EXEGETICAL NOTES.—
Lamentations 5:16. Fallen is the crown from our head. That which was their honour has gone—the crown with which the Lord Jehovah had decked His chosen nation. I put … a beautiful crown upon thine head … and thy renown went forth among the nations for thy beauty; for it was perfect through my majesty, which I had put upon thee (Ezekiel 16:12; Ezekiel 16:14). Now it is in the dust, set at nought by all those who had admired it. So, as if in irrepressible acknowledgment that they themselves were responsible for the dismal change, the exclamation bursts forth, Woe unto us! for we have sinned—sinned not against a ritual or a code of law, but against a living Person—Maker, Monarch, Father. This second clause is in correlation with Lamentations 5:7, and expresses the share which their own iniquities had in the guilt which had drawn down such condign suffering as they were subjected to. Like their fathers, they had disowned truth and righteousness, and addicted themselves to false and unholy practices. This view of themselves, and confession of its evil nature, opens the eyes of the heart to look for the throne of grace.
HOMILETICS
THE LOSS OF HONOUR
I. Honour is the crown of individual character. Honour is moral rectitude, the crown and dignity of the true man.
“Say what is honour? ’Tis the finest sense
Of justice which the human mind can frame,
Intent each lurking frailty to disclaim,
And guard the way of life from all offence
Suffered or done.”—Wordsworth.
Moral rectitude is not a natural possession; it is the gift of Divine grace. It must be humbly and penitently sought, gratefully received, and strengthened and increased by incessant exercise. It is all of grace, and this grace sheds a glory and lustre upon the soul. As the diamond in the ring, so is grace to the soul. A heart beautified with grace has the picture of the King of heaven hung in it. It is dignified with the reflected splendour of the Divine majesty.
II. When honour is lost, man is discrowned. “The crown is fallen from our head.” Israel not only lost their national king, and with him their national independence, but they lost their moral kingship, their personal righteousness; and this they lost before they were deprived of their earthly king. All that had given them rank and honour was tumbled in the dust
“Better to die ten thousand deaths
Than wound my honour.”
“Mine honour is my life; both grow in one;
Take honour from me, and my life is done.”
III. Honour is lost when righteousness is abandoned. “Woe unto us that we have sinned.” Afflicted Judah is getting clearer light. In the seventh verse they still cling to the idea that their national calamities were to be ascribed to the sins of their ancestors. Now they see the enormity of their own sins, and acknowledge that they deserved chastisement Man is invulnerable to the assaults of the enemy and to the heaviest blows of misfortune and suffering while he retains his integrity. He is fenced round with the unconquerable protection of the God in whom he trusts. It is when he is untrue to himself, to his highest sense of honour, that he is untrue to God, and, falling away from righteousness, he becomes discrowned, and sinks into disgrace and misery.
LESSONS.—
1. Righteousness confers dignity.
2. That man suffers unspeakable loss who does not act up to his holiest impulses.
3. When a man loses a sense of honour, he may sink to any depth of infamy.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
Lamentations 5:16. The degradation of sin:
1. Begins in personal unfaithfulness.
2. It is undignified to sin.
3. The course of sin ends in misery and in woe.
A series of woes. “Woe unto us that we have sinned.”
1. The first woe is the polluting of the soul by sin.
2. The second woe is God’s hatred and abhorrence.
3. The third woe is God’s leaving us.
4. The fourth woe is all kinds of punishment—an Iliad of evils.—Bishop Ussher.
ILLUSTRATIONS.—True dignity.
“True dignity is never gained by place,
And never lost when honours are withdrawn.”—Massinger.
“Ye proud, ye selfish, ye severe,
How vain your mask of state;
The good alone have joy sincere,
The good alone are great.”—Beattie.
Fallen greatness.
“I have ventured,
Like little wanton boys that swim on bladders,
This many summers in a sea of glory,
But far beyond my depth: my high-blown pride
At length broke under me; and now has left me,
Weary and old with service, to the mercy
Of a rude stream, that must for ever hide me.
Vain pomp and glory of this world, I hate ye!”
—Wolsey.
Degradation. That which renders men so unwilling to believe themselves capable of union with God is but the sense of their own degradation. I would gladly be informed whence this creature, who acknowledges himself so weak, obtains the right to measure and limit the Divine mercy as his own fancy suggests. Man understands so little the nature of God that he understands not himself; and yet, troubled by the contemplation of his own condition, he boldly pronounces that it is beyond the power of God to qualify him for this connection.—Pascal.
The agony of dishonour. The most terrible blow that General Grant ever knew was when the bank in which he was a partner had suspended payment. Not only was he ruined, his sons and daughters penniless by reason of all their savings invested in it being lost; but after a few days there came out a horrible story of craft and guile, and it was seen that his honoured name had been used to entice and decoy hosts of friends, to their own injury and Grant’s discredit Imputations were even cast on the fame that belonged to the country, and this blow was worst of all: the shock of battle was less tremendous; his physical agonies less acute.