Bible Commentaries

SHADOW AND SUNSHINE

‘The wormwood and the gall … the Lord’s mercies.’

Lamentations 3:19; Lamentations 3:22

I. Speaking for himself, the prophet personifies his people (Lamentations 3:1-21).—His description of the miseries through which they were passing is very pitiful—the wrinkled skin, the broken bones, the darkness as of the grave, the lofty walls that encompassed them, the penetration of the sharp arrows into their flesh, the derision of the people, the grit of the coarse flour that broke his teeth, the wormwood and the gall of his cup.

II. Full suddenly he draws out another stop in the organ, a stream of hope and comfort pours upon the ear (Lamentations 3:22-33).—It is as though he had caught the cadence of some angel minstrelsy. His heart forgets its grief, as he dwells on the Lord’s mercies and unfailing compassions. Every morning of those dark days witnessed some new provision of God’s care. Forlorn as might be his lot, he could still reckon upon the faithfulness of his never-failing Friend. And the conclusion of his soul amid all his trouble was that God was good. Hold to that, soul, in spite of all appearances, and dare to believe that the Lord is good. Say it to thyself a thousand times. He will not cast off. Though He may have caused grief, yet is His compassion in proportion to the multitude of His mercies.

III. As our confessions and petitions ascend to God, as we search and try our ways and turn again to Him, we shall become conscious that He is drawing near (Lamentations 3:57).—‘Thou saidst, Fear not.’ How often God will utter those words as the years pass! When dreaded evils assail and threaten to overwhelm, as the waves the barque on the Lake of Galilee, that voice, mightier than the noise of many waters, will reassure, and, finally, as we pass into the gate of eternity, our first utterance will be, ‘O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; Thou hast redeemed my life.’

Illustration

‘There is nothing like the Lamentations of Jeremiah in the whole world. There has been plenty of sorrow in every age, and in every land; but such another preacher and author as Jeremiah, with such a heart for sorrow, has never again been born. Dante comes next to Jeremiah, and we know that Jeremiah was that great exile’s favourite prophet. Both prophet and poet were full to all the height and depth of their great hearts of the most thrilling sensibility; while, at the same time, they were both “high towers,” and “brazen walls,” and “iron pillars” against all unrighteousness of men. And they were alike in this also, that, just because of their combined strength, and sternness, and sensibility, no man in their day sympathised with them. They made all men’s causes of suffering and sorrow their own, till all men hated them and put a price on their heads.’

SHADOW AND SUNSHINE

‘The wormwood and the gall … the Lord’s mercies.’

Lamentations 3:19; Lamentations 3:22

I. Speaking for himself, the prophet personifies his people (Lamentations 3:1-21).—His description of the miseries through which they were passing is very pitiful—the wrinkled skin, the broken bones, the darkness as of the grave, the lofty walls that encompassed them, the penetration of the sharp arrows into their flesh, the derision of the people, the grit of the coarse flour that broke his teeth, the wormwood and the gall of his cup.

II. Full suddenly he draws out another stop in the organ, a stream of hope and comfort pours upon the ear (Lamentations 3:22-33).—It is as though he had caught the cadence of some angel minstrelsy. His heart forgets its grief, as he dwells on the Lord’s mercies and unfailing compassions. Every morning of those dark days witnessed some new provision of God’s care. Forlorn as might be his lot, he could still reckon upon the faithfulness of his never-failing Friend. And the conclusion of his soul amid all his trouble was that God was good. Hold to that, soul, in spite of all appearances, and dare to believe that the Lord is good. Say it to thyself a thousand times. He will not cast off. Though He may have caused grief, yet is His compassion in proportion to the multitude of His mercies.

III. As our confessions and petitions ascend to God, as we search and try our ways and turn again to Him, we shall become conscious that He is drawing near (Lamentations 3:57).—‘Thou saidst, Fear not.’ How often God will utter those words as the years pass! When dreaded evils assail and threaten to overwhelm, as the waves the barque on the Lake of Galilee, that voice, mightier than the noise of many waters, will reassure, and, finally, as we pass into the gate of eternity, our first utterance will be, ‘O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; Thou hast redeemed my life.’

Illustration

‘There is nothing like the Lamentations of Jeremiah in the whole world. There has been plenty of sorrow in every age, and in every land; but such another preacher and author as Jeremiah, with such a heart for sorrow, has never again been born. Dante comes next to Jeremiah, and we know that Jeremiah was that great exile’s favourite prophet. Both prophet and poet were full to all the height and depth of their great hearts of the most thrilling sensibility; while, at the same time, they were both “high towers,” and “brazen walls,” and “iron pillars” against all unrighteousness of men. And they were alike in this also, that, just because of their combined strength, and sternness, and sensibility, no man in their day sympathised with them. They made all men’s causes of suffering and sorrow their own, till all men hated them and put a price on their heads.’

‘NEW EVERY MORNING’

The Lord’s mercies … are new every morning.

Lamentations 3:22-23

In the classical myths, Tithonus, a son of Laomedon, king of Troy, was so fair and winsome a youth that Eos, or Aurora, goddess of the morning, fell in love with him, and therefore prayed the gods to grant him immortality, in order that she might have him as her husband always. Her request was granted; but in asking immortality for Tithonus, Eos did not also ask eternal youth for him, hence he grew old and decrepit, so that death itself would have been a blessing; but that he could not have, and finally he was changed into a grasshopper as the symbol of unattractive and helpless age.

This myth involves the universal truth that, with our world as it is, the waste and decay which are a sure accompaniment of prolonged activity and progress would make life itself a hopeless burden, unless there be given with it a possibility of continued freshness, or of some periodic renewal of youth and strength. So the human heart yearns unceasingly for an ever-renewed beginning, when the tirelessly exhausting forces of life may rise from their lower ebb and take a fresh start onward. This yearning it is that has been the impulse in all the storied searchings for the fabled Fountain of Youth, and that gives a fancied sense of gain in the very suggestion of a mid-winter ‘New Year’s’ morning. This it is that prompts the heart to join in the thought of the dying Old Year, and of an incoming New Year.

I. If only the ‘New Year’ were a new year.—If only the old were really made new at that time; if old things had then actually passed away, and all things had become new; if all the sins and the sorrows, all the mistakes and the disappointments, of our lives hitherto, were for ever done away with—in themselves and in their consequences—at that anniversary boundary of the passing time; if then there was to us an absolutely new start, with new strength and new hope and new possibilities at every point of our former failure and of our former loss—what a season the New Year would be to us in fact, instead of in fancy! But, as it is, the New Year is but an empty name to so many who greet its coming with fond imaginings, only to find so quickly that the old is in the new, and that, indeed, the new is older than the old.

II. Human wisdom gives no more help toward the attainment of immortal youth and of constantly renewing freshness than was supplied by classic mythology. This ‘New Year’ may be to you truly a new year, Its newness may be to you ‘new every morning.’ To make it new, you have but to trust Him Who maketh all things new. Restful trust in Him will give you continual renewal of strength and hope and joy.

Illustration

‘Came North, and South, and East, and West,

Four sages to a mountain-crest,

Each pledged to search the world around

Until the wondrous well he found.

‘Before a crag they made their seat,

Pure bubbling waters at their feet.

Said one, “This well is small and mean,

Too petty for a village green!”

Another said, “So small and dumb,

From earth’s deep centre can it come?”

The third, “This water seems not rare;

Not even bright, but pale as air!”

The fourth, “Thick crowds I looked to see;

Where the true well is, these must be.”

‘They rose and left the mountain-crest,—

One North, one South, one East, one West.

O’er many seas and deserts wide

They wandered, thirsting till they died.

‘The simple shepherds by the mountain dwell,

And dip their pitchers in the wondrous well.’

THE BEST PORTION

‘The Lord is my portion, saith my soul.’

Lamentations 3:24

I. The Lord is the portion of His people.

(1) The object of their supreme love.

(2) The object of their entire confidence.

(3) The object of their chiefest joy.

II. The qualities of the portion.

(1) It is suitable.

(2) It is adequate.

(3) It is enduring. ‘Flesh and heart shall faint and fail, but He is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever.’

HOPE AND PATIENCE

‘It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.’

Lamentations 3:26

The organ at Freiburg, one of the most beautiful in the world, after the storm has vented itself, breaks into an exquisitely sweet refrain, ‘The Song of the Cows’; and in this portion of his Lamentations, the prophet breaks forth into one of the most lovely passages in the Bible, each clause of which is well worthy of prayerful heed. To all who are passing through times of anxiety, to those who are nervously awaiting cablegram or letter, to any to whom this day is one of fateful importance because it will bring the verdict of the physician or the results of the examination, we would reiterate the prophet’s advice.

I. It is good, because anxiety is useless.—It only wastes the nervous tissue, hinders quiet sleep, and unfits for the hour when decision and action will be required. How often, after days and hours of fearful suspense, during which we have conjured up the worst possible explanations or anticipations, we have discovered that none of them were true, and that all our forebodings were groundless. Anxiety kills; it is good to hope and wait and trust.

II. It is good, because we have a good God, Who is working for us.—‘The Lord is good unto them that wait for Him, to the soul that seeketh Him.’ He is behind the scenes, bringing up reinforcements, making all things work together for good, and working for those who wait for Him. He is doing better for you than the tenderest or wisest friend.

III. It is good, because the calm, strong heart inspires confidence.—If you are perturbed and flurried, you will spread a nervous dread in those who surround you and see your careworn looks. Cast your burden on the Lord, leave it with Him, anoint your head with the oil of joy, and come out to be a Greatheart to Mr. Fearing and Miss Much-afraid.

Illustration

‘The little herb Patience does not grow in everybody’s garden. But we are admonished to seek it, because (1) it is a very precious virtue, and a part of the service we owe to God, according to the first table. (2) It contains in itself another virtue, namely, hope in God. (3) It is easier for us to practise it, if we accustom ourselves to it from our youth. (4) It can overcome many wrongs, abuses, and outrages. (5) Misfortune will not continue for ever (Isaiah 54:7). (6) At all events, the end will be favourable. (7) God does not willingly afflict us (from His heart), but always designs something different and better for us, and dearly wishes that He might not punish us at all (Hosea 11:9).’

THROUGH REPENTANCE TO FAITH

Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and good? Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins? Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord.’

Lamentations 3:38-40

Nothing could be more dismal than the opening of this third lament over the ruin which had befallen the Holy City, and the dire calamities which had overtaken her people; but there is some radiant shining at the heart of it. The author sings from the heart of a fiery experience of his own, as well as that which he has shared with his nation. He has been through deep waters. He has ‘seen affliction’ and ‘walked in darkness.’ He comprehends the depths, if not the heights, of human experience, and yet he has ‘kept the faith.’ He can still declare that the Lord is his portion, and that his mercies are a ‘multitude,’ ‘new every morning.’

‘Is God the Father of my poor sisters in Whitechapel?’ a woman once asked, whose heart had been torn by the daily sight of her sisters’ anguish. Certainly He is, we must believe, or the world would go to pieces for our ‘poor sisters in Whitechapel,’ aye, and for all of us. But if we have taken a light, skimming view of life, if we have lived where it is ‘always afternoon,’ it become us to be silent, or to speak only in the name of those who have faced the sternest realities, and have yet believed. The Hebrew singer is one with the great prophets in this, that he is in no confusion about the source and meaning of Israel’s trouble. He does not find the good hand of God in His deliverances alone. There is mercy even in the exile; in the sweeping disasters which have overtaken the nation. He Who has been with His people in the calm is with them in the storm. Nay, He creates the storm, causes the grief, and the living man has no ground of complaint though he be punished for his sins, for ‘the wages of sin is death,’ and it is ‘of the Lord’s mercies’ that he is not consumed.

I. And here is the key to the man’s faith.—These are not songs of sorrow alone; they are songs of confession and repentance, and therefore of hope. Here are the Jews in Babylon, far away from the city they love. Their hearts are broken and their eyes are dimmed with tears; but they are tears of remorse leading to a searching of heart and a trying of their ways. The author would have them believe that exile is the outcome of their sin. It is not faithfulness that has compassed their downfall. The Lord has afflicted Zion not ‘willingly,’ but ‘for the multitude of her transgressions.’

There is some suffering, it does not need to be said, that is not for punishment. The sharpest pang of the singer as he thinks of the miseries of Israel comes from the cry of suffering children. Some of the noblest and saintliest lives have been shaped in affliction. It is the accent of self-righteousness that finds in all your suffering the punishment of sin. A man whose heart has never been broken should have little to say to another man of his sins. And yet, surely, no man need ask why he suffers. If you have sinned, your own heart will tell you plainly what is the sin for which you suffer. If you have not sinned, you will have something still to do with your sorrow. There were some devout Jews who were not the cause of Israel’s exile, and they too had lessons to learn which have enriched all posterity. But the lesson for all of us is this: that transgression leads to exile; that the broad way narrows; that to the man who persists in sin there must come a day when he will be confronted by fearful threatenings and apprehensions, and when the judgments of the Most High will breathe within him their Divine protest against his sin. Oh, listen! there is suffering which is for sin. This man is speaking of facts; addressing living men, conscious of grievous wrongdoing, bidding them take all the punishment honestly and humbly, and count it a mercy ‘new every morning’ that a throbbing heart and beating pulse are God’s assurance that He will have compassion, if they will return to the Lord.

II. The one hope of our coming to this faith in His compassions is in confession and repentance.—The Gospel of forgiveness and peace will never find the man who does not know the bitterness and guilt of sin. The experiences we have with conscience are to produce in us that ‘godly sorrow’ which ‘worketh repentance unto salvation.’ This, indeed, is the Gospel for all of us. Whatever be our trouble, repentance is our first need. You may not be able to trace your sorrow to any particular sin. It may not be due to any sin of yours at all; but I tell you, the one spirit to which God’s reason for causing any grief is never revealed, is the spirit that has not known, and will not know repentance. Who are we, the best of us, to say that this or that trial of life has nothing to do with our sin?

I would not dare to pass judgment upon you. No man has a right to cast the stone of condemnation unless he be ‘without sin’; but for myself, when the iron has entered my soul, and it shall come my turn to stand in the darkness, may I have the humility to search and test my ways and turn to the Lord! It is only to the penitent soul that the secret of the Lord’s compassions can be revealed.

Illustration

‘When Jeremiah says, Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord; let us lift up our hearts with our hands unto God in the heavens, he reminds us of the proper method to be observed in prayer, namely, sincere confession of sin and repentance must precede our petitions. For we know that God does not hear impenitent sinners (St. John 9:31). This method God Himself also has taught us to observe, since He says in Isaiah 1:15, If ye make many prayers, I will not hear you. Why! For your hands are full of blood. But He immediately adds good counsel: Wash and make yourselves clean, put away your evil doings from before Mine eyes, then come, and let us reason together.’