Lamentations Chapter 3
Lamentations 3
Great Is Thy Faithfulness
Lamentations 3:1-9, The Man Afflicted by the LORD
Lamentations 3:1-9, “I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into light. Surely against me is he turned; he turneth his hand against me all the day. My flesh and my skin hath he made old; he hath broken my bones. He hath builded against me, and compassed me with gall and travail. He hath set me in dark places, as they that be dead of old. He hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out: he hath made my chain heavy. Also when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer. He hath inclosed my ways with hewn stone, he hath made my paths crooked.”
Lamentations 3 shifts from Jerusalem as a suffering city to the voice of an individual sufferer. “I am the man that hath seen affliction.” This is Jeremiah’s personal voice, but it also represents the faithful sufferer inside the ruined nation. National judgment is never merely national. It is felt personally by real men, women, children, prophets, priests, and families.
The affliction is “by the rod of his wrath.” Jeremiah does not pretend this suffering is random. The rod belongs to God. The wrath belongs to God. The Babylonians were the human instrument, but the LORD was the righteous Judge.
The sufferer says God has led him into darkness, not light. This is one of the hardest experiences of suffering. It is painful enough to be in darkness, but harder still to confess that God has led him there. Yet even in darkness, if God has led him there, the darkness is not outside God’s rule.
The language is severe. God has turned His hand against him all day. His flesh and skin are aged. His bones are broken. He is surrounded with gall and travail. He is set in dark places like the dead of old.
He feels trapped. God has hedged him in so he cannot get out. His chain is heavy. When he cries and shouts, God shuts out his prayer. His ways are blocked with hewn stone, and his paths are made crooked.
This is not shallow religion. Lamentations gives language to the believer under the crushing sense that God Himself is against him. The chapter does not immediately correct the feeling. It lets the grief speak honestly before God.
Lamentations 3:10-18, God as an Adversary in Many Ways
Lamentations 3:10-18, “He was unto me as a bear lying in wait, and as a lion in secret places. He hath turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces: he hath made me desolate. He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow. He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins. I was a derision to all my people; and their song all the day. He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunken with wormwood. He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones, he hath covered me with ashes. And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace: I forgat prosperity. And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the LORD:”
Jeremiah continues describing God as an adversary. God is like a bear waiting in ambush and a lion hidden in secret places. The sufferer feels hunted, torn, and left desolate.
God is also like an archer. He bends His bow and sets the sufferer as the target. The arrows of His quiver enter into his reins. In Hebrew thought, the reins or kidneys were associated with deep inward emotion and life. The wound is not superficial. It pierces the inner man.
The sufferer is mocked by his own people. He becomes their song all the day. Judgment brings not only pain but humiliation. To be afflicted is hard. To be mocked in affliction is harder.
He is filled with bitterness and made drunken with wormwood. Wormwood represents bitterness, poison, and sorrow. He has broken his teeth with gravel stones, a graphic picture of pain, disgust, and deprivation. He is covered with ashes, the sign of mourning and humiliation.
Then comes the emotional bottom: “thou hast removed my soul far off from peace: I forgat prosperity.” Peace feels distant. Prosperity is not merely absent; it is forgotten. The sufferer can barely remember what life was like before the devastation.
Finally he says, “My strength and my hope is perished from the LORD.” This is the lowest point. Not only is strength gone, but hope seems gone too. And the pain is deepest because it seems to come “from the LORD.”
Lamentations does not rush past this sentence. Many believers have reached a point where they could not honestly say they felt hopeful. Scripture gives room to confess that depth of despair, but it does not leave the soul there.
Lamentations 3:19-20, The Sinking Soul
Lamentations 3:19-20, “Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me.”
The sufferer remembers his affliction, misery, wormwood, and gall. He does not deny the pain. Biblical hope is not built by pretending grief is not real. Jeremiah remembers the bitterness for what it is.
His soul still remembers and is humbled within him. The memory brings him low. Yet this low place becomes the turning point. The soul has sunk to the bottom, and now it is ready to remember something greater than the affliction.
There is a kind of humility that comes when all false confidence is stripped away. Judah had trusted temple, city, kings, alliances, and false prophets. The afflicted soul now has nothing left to trust except the LORD Himself.
Lamentations 3:21-23, New Mercies from a Faithful God
Lamentations 3:21-23, “This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.”
This is the great turning point of Lamentations. “This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.” Hope returns when the mind recalls what is true about God.
Jeremiah does not find hope in circumstances. Jerusalem is still ruined. The temple is still burned. The people are still dead or exiled. The children have still suffered. The enemies have still mocked. The visible situation has not changed.
But Jeremiah remembers the LORD’s mercies. “It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed.” The wonder is not that Judah suffered so much. The wonder is that Judah was not completely consumed. Their sins deserved total destruction, but God preserved a remnant.
The LORD’s compassions fail not. Even in discipline, God’s compassion is not exhausted. His chastening is severe, but His mercy is still alive.
“They are new every morning.” Every morning is a testimony that God has not stopped showing mercy. The night may have been filled with grief, but the morning comes with fresh mercy from God. The supply does not run dry because it comes from God Himself.
“Great is thy faithfulness.” This is not sentimental optimism. It is faith in the character of God while standing in the ruins. God was faithful to warn. God was faithful to judge. God will also be faithful to restore. His faithfulness is not measured by comfort but by His unchanging truth, covenant mercy, and righteous character.
This is the center of the book. Lamentations does not deny catastrophe. It teaches the soul to find hope in the LORD even inside catastrophe.
Lamentations 3:24-26, God’s Goodness to the Seeking Soul
Lamentations 3:24-26, “The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him. The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.”
Jeremiah says, “The LORD is my portion.” A portion is an inheritance, possession, or share. Jerusalem has lost almost everything visible, but the faithful soul still has the LORD. If the LORD is his portion, then hope remains.
“Therefore will I hope in him.” Hope is not placed in Babylon becoming kind, Judah becoming strong, or circumstances immediately changing. Hope is in the LORD.
The LORD is good to those who wait for Him and to the soul that seeks Him. Waiting is hard because suffering wants immediate relief. But waiting on the LORD is not empty delay. It is trust that God’s timing, mercy, and salvation are better than human panic.
“It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.” Quiet waiting is not passivity. It is disciplined faith. It refuses unbelieving panic, fleshly scheming, and bitter accusation. It waits because salvation belongs to the LORD.
Psalm 62:5-6, “My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation: he is my defence; I shall not be moved.”
The afflicted man has moved from “my hope is perished” to “therefore will I hope in him.” The difference is remembering the mercies, compassions, faithfulness, and goodness of God.
Lamentations 3:27-29, Hope for the Silent Soul
Lamentations 3:27-29, “It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him. He putteth his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope.”
Jeremiah says it is good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth. Discipline early in life can train a man, humble him, strengthen him, and spare him from worse destruction later. A yoke is hard, but not every hard thing is evil. Some hard things are used by God to produce endurance and wisdom.
The sufferer sits alone and keeps silence because God has laid the yoke upon him. There is a time to speak and a time to be silent. Under discipline, silence can be wise because it allows the soul to stop arguing and start listening.
“He putteth his mouth in the dust.” This is the posture of humility and surrender. The sufferer does not justify himself. He bows low before God.
Yet even there, “if so be there may be hope.” Hope may be found in the dust. The bowed soul is not hopeless if it is bowed before the LORD. God gives grace to the humble.
James 4:10, “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.”
Lamentations 3:30-36, The Goodness of God Even in His Justice
Lamentations 3:30-36, “He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him: he is filled full with reproach. For the Lord will not cast off for ever: But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men. To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth, To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the most High, To subvert a man in his cause, the Lord approveth not.”
The afflicted man gives his cheek to the one who strikes him and is filled with reproach. In context, this means humble submission under chastening rather than proud resistance. It is the posture of one who accepts that God’s discipline is deserved.
This also points forward to the Lord Jesus Christ, who bore unjust suffering with perfect submission.
Isaiah 50:6, “I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair...”
Matthew 26:67, “Then did they spit in his face, and buffeted him; and others smote him with the palms of their hands,”
Then comes another great hope: “For the Lord will not cast off for ever.” God may cast down, but He will not cast off forever. His discipline has purpose, limit, and mercy.
“Though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies.” God’s grief-causing discipline is not the end of His heart toward His people. His compassion remains greater than their misery.
“For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men.” God does not delight in causing pain. He is not cruel. He does not afflict from malice. When He chastens, He does so righteously and purposefully.
The Lord does not approve injustice. He does not approve crushing prisoners underfoot, turning aside a man’s right before the Most High, or subverting a man in his cause. God’s sovereignty in judgment does not make Him unjust. The Judge of all the earth does right.
Genesis 18:25, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?”
Lamentations 3:37-39, The God Who Cannot Be Opposed
Lamentations 3:37-39, “Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not? 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?”
Jeremiah now turns to God’s sovereignty. Who can speak and make it come to pass unless the Lord commands it? No king, prophet, empire, army, or man can overrule the Most High.
Out of the mouth of the Most High proceed both evil and good. This does not mean God is morally evil. It means calamity and blessing are both under His sovereign rule. Disaster is not outside His command. Comfort is not outside His command. Nothing is governed by blind fate.
This sovereignty is not meant to crush hope. It creates hope. If suffering were random, there would be no sure mercy. But if God rules over both grief and restoration, then the afflicted can seek Him.
“Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?” The fact that the sufferer is still living is itself mercy. A living man under discipline still has opportunity to repent, seek God, and hope in mercy.
The proper response is not bitter complaint, but humble examination.
Lamentations 3:40-47, Humbly Turning Back to God
Lamentations 3:40-47, “Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD. Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens. We have transgressed and have rebelled: thou hast not pardoned. Thou hast covered with anger, and persecuted us: thou hast slain, thou hast not pitied. Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through. Thou hast made us as the offscouring and refuse in the midst of the people. All our enemies have opened their mouths against us. Fear and a snare is come upon us, desolation and destruction.”
The correct response to chastening is clear: “Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD.” The people must not merely grieve their suffering. They must examine their ways. They must search deeply, test honestly, and return to God.
True repentance is not vague. It does not say only, “Things are bad.” It says, “We have transgressed and have rebelled.” Jeremiah includes himself with the people. He does not stand above them as if untouched. He leads them in corporate confession.
They are to lift up heart and hands to God in heaven. Hands without heart would be empty ritual. Heart without hands would be hidden and incomplete. True prayer brings the inward man and outward posture together before God.
The confession remains severe. God has not pardoned in the sense that He has not removed the temporal judgment. He covered Himself with anger, pursued them, slain, and not pitied. He covered Himself with a cloud so prayer would not pass through.
They have become offscouring and refuse among the peoples. Their enemies open their mouths against them. Fear, snare, desolation, and destruction have come.
This is not shallow confession. It is honest repentance under the heavy hand of God.
Lamentations 3:48-51, Weeping over Destruction
Lamentations 3:48-51, “Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people. Mine eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission, Till the LORD look down, and behold from heaven. Mine eye affecteth mine heart because of all the daughters of my city.”
Jeremiah’s eyes run down with rivers of water. He weeps over the destruction of the daughter of his people. His grief is not momentary. His eye trickles down and does not cease.
He will continue until the LORD looks down and beholds from heaven. This is lament as intercession. Tears become a plea for divine attention.
His eye affects his heart because of all the daughters of his city. What he sees wounds him inwardly. Biblical compassion does not look away from suffering. It sees, grieves, and brings the grief before God.
The faithful man does not become numb to judgment. Even when judgment is deserved, the suffering of people should move the heart.
Lamentations 3:52-56, Praying for Help under Enemy Attack
Lamentations 3:52-56, “Mine enemies chased me sore, like a bird, without cause. They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me. Waters flowed over mine head; then I said, I am cut off. I called upon thy name, O LORD, out of the low dungeon. Thou hast heard my voice: hide not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry.”
Jeremiah describes enemies chasing him like a bird without cause. He feels hunted and trapped. They cut off his life in the dungeon and cast a stone upon him. Waters flow over his head. He says, “I am cut off.”
This language recalls Jeremiah’s own suffering, especially when he was cast into a dungeon.
Jeremiah 38:6, “Then took they Jeremiah, and cast him into the dungeon of Malchiah... and in the dungeon there was no water, but mire: so Jeremiah sunk in the mire.”
From the low dungeon, he calls upon the name of the LORD. This is crucial. Even when he felt God had shut out prayer earlier, he still prayed. Faith may feel unheard, but it keeps calling.
“Thou hast heard my voice.” The prayer moves from desperation to confidence. Jeremiah asks God not to hide His ear from his breathing and his cry. Even a faint breath can be prayer when directed to the LORD.
God hears sighs too weak for words. The lowest dungeon is not too low for prayer.
Lamentations 3:57-63, Thankful and Confident of Future Help
Lamentations 3:57-63, “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 hast redeemed my life. O LORD, thou hast seen my wrong: judge thou my cause. Thou hast seen all their vengeance and all their imaginations against me. Thou hast heard their reproach, O LORD, and all their imaginations against me; The lips of those that rose up against me, and their device against me all the day. Behold their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their musick.”
The LORD drew near when Jeremiah called. Earlier, he felt shut out. Now he testifies that God came near and said, “Fear not.” This is a powerful word to the afflicted. God’s nearness does not always immediately remove the trouble, but it removes the terror of abandonment.
The Lord pleaded the causes of his soul and redeemed his life. Earlier in the chapter, God felt like an adversary. Now Jeremiah knows God as advocate and Redeemer.
He asks the LORD to judge his cause. He brings his wrongs, the vengeance of enemies, their schemes, reproach, whispers, and taunting songs before God. He does not need to avenge himself because God sees.
The enemies mock him in their sitting down and rising up. He is their music, their taunting song. But because God sees and hears, their mockery is not the final word.
The faithful sufferer can place his case in the hands of the LORD.
Lamentations 3:64-66, Giving Vengeance to God
Lamentations 3:64-66, “Render unto them a recompence, O LORD, according to the work of their hands. Give them sorrow of heart, thy curse unto them. Persecute and destroy them in anger from under the heavens of the LORD.”
The chapter ends with a prayer for judgment on the enemies. Jeremiah asks the LORD to render recompense according to the work of their hands. This is not personal revenge. It is appeal to divine justice.
Judah had been judged according to her sins. Now Jeremiah asks God to judge the enemies according to their wicked works. The same God who disciplines His people also judges those who cruelly oppose them.
“Thy curse unto them” recalls the covenant curses. The enemies who rejoiced in Judah’s downfall and acted wickedly must also answer to the LORD.
Jeremiah gives vengeance to God. He does not seize it himself. He prays to the righteous Judge.
Romans 12:19, “Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.”
Lamentations 3 therefore moves from despair to hope, from feeling opposed by God to trusting God’s faithfulness, from tears to prayer, and from personal wrong to divine justice.
Doctrinal and Practical Notes
Lamentations 3 teaches that suffering is personal. National catastrophe becomes individual affliction.
Lamentations 3 teaches that believers may honestly describe the darkness they feel under God’s discipline.
Lamentations 3 teaches that hope begins when the mind recalls what is true about God.
Lamentations 3 teaches that the LORD’s mercies keep His people from being consumed.
Lamentations 3 teaches that God’s compassions do not fail, even in judgment.
Lamentations 3 teaches that fresh mercy is given every morning.
Lamentations 3 teaches that God’s faithfulness is great even when circumstances are terrible.
Lamentations 3 teaches that the LORD Himself is the believer’s portion.
Lamentations 3 teaches that waiting quietly for the LORD is good.
Lamentations 3 teaches that God causes grief but will show compassion according to the multitude of His mercies.
Lamentations 3 teaches that God does not afflict willingly or cruelly.
Lamentations 3 teaches that repentance requires searching and trying our ways, then turning again to the LORD.
Lamentations 3 teaches that prayer can rise from the lowest dungeon.
Lamentations 3 teaches that the LORD draws near and says, “Fear not.”
Lamentations 3 teaches that vengeance belongs to God, not to the wounded servant.
Summary
Lamentations 3 begins with the voice of the afflicted man who has seen suffering by the rod of God’s wrath. He has been led into darkness, feels God’s hand turned against him, and describes his body and soul as aged, broken, hedged in, chained, blocked, and unheard in prayer. God seems like a bear, a lion, an archer, a mocker, a judge, and one who breaks teeth with gravel. The sufferer says his peace is gone, prosperity is forgotten, and his strength and hope have perished from the LORD.
Yet the chapter turns when he remembers his affliction, wormwood, and gall, and then recalls truth to his mind. Because of the LORD’s mercies, the people are not consumed. His compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Great is His faithfulness. The LORD is his portion, therefore he hopes in Him. The LORD is good to those who wait for Him and seek Him. It is good to hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.
Jeremiah teaches that it is good to bear the yoke, sit alone, keep silence, put one’s mouth in the dust, and hope. The Lord will not cast off forever. Though He causes grief, He will have compassion according to the multitude of His mercies. He does not afflict willingly nor approve injustice.
The chapter then calls the people to search and try their ways and turn again to the LORD. They confess transgression and rebellion, acknowledging that God has covered Himself with anger and that they have become refuse among the peoples. Jeremiah weeps rivers of tears for the destruction of his people until the LORD looks down from heaven.
He remembers being hunted by enemies, cast into the dungeon, overwhelmed by waters, and feeling cut off. Yet from the low dungeon he called on the LORD, and God heard his voice. The LORD drew near and said, “Fear not.” He pleaded the cause of Jeremiah’s soul and redeemed his life.
The chapter ends with a prayer that God would judge the enemies according to their works. Jeremiah gives vengeance to the LORD, trusting Him to repay justly.
