EXEGETICAL NOTES.—
Lamentations 5:19. Nevertheless, whatever be the low estate of His sanctuary and people, the living God is and reigns. Thou, O Jehovah, abidest for ever. Not only is His continual existence denoted, but also that Jehovah sitteth as king for ever (Psalms 29:10), the same verb being used in this clause as in the Psalm quoted, and the next clause carries on the thought, Thy throne from generation to generation. Enemies may destroy the temple made with hands; they are powerless to injure the kingdom of Him who inhabits eternity. Generations come and go with their rises and falls, but Thou art the same, and Thy years shall not fail.
Lamentations 5:20. The perpetuity of God’s rule, amid all earthly changes, frames an appealing prayer. Reigning supreme over the army of heaven, it is impossible that He can renounce authority over the things of earth and man; then, Why dost Thou forget us for ever, forsakest us for so long? Is it not time for Thee to pluck Thy right hand out of Thy bosom and bring relief in the lifetime even of this generation? How bluntly petitioners address God when troubles press upon them! How ready to suppose His thoughts and ways must be like their own! How prone to fancy that, because their observation does not perceive His working, God can hardly care so much for His kingdom’s honour as they do!
Lamentations 5:21. Turn us, O Jehovah, unto Thee, and we shall be turned; a prayer which proves that a new heart has been given to those in whose name the writer speaks. Affliction has been a means of showing the blunders and sins of the past, and that the only remedy for them is in Jehovah Himself. They see that the reconciling power does not originate with themselves, but with Him; that He must draw them by a continual influence if they are to walk in the light of His countenance. We do not consider this request as merely for the restoration of their native land; we need to put a deeper meaning into it, which will, at least, indicate that they wanted to become true worshippers of the Lord God of their deliverances. The succeeding clause, however, seems to imply that they did not expect to attain to their desires unless they were repossessed with their former national organisation. Renew our days as of old; re-establish the gracious relations in which thou stoodest to us; let us again have country, city, and temple, priest, prophet, and king. Cause every man to sit under his vine and under his fig-tree, and none make them afraid.
Lamentations 5:22. The two initial Hebrew particles of this verse signify that it is not a fact which is stated, but the elements of a hope, and may be introduced with, This will come to pass, unless Thou hast utterly rejected us; art wroth against us exceedingly. The under-thought is, But this cannot be the case. Thou wouldst not so disgrace the throne of Thy glory. Thou wouldst not so falsify the promises made to our fathers. Thou wouldst not always give occasion for the mocking heathen to say, Where is now your God?
“This conclusion entirely agrees with the character of the Lamentations, in which complaint and supplication continue to the end, not without an element of hope, which, as Gerlach says, ‘merely glimmers from afar, like the morning star through the clouds, which does not indeed itself dispel the shadows of the night, though it announces that the rising of the sun is near, and that it shall obtain the victory’ ” (Keil).
HOMILETICS
AN EARNEST PRAYER FOR RESTORATION
I. Acknowledges the eternal sovereignty of Jehovah. “Thou, O Lord, remainest for ever; Thy throne from generation to generation” (Lamentations 5:19). The throne of Judah is fallen, but not so the throne of God. Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Israel, and all the nations of the earth may rise and fall, but God is unchanged. The fact of the perpetuity of the Divine government of the world forms the basis of a hope that, however desperate may be the condition of His people, God can restore them. If the throne of God was like the fickle governments of earth, there would be no prospect of recovery. All true prayer has the assurance of being heard and answered in the fact of the righteousness of an unchangeable God.
II. Deprecates the continued absence of the Divine favour. “Wherefore dost Thou forget us for ever, and forsake us so long time?” (Lamentations 5:20). If Thy government is continuous, why are we forgotten and abandoned? If Thy throne in heaven is immovable, why is Thy throne in our earthly Zion overthrown? Thou didst once care for us and love us, and the memory of that happy time still keeps our hope alive. Thy favour was the joy and the sunshine of our lives; its absence is at the root of all our misery. Low as we have sunk, it cannot be that Thou hast utterly and for ever given us up., Cast us not away from Thy presence, and take not Thy Holy Spirit from us. Restore unto us the joy of Thy salvation. The soul that yearns in prayer for the Divine favour is on the brink of a glorious vision.
III. Supplicates the grace of genuine repentance. “Turn Thou us unto Thee, O Lord, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old” (Lamentations 5:21). Repentance is a turning about. For some time the course of Judah had been in one direction—wandering from God, and sinking into ever lower depths of sin and misery. Now there is a thoughtful pause, an arrest of the downward career. What has brought this about? Prayer; and that prayer becomes more eager and earnest as it becomes more evident that rescue is at hand. True prayer recognises that God alone can give repentance and renew the glory of the golden days of old. When the heart is changed, our outward circumstances soon alter for the better. When Judah regained the favour of God, she also regained lost temporal blessings.
IV. Is urged with the assurance that God cannot utterly reject the truly penitent. “But Thou hast utterly rejected us; Thou art very wroth against us.” Unless Thou hast utterly rejected us, unless Thou art very wroth against us. This is stated as a virtual impossibility. Geikie translates the verse, “Thou wilt not surely wholly forget us? Thou wilt not be angry with us beyond measure?” The miserable results of their repudiation by Jehovah become the ground of a confident appeal to Him. He heard the prayer, and at the end of seventy years the Jews were restored to their own land. The Book of Lamentations ends, as it begins, with a wail; but the concluding wail, unlike the first, has in it a joyous strain of hope. In many ancient MSS. the twenty-first verse is repeated after the twenty-second, to make a more agreeable finish when the book was read in the Synagogue; but Jeremiah did not think this arrangement necessary. He concludes with the refrain of what had been the burden of his sorrowful monologue, because he is so confident of help and restoration. “The message of God to the soul, even in threatenings, is ever in truth one of comfort.” The darkest night of suffering and sorrow is followed by the tranquillising hope of the golden daybreak.
LESSONS.—
1. When the Church begins to pray there is hope of revival.
2. True prayer is ever accompanied with repentance.
3. God not only hears, but answers the prayer of the contrite.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
Lamentations 5:19-20. The unchangeable God. I. His government is in perpetual activity. “Thou remainest for ever, Thy throne from generation to generation” (Lamentations 5:19). II. He cannot forget His people. “Wherefore dost Thou forget us for ever?” (Lamentations 5:20). III. He will not for ever stand aloof from His people. “Wherefore dost Thou forsake us for so long time?” (Lamentations 5:20).
Lamentations 5:21-22. A prayer for repentance. I. Recognises that repentance is a Divine act. “Turn Thou us unto Thee, O Lord; renew our days as of old” (Lamentations 5:21). II. When God gives repentance it is effectual. “And we shall be turned” (Lamentations 5:21). III. When God gives repentance it is evident His wrath is withdrawn, and He again accepts us. “Unless Thou hast utterly rejected us; unless Thou art very wroth against us” (Lamentations 5:22). But this cannot be, for He gives repentance. He “renews our days as of old.”
ILLUSTRATIONS.—The eternity of God. Would you gain some idea of the eternity past of God’s existence? Go to the astronomer and bid him lead you with him in one of his walks through space; and as he sweeps outward from object to object, from universe to universe, remember that the light from those filmy stains on the deep pure blue of heaven now falling on your eye has been travelling space for a million of years.—Mitchell.
Prayer the melody of misery.
“Oh, hearts that break and give no sign,
Save whitening lip and fading tresses,
Till death pours out his cordial wine,
Slow-dropped from misery’s crushing presses:
If singing breath or echoing chord
To every hidden pain were given,
What endless melodies were poured,
As sad as earth, as sweet as heaven!”
—O. W. Holmes.
Suffering prompts prayer. Afflictions make us most frequent and fervent in pouring forth our supplications unto God. In our prosperity we either utterly neglect this duty, or perform it carelessly and slothfully; but when we are brought into calamities, we flee to Him by earnest prayer, craving His aid and help. And as the child, fearing nothing, is so fond of his play that he strays and wanders from his mother, not so much as thinking of her, but if he be scared or frighted with the sight or apprehension of some apparent or approaching danger, presently runs to her, casts himself into her arms, and cries out to be saved and shielded by her, so we, securely enjoying the childish sports of worldly prosperity, do so fondly dote on them that we scarce think of our Heavenly Father; but when perils approach and are ready to seize upon us, then we flee to Him and cast ourselves into the arms of His protection, crying to Him by earnest prayer for help in our extremity.—Downame.
The value of prayer. If the whole world in which we live is but a continual temptation, if all around appears to agree with our inward corruptions to weaken and seduce us, if riches bribe and indigence sours, if prosperity elevates and afflictions abase us, if business dissipates and rest enervates, if the sciences exalt and ignorance bewilders us, if commerce exposes us too much and solitude leaves us too much to ourselves, if pleasure seduce us and holy works make us proud, if health awakens the passions and sickness produces murmurings—in a word, if since the fall of man all that surrounds us and all that is in us is perilous, in so deplorable a situation, O my God, what hope of salvation remains for us? If our sighs do not incessantly ascend from the depth of our misery towards the throne of Thy mercy, until Thou deignest to assist us and to rescue us from our fallen state.—Massillon.
God answers prayer. When poor men make requests to us, we usually answer them as the echo does the voice—the answer cuts off half the petition. We shall seldom find among men Jael’s courtesy, giving milk to those that ask water, except it be as this was, an entangling benefit, the better to introduce a mischief. There are not many Naamans among us that, when you beg of them one talent, will force you to take two. But God’s answer to our prayers is like a multiplying glass, which renders the request much greater in the answer than it was in the prayer.—Bishop Reynolds.
“More things are wrought by prayer
Than the world dreams of.”
—Tennyson.