revilings for ever silenced. God is so strong in conscious righteousness that He can afford to bide His time. It is a mistake to regard His long-suffering patience as a sign of apathy.
III. That Jehovah will vindicate the wrongs of His servants by punishing their oppressors. “Render unto them a recompense, O Lord, according to the work of their hands,” &c. (Lamentations 3:64-66). The imprecatory form of these words are uttered by Jeremiah in his prophetical character. He calls for the vengeance upon his enemies which their iniquities have deserved, and which Divine Justice is certain to render. The versions and the Targum all render these verses not as imperatives, but as futures—Thou shalt render unto them a recompense, &c. It is an unalterable principle of the Divine government to punish all evil-doers. The sufferings they have inflicted on others shall be meted out to them with swift and terrible retribution. “Under the heavens of the Lord” there is no place of escape for the workers of iniquity. The wrongs of God’s servants shall be redressed, and His honour and justice universally vindicated.
LESSONS.—
1. The Divine patience with evil-doers must not be construed as meaning indifference, 2 It is an aggravation of suffering when we know it is unjust.
3. Vengeance against all workers of iniquity may be safely left in the hands of God.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
Lamentations 3:59-63. The Divine slowness to punish. I. Does not arise from indifference to human wrongs. “Thou has seen my wrong” (Lamentations 3:59). II. Is not from want of knowledge of all the actions of the wicked (Lamentations 3:60-63). III. Indicates that God is so strong and man is so weak. IV. Affords every opportunity for the exercise of mercy to the truly penitent.
Lamentations 3:63. A godly life the music of society. I. Like music, a godly life is harmonious.
1. It is in harmony with God. A pure manhood is in harmony with all that is Godlike in thought and sentiment, and with all that is Christly in character and work. It is in harmony with the works of God, with all that is beautiful in nature. It is in harmony with the providence of God, with all that is happy or sad in the discipline of life; and supremely it is in harmony with the inspired truth of God as revealed in history, character, and precept.
2. It is in harmony with itself. All the truer sympathies of a devout heart, all the higher faculties of a pure mind exist in a condition of self-harmony. Living in communion with the Supreme Being, the good man obtains true concord in the exercise of prayer. And thus attuned by devotion, every power of his soul joins in the hymn of life.
3. It is in harmony with the highest good of the race. A godly man is ever the foremost to aid any philanthropic enterprise for the real welfare of others. All the strongest impulses of his nature prompt him to sympathetic action for the unfortunate. Consequently his time, money, and influence are made subservient to the common good of men. II. Like music, a godly life is cheering. When we have been oppressed with care, when the great mystery of life has come heavily upon our souls, what hope and comfort have been imparted by contact with a happy, pious spirit. III. Like music, a godly life is inspiring. When men would have given up the conflict of life in despair, how often has the word and life of a Christian filled them with new courage; and how frequently are careless souls awakened to a sense of duty by the moral earnestness of the godly around them. IV. Like music, a godly life is calming. What a quieting influence has the life of a good man upon those around him. His presence subdues anger; by his smile the deepest unrest is removed. He calms the passions of the unholy and soothes the sorrow of the troubled. V. Are our lives morally musical? Are they in harmony with God and all His works? Are our dispositions in the home, in business, and in the varied scenes of life kindly? If so, then are we the joy, the inspiration, and the quietude of many lives around us that might otherwise be sad, monotonous, and unpeaceful.—The Lay Preacher.
Lamentations 3:64-66. Divine punishment: I. Is proportioned to human sin. “A recompense according to the work of their hands” (Lamentations 3:64). II. Afflicts the chief instrument of human sin. “Give them sorrow of heart” (Lamentations 3:65)—blindness of heart, obstinacy, hardness. III. Is an appalling reality. “Persecute and destroy them in anger” (Lamentations 3:66).
Lamentations 3:65. God can entangle the head that thinks itself clearest, and sink the heart that thinks itself stoutest.
ILLUSTRATIONS.—It is best always to do justly. Writing on the question of just treatment between the Southern and Northern States of America, and especially of the black race, G. W. Cable said: “But it is sometimes said, Will not this tend eventually to amalgamation? Idle question! Will it help the matter to withhold men’s manifest rights? What can we do better for the remotest future than to be just in the present, and leave the rest to the Divine Rewarder of nations that walk uprightly?”
Justice between man and man. The doctrine which bases all the relations of employer and employed upon self-interest is a doctrine of the pit; it has been bringing hell to earth in large instalments for a great many years. You can have hell in your factory, or you can have heaven there, just as you please. If it is hell that you want, build your business on the law of hell, which is—Every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost. Out of that will come fightings perennial and unrelenting. If it is heaven that you want, then build your business on the law of the kingdom of heaven, which is—Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. That will put you in the path of peace.
Religion and justice. In the year 813 the Doge Angelo Participazio took vigorous means for the enlargement of the small group of buildings which were to be the nucleus of the future Venice. For the offices of religion he built the church of St. Mark, and on or near the spot where the Ducal Palace now stands he built a palace for the administration of justice. Observe that piety towards God and justice towards man have been at least the nominal purposes of every act and institution of ancient Venice.—Ruskin.
Wrong-doing brings its own retribution. Cosimo I., of Florence, was a ferocious, cruel tyrant, murdering his own son in the presence of his mother. After a few years he married a wicked but beautiful woman, who had been a former partner in sin with him, and in his last days, broken with decrepitude, was helpless in her despotic hands. For two years after the palsy had deprived him of speech or movement, he lay dying, bereft of everything but a torturing memory of his cruelty and wickedness.
—The Jews have a tradition that Cain was doomed to carry Abel’s corpse for a hundred years.
The just and the unjust. Such being our unjust man, let us place by his side a man of true simplicity and nobleness, resolved, as Æschylus says, not to seem, but to be good. We must certainly take away the seeming; for if he be thought to be a just man, he will have honours and gifts on the strength of this reputation, so that it will be uncertain whether it is for justice’s sake or for the sake of the gifts and honours that he is what he is. Yes, we must strip him bare of everything but justice, and make his case the reverse of the former. Without being guilty of one unjust act, let him have the worst reputation for injustice, so that his virtue may be thoroughly tested and shown to be proof against infamy and all its consequences; and let him go on to the day of his death steadfast in his justice, but with a lifelong reputation for injustice. They who prefer injustice above justice will say that in such a situation the just man will be scourged, racked, fettered, will have his eyes burnt out, and at last, after suffering every kind of torture, will be crucified; and thus learn that it is best to resolve, not to be, but to seem just.—Plato’s Republic.
Injustice not to be hastily resented. When Aristides, the Athenian general, sat to arbitrate a difference between two persons, one of them said, “This fellow accused thee at such a time.” To whom Aristides answered, “I sit not to hear what he has done against me, but against thee.” That was a noble reply of Philip the Good when urged by his courtiers to punish a prelate who had done him great injustice, he declined, saying, “It is a fine thing to have revenge in one’s power; but it is a finer thing not to use it.”
God frustrates the schemes of the wicked. All the plots and contrivances of wicked men, all their turning of things upside down, are treated as the potter’s clay; for when they think they have brought all to maturity, ripeness, and perfection, when they look upon their business as good as done, on a sudden all their labour is lost; for God, who stands by all the while and looks on, will, with one small touch, with the least breath of His mouth, blast and break all in pieces.—Edlin.