L
A M E N T A T I O N S
CHAP. III.
The
scope of this chapter is the same with that of the two foregoing chapters, but
the composition is somewhat different; that was in long verse, this is in
short, another kind of metre; that was in single alphabets, this is in a
treble one. Here is, I. A sad complaint of God's displeasure and the fruits of
it, ver. 1-20. II. Words of comfort to God's people when they are in trouble
and distress, ver. 21-36. III. Duty prescribed in this afflicted state, ver.
37-41. IV. The complaint renewed, ver. 42-54. V. Encouragement taken to hope
in God, and continue waiting for his salvation, with an appeal to his justice
against the persecutors of the church, ver. 55-66. Some make all this to be
spoken by the prophet himself when he was imprisoned and persecuted; but it
seems rather to be spoken in the person of the church now in captivity and in
a manner desolate, and in the desolations of which the prophet did in a
particular manner interest himself. But the complaints here are somewhat more
general than those in the foregoing chapter, being accommodated to the case as
well of particular persons as of the public, and intended for the use of the
closet rather than of the solemn assembly. Some think Jeremiah makes these
complaints, not only as an intercessor for Israel, but as a type of Christ,
who was thought by some to be Jeremiah the weeping prophet, because he was
much in tears (Matt. xvi. 14) and to him many of the passages here may be
applied.
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The
Prophet's Personal Affliction.
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B.
C. 588.
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1 I am the man that hath seen
affliction by the rod of his wrath. 2 He hath led me, and brought me
into darkness, but not into light. 3 Surely against me
is he turned; he turneth his hand against me all the day. 4
My flesh and my skin hath he made old; he hath broken my bones. 5
He hath builded against me, and compassed me with gall and
travail. 6 He hath set me in dark places, as they that be
dead of old. 7 He hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out: he
hath made my chain heavy. 8 Also when I cry and shout, he shutteth
out my prayer. 9 He hath inclosed my ways with hewn stone, he hath
made my paths crooked. 10 He was unto me as a bear
lying in wait, and as a lion in secret places. 11 He hath
turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces: he hath made me desolate.
12 He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow. 13 He
hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins. 14 I
was a derision to all my people; and their song all the day.
15 He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunken with
wormwood. 16 He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones, he
hath covered me with ashes. 17 And thou hast removed my soul far
off from peace: I forgat prosperity. 18 And I said, My strength
and my hope is perished from the LORD: 19
Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.
20 My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me.
The title of the 102nd Psalm might very fitly be prefixed to this chapter--The
prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed, and pours out his complaint
before the Lord; for it is very feelingly and fluently that the complaint
is here poured out. Let us observe the particulars of it. The prophet
complains, 1. That God is angry. This gives both birth and bitterness to the
affliction (v. 1): I am the man, the remarkable man, that has
seen affliction, and has felt it sensibly, by the rod of his wrath.
Note, God is sometimes angry with his own people; yet it is to be complained
of, not as a sword to cut off, by only as a rod to correct; it is to them the
rod of his wrath, a chastening which, though grievous for the present,
will in the issue be advantageous. By this rod we must expect to see
affliction, and, if we be made to see more than ordinary affliction by
that rod, we must not quarrel, for we are sure that the anger is just and
affliction mild and mixed with mercy. 2. That he is at a loss and altogether
in the dark. Darkness is put for great trouble and perplexity, the want both
of comfort and of direction; this was the case of the complainant (v.
2): "He has led me by his providence, and an unaccountable chain
of events, into darkness and not into light, the darkness I feared and
not into the light I hoped for." And (v. 6), He has set me in
dark places, dark as the grave, like those that are dead of old,
that are quite forgotten, nobody knows who or what they were. Note, The Israel
of God, though children of light, sometimes walk in darkness. 3. That
God appears against him as an enemy, as a professed enemy. God had been for
him, but no "Surely against me is he turned (v. 3), as far
as I can discern; for his hand is turned against me all the day. I am
chastened every morning," Ps. lxxiii. 14. And, when God's hand is
continually turned against us, we are tempted to think that his heart is
turned against us too. God had said once (Hos. v. 14), I will be as a lion
to the house of Judah, and now he has made his word good (v. 10):
"He was unto me as a bear lying in wait, surprising me with his
judgments, and as a lion in secret places; so that which way soever I
went I was in continual fear of being set upon and could never think myself
safe." Do men shoot at those thy are enemies to? He has bent his bow,
the bow that was ordained against the church's prosecutors, that is bent
against her sons, v. 12. He has set me as a mark for his arrow,
which he aims at, and will be sure to hit, and then the arrows of his
quiver enter into my reins, give me a mortal wound, an inward wound, v.
13. Note, God has many arrows in his quiver, and they fly swiftly and pierce
deeply. 4. That he is as one sorely afflicted both in body and mind. The
Jewish state may now be fitly compared to a man wrinkled with age, for which
there is no remedy (v. 4): "My flesh and my skin has he made
old; they are wasted and withered, and I look like one that is ready to
drop into the grave; nay, he has broken my bones, and so disabled me to
help myself, v. 15. He has filled me with bitterness, a bitter
sense of his calamities." God has access to the spirit, and can so
embitter that as thereby to embitter all the enjoyments; as, when the stomach
is foul, whatever is eaten sours in it: "He has made me drunk with
wormwood, so intoxicated me with the sense of my afflictions that I know
not what to say or do. He has mingled gravel with my bread, so
that my teeth are broken with it (v. 16) and what I eat
is neither pleasant nor nourishing. He has covered me with ashes, as
mourners used to be, or (as some read it) he has fed me with ashes. I have
eaten ashes like bread," Ps. cii. 9. 5. That he is not able to
discern any way of escape or deliverance (v. 5): "He has built
against me, as forts and batteries are built against a besieged city.
Where there was a way open it is now quite made up: He has compassed me
on ever side with gall and travel; I vex, and fret, and tire myself, to
find a way of escape, but can find none, v. 7. He has hedged me
about, that I cannot get out." When Jerusalem was besieged it was
said to be compassed in on every side, Luke xix. 43. "I am
chained; and as some notorious malefactors are double-fettered, and loaded
with irons, so he has made my chain heavy. He has also (v. 9) enclosed
my ways with hewn stone, not only hedged up my way with thorns (Hos.
ii. 6), but stopped it up with a stone wall, which cannot be broken through,
so that my paths are made crooked; I traverse to and fro, to the right
hand, to the left, to try to get forward, but am still turned back." It
is just with God to make those who walk in the crooked paths of sin, crossing
God's laws, walk in the crooked paths of affliction, crossing their designs
and breaking their measures. So (v. 11), "He has turned aside
my ways; he has blasted all my counsels, ruined my projects, so that I am
necessitated to yield to my own ruin. He has pulled me in pieces; he
has torn and is gone away (Hos. v. 14), and has made me desolate, has
deprived me of all society and all comfort in my own soul." 6. That God
turns a deaf ear to his prayers (v. 8): "When I cry and shout,
as one in earnest, as one that would make him hear, yet he shuts out my
prayer and will not suffer it to have access to him." God's ear is
wont to be open to the prayers of his people, and his door of mercy to those
that knock at it; but now both are shut, even to one that cries and shouts.
Thus sometimes God seems to be angry even against the prayers of his people
(Ps. lxxx. 4), and their case is deplorable indeed when they are denied not
only the benefit of an answer, but the comfort of acceptance. 7. That his
neighbours make a laughing matter of his troubles (v. 14): I was a
derision to all my people, to all the wicked among them, who made
themselves an one another merry with the public judgments, and particularly
the prophet Jeremiah's griefs. I am their song, their neginath, or
hand-instrument of music, their tabret (Job xvii. 6), that they play
upon, as Nero on his harp when Rome was on fire. 8. That he was ready to
despair of relief and deliverance: "Thou hast not only taken peace from
me, but hast removed my soul far off from peace (v. 17), so that
it is not only not within reach, but no within view. I forget prosperity;
it is so long since I had it, and so unlikely that I should ever recover it,
that I have lost the idea of it. I have been so inured to sorrow and servitude
that I know not what joy and liberty mean. I have even given up all for gone,
concluding, My strength and my hope have perished from the Lord (v.
18); I can no longer stay myself upon God as my support, for I do not find
that he gives me encouragement to do so; nor can I look for his appearing in
my behalf, so as to put an end to my troubles, for the case seems remediless,
and even my God inexorable." Without doubt it was his infirmity to say
this (Ps. lxxvii. 10), for with God there is everlasting strength, and
he is his people's never-failing hope, whatever they may think. 9. That grief
returned upon every remembrance of his troubles, and his reflections were as
melancholy as his prospects, v. 19, 20. Did he endeavour as Job did
(Job ix. 27), to forget his complaint? Alas! it was to no purpose; he
remembers, upon all occasions, the affliction and the misery, the wormwood
and the gall. Thus emphatically does he speak of his affliction, for thus
did he think of it, thus heavily did it lie when he reviewed it! It was an
affliction that was misery itself. My affliction and my transgression
(so some read it), my trouble and my sin that brought it upon me; this was the
wormwood and the gall in the affliction and the misery. It is sin
that makes the cup of affliction a bitter cup. My soul has them still in
remembrance. The captives in Babylon had all the miseries of the siege in
their mind continually and the flames and ruins of Jerusalem still before
their eyes, and wept when they remembered Zion; nay, they could never
forget Jerusalem, Ps. cxxxvii. 1, 5. My soul, having them in
remembrance, is humbled in me, not only oppressed with a sense of the
trouble, but in bitterness for sin. Note, It becomes us to have humble hearts
under humbling providences, and to renew our penitent humiliations for sin
upon every remembrance of our afflictions and miseries. Thus we may get good
by former corrections and prevent further.
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Words
of Comfort to Israel; The Benefit of Afflictions; Comfort to the
Afflicted.
B. C. 588.
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21 This I recall to my mind, therefore have I
hope. 22 It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail
not. 23 They are new every morning: great is thy
faithfulness. 24 The LORD
is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.
25 The LORD
is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh
him. 26 It is good that a man should both hope and
quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.
27 It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
28 He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon
him. 29 He putteth his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be
hope. 30 He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him: he is
filled full with reproach. 31 For the Lord will not cast off for
ever: 32 But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion
according to the multitude of his mercies. 33 For he doth not
afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men. 34 To crush
under his feet all the prisoners of the earth, 35 To turn aside
the right of a man before the face of the most High, 36 To subvert
a man in his cause, the Lord approveth not.
Here the clouds begin to disperse and the sky to clear up; the complaint was
very melancholy in the former part of the chapter, and yet here the tune is
altered and the mourners in Zion begin to look a little pleasant. But for
hope, the heart would break. To save the heart from being quite broken, here
is something called to mind, which gives ground for hope (v.
21), which refers to what comes after, not to what goes before. I make to
return to my heart (so the margin words it); what we have had in our
hearts, and have laid to our hearts, is sometimes as if it were quite lost and
forgotten, till God by his grace make it return to our hearts, that it may be
ready to us when we have occasion to use it. "I recall it to
mind; therefore have I hope, and am kept from downright despair." Let
us see what these things are which he calls to mind.
I. That, bad as things are, it is owing to the mercy of God that they are not
worse. We are afflicted by the rod of his wrath, but it is of the
lord's mercies that we are not consumed, v. 22. When we are in
distress we should, for the encouragement of our faith and hope, observe what
makes for us as well as what makes against us. Things are bad but they might
have been worse, and therefore there is hope that they may be better. Observe
here, 1. The streams of mercy acknowledged: We are not consumed. Note,
The church of God is like Moses's bush, burning, yet not consumed;
whatever hardships it has met with, or may meet with, it shall have a being in
the world to the end of time. It is persecuted of men, but not
forsaken of God, and therefore, though it is cast down, it is not
destroyed (2 Cor. iv. 9), corrected, yet not consumed, refined in
the furnace as silver, but not consumed as dross. 2. These streams
followed up to the fountain: It is of the Lord's mercies. here are
mercies in the plural number, denoting the abundance and variety of those
mercies. God is an inexhaustible fountain of mercy, the Father of mercies.
Note, We all owe it to the sparing mercy of God that we are not consumed.
Others have been consumed round about us, and we ourselves have been in the
consuming, and yet we are not consumed; we are out of the grave; we are
out of hell. Had we been dealt with according to our sins, we should
have been consumed long ago; but we have been dealt with according to God's
mercies, and we are bound to acknowledge it to his praise.
II. That even in the depth of their affliction they still have experience of
the tenderness of the divine pity and the truth of the divine promise. They
had several times complained that God had not pitied (ch. ii. 17, 21),
but here they correct themselves, and own, 1. That God's compassions fail
not; they do not really fail, no, not even when in anger he seems to have shut
up his tender mercies. These rivers of mercy run fully and constantly, but
never run dry. No; they are new every morning; every morning we have
fresh instances of God's compassion towards us; he visits us with them every
morning (Job vii. 18); every morning does he bring his judgment to
light, Zeph. iii. 5. When our comforts fail, yet God's compassions do not.
2. That great is his faithfulness. Though the covenant seemed to be
broken, they owned that it still continued in full force; and, though
Jerusalem be in ruins, the truth of the Lord endures for ever. Note,
Whatever hard things we suffer, we must never entertain any hard thoughts of
God, but must still be ready to own that he is both kind and faithful.
III. That God is, and ever will be, the all-sufficient happiness of his
people, and they have chosen him and depend upon him to be such (v.
24): The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; that is, 1. "When I
have lost all I have in the world, liberty, and livelihood, and almost life
itself, yet I have not lost my interest in God." Portions on earth are
perishing things, but God is portion for ever. 2. "While I have an
interest in God, therein I have enough; I have that which is sufficient to
counterbalance all my troubles and make up all my losses." Whatever we
are robbed of our portion is safe. 3. "This is that which I depend upon
and rest satisfied with: Therefore will I hope in him. I will stay
myself upon him, and encourage myself in him, when all other supports and
encouragements fail me." Note, It is our duty to make God the portion of
our souls, and then to make use of him as our portion and to take the comfort
of it in the midst of our lamentations.
IV. That those who deal with God will find it is not in vain to trust in him;
for, 1. He is good to those who do so, v. 25. He is good to all; his
tender mercies are over all his works; all his creatures taste of his
goodness. But he is in a particular manner good to those that wait for him,
to the soul that seeks him. Note, While trouble is prolonged, and
deliverance is deferred, we must patiently wait for God and his gracious
returns to us. While we wait for him by faith, we must seek him
by prayer: our souls must seek him, else we do not seek so as to
find. Our seeking will help to keep up our waiting. And to those who thus wait
and seek God will be gracious; he will show them his marvellous
lovingkindness. 2. Those that do so will find it good for them (v.
26): It is good (it is our duty, and will be our unspeakable comfort
and satisfaction) to hope and quietly to wait for the salvation of the
Lord, to hope that it will come, thought the difficulties that lie in the
way of it seem insupportable, to wait till it does come, though it be long
delayed, and while we wait to be quiet and silent, not quarrelling with God
nor making ourselves uneasy, but acquiescing in the divine disposals. Father,
thy will be done. If we call this to mind, we may have hope that all will
end well at last.
V. That afflictions are really good for us, and, if we bear them aright, will
work very much for our good. It is not only good to hope and wait for the
salvation, but it is good to be under the trouble in the mean time (v.
27): It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. Many of
the young men were carried into captivity. To make them easy in it, he tells
them that it was good for them to bear the yoke of that captivity, and
they would find it so if they would but accommodate themselves to their
condition, and labour to answer God's ends in laying that heavy yoke upon
them. It is very applicable to the yoke of God's commands. It is good for
young people to take that yoke upon them in their youth; we cannot begin too
soon to be religious. It will make our duty the more acceptable to God, and
easy to ourselves, if we engage in it when we are young. But here it seems to
be meant of the yoke of affliction. Many have found it good to bear this in
youth; it has made those humble and serious, and has weaned them from the
world, who otherwise would have been proud and unruly, and as a bullock
unaccustomed to the yoke. But when do we bear the yoke so that it
is really good for us to bear it in our youth? He answers in the
following verses, 1. When we are sedate and quiet under our afflictions, when
we sit alone and keep silence, do not run to and fro into all companies
with our complaints, aggravating our calamities, and quarrelling with the
disposals of Providence concerning us, but retire into privacy, that we may in
a day of adversity consider, sit alone, that we may converse with God and commune
with our own hearts, silencing all discontented distrustful thoughts, and
laying our hand upon our mouth, as Aaron, who, under a very severe trial, held
his peace. We must keep silence under the yoke as those that have borne it
upon us, not wilfully pulled it upon our own necks, but patiently submitted to
it when God laid it upon us. When those who are afflicted in their youth
accommodate themselves to their afflictions, fit their necks to the yoke and
study to answer God's end in afflicting them, then they will find it good for
them to bear it, for it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to
those who are thus exercised thereby. 2. When we are humble and
patient under our affliction. He gets good by the yoke who puts his
mouth in the dust, not only lays his hand upon his mouth, in token
of submission to the will of God in the affliction, but puts it in the
dust, in token of sorrow, and shame, and self-loathing, at the remembrance
of sin, and as one perfectly reduced and reclaimed, and brought as those that
are vanquished to lick the dust, Ps. lxxii. 9. And we must thus humble
ourselves, if so be there may be hope, or (as it is in the original) peradventure
there is hope. If there be any way to acquire and secure a good hope under
our afflictions, it is this way, and yet we must be very modest in our
expectations of it, must look for it with an it may be, as those who
own ourselves utterly unworthy of it. Note, Those who are truly humbled for
sin will be glad to obtain a good hope, through grace, upon any terms, though
they put their mouth in the dust for it; and those who would have hope
must do so, and ascribe it to free grace if they have any encouragements,
which may keep their hearts from sinking into the dust when they put their
mouth there. 3. When we are meek and mild towards those who are the
instruments of our trouble, and are of a forgiving spirit, v. 30. He
gets good by the yoke who gives his cheek to him that smites him, and
rather turns the other cheek (Matt. v. 39) than returns the second
blow. Our Lord Jesus has left us an example of this, for he gave his back
to the smiter, Isa. l. 6. He who can bear contempt and reproach, and not render
railing for railing, and bitterness for bitterness, who, when he is filled
full with reproach, keeps it to himself, and does not retort it and empty
it again upon those who filled him with it, but pours it out before the
Lord (as those did, Ps. cxxiii. 4, whose souls were exceedingly filled
with the contempt of the proud), he shall find that it is good to bear
the yoke, that it shall turn to his spiritual advantage. The sum is, If
tribulation work patience, that patience will work experience,
and that experience a hope that makes not ashamed.
VI. That God will graciously return to his people with seasonable comforts according
to the time that he has afflicted them, v. 31, 32. Therefore
the sufferer is thus penitent, thus patient, because he believes that God is
gracious and merciful, which is the great inducement both to evangelical
repentance and to Christian patience. We may bear ourselves up with this, 1.
That, when we are cast down, yet we are not cast off; the father's correcting
his son is not a disinheriting of him. 2. That though we may seem to be cast
off for a time, while sensible comforts are suspended and desired salvations
deferred, yet we are not really cast off, because not cast off for ever;
the controversy with us shall not be perpetual. 3. That, whatever sorrow we
are in, it is what God has allotted us, and his hand is in it. It is he that
causes grief, and therefore we may be assured it is ordered wisely and
graciously; and it is but for a season, and when need is, that we are
in heaviness, 1 Pet. i. 6. 4. That God has compassions and comforts in
store even for those whom he has himself grieved. We must be far from thinking
that, though God cause grief, the world will relieve and help us. No; the very
same that caused the grief must bring in the favour, or we are undone. Una
eademque manus vulnus opemque tulit--The same hand inflicted the wound and
healed it. He has torn, and he will heal us, Hos. vi. 1. 5. That, when God
returns to deal graciously with us, it will not be according to our merits,
but according to his mercies, according to the multitude, the
abundance, of his mercies. So unworthy we are that nothing but an
abundant mercy will relieve us; and from that what may we not expect? And
God's causing our grief ought to be no discouragement at all to those
expectations.
VII. That, when God does cause grief, it is for wise and holy ends, and he
takes not delight in our calamities, v. 33. He does indeed afflict,
and grieve the children of men; all their grievances and afflictions are
from him. But he does not do it willingly, not from the heart;
so the word is. 1. He never afflicts us but when we give him cause to do it.
He does not dispense his frowns as he does his favours, ex mero motu--from
his mere good pleasure. If he show us kindness, it is because so it
seems good unto him; but, if he write bitter things against us, it is
because we both deserve them and need them. 2. He does not afflict with
pleasure. He delights not in the death of sinners, or the disquiet of saints,
but punishes with a kind of reluctance. He comes out of his place to punish,
for his place is the mercy-seat. He delights not in the misery of any of his
creatures, but, as it respects his own people, he is so far from it that in
all their afflictions he is afflicted and his soul is grieved for the misery
of Israel. 3. He retains his kindness for his people even when he afflicts
them. If he does not willingly grieve the children of men, much less
his own children. However it be, yet God is good to them (Ps. lxxiii.
1), and they may by faith see love in his heart even when they see frowns in
his face and a rod in his hand.
VIII. That though he makes use of men as his hand, or rather instruments in
his hand, for the correcting of his people, yet he is far from being pleased
with the injustice of their proceedings and the wrong they do them, v.
34-36. Though God serves his own purposes by the violence of wicked and
unreasonable men, yet it does no therefore follow that he countenances that
violence, as his oppressed people are sometimes tempted to think. Hab. i. 13, Wherefore
lookest thou upon those that deal treacherously? Two ways the people of
God are injured and oppressed by their enemies, and the prophet here assures
us that God does not approve of either of them:-- 1. If men injure them by
force of arms, God does not approve of that. he does not himself crush
under his feet the prisoners of the earth, but he regards the cry of the
prisoners; nor does he approve of men's doing it; nay, he is much displeased
with it. It is barbarous to trample on those that are down, and to crush those
that are bound and cannot help themselves. 2. If men injure them under colour
of law, and in the pretended administration of justice,--if they turn aside
the right of a man, so that he cannot discover what his rights are or
cannot come at them, they are out of his reach,--if they subvert a man in
his cause, and bring in a wrong verdict, or give a false judgment, let
them know, (1.) That God sees them. It is before the face of the Most High
(v. 35); it is in his sight, under his eye, and is very displeasing to
him. They cannot but know it is so, and therefore it is in defiance of him
that they do it. He is the Most High, whose authority over them they
contemn by abusing their authority over their subjects, not considering that he
that is higher than the highest regardeth, Eccl. v. 8. (2.) That God does
not approve of them. More is implied than is expressed. The perverting of
justice, and the subverting of the just, are a great affront to God; and,
though he may make use of them for the correction of his people, yet he will
sooner or later severely reckon with those that do thus. Note, However God may
for a time suffer evil-doers to prosper, and serve his own purposes by them,
yet he does not therefore approve of their evil doings. Far be it from God
that he should do iniquity, or countenance those that do it.
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The
Duties of the Afflicted.
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B.
C. 588.
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37 Who is he that saith, and it
cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not? 38
Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and good? 39
Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his
sins? 40 Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD.
41 Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens.
That we may be entitled to the comforts administered to the afflicted in the
foregoing verses, and may taste the sweetness of them, we have here the duties
of an afflicted state prescribed to us, in the performance of which we may
expect those comforts.
I. We must see and acknowledge the hand of God in all the calamities that
befal us at any time, whether personal or public, v. 37, 38. This is
here laid down as a great truth, which will help to quiet our spirits under
our afflictions and to sanctify them to us. 1. That, whatever men's actions
are, it is God that overrules them: Who is he that saith, and it cometh to
pass (that designs a thing and bring his designs to effect), if the
Lord commandeth it not? Men can do nothing but according to the counsel of
God, nor have any power or success but what is given them from above. A
man's heart devises his way; he projects and purposes; he says that he
will do so and so (Jam. iv. 13); but the Lord directs his steps far
otherwise than he designed them, and what he contrived and expected does not come
to pass, unless it be what God's hand and his counsel had determined
before to be done, Prov. xvi. 9; Jer. x. 23. The Chaldeans said that they
would destroy Jerusalem, and it came to pass, not because they said it, but
because God commanded it and commissioned them to do it. Note, Men are but
tools which the great God makes use of, and manages as he pleases, in the
government of this lower world; and they cannot accomplish any of their
designs without him. 2. That, whatever men's lot is, it is God that orders it:
Out of the mouth of the Most High do not evil and good proceed? Yes,
certainly they do; and it is more emphatically expressed in the original: Do
not this evil, and this good, proceed out of the mouth of the
Most High? Is it not what he has ordained and appointed for us? Yes,
certainly it is; and for the reconciling of us to our own afflictions,
whatever they be, this general truth must thus be particularly applied. This
comfort I receive from the hand of God, and shall I not receive that evil
also? so Job argues, ch. ii. 10. Are we healthful or sickly, rich or
poor? Do we succeed in our designs, or are we crossed in them? It is all what
God orders; every man's judgment proceeds from him. The Lord gave, and the
Lord has taken away; he forms the light and creates the darkness, as he
did at first. Note, All the events of divine Providence are the products of a
divine counsel; whatever is done God has the directing of it, and the works of
his hands agree with the words of his mouth; he speaks, and it is done,
so easily, so effectually are all his purposes fulfilled.
II. We must not quarrel with God for any affliction that he lays upon us at
any time (v. 39): Wherefore does a living man complain? The
prophet here seems to check himself for the complaint he had made in the
former part of the chapter, wherein he seemed to reflect upon God as unkind
and severe. "Do I well to be angry? Why do I fret thus?" Those who
in their haste have chidden with God must, in the reflection, chide themselves
for it. From the doctrine of God's sovereign and universal providence, which
he had asserted in the verses before, he draws this inference, Wherefore
does a living man complain? What God does we must not open our mouths
against, Ps. xxxix. 9. Those that blame their lot reproach him that allotted
it to them. The sufferers in the captivity must submit to the will of God in
all their sufferings. Note, Though we may pour out our complaints before God,
we must never exhibit any complaints against God. What! Shall a living man
complain, a man for the punishment of his sins? The reasons here urged are
very cogent. 1. We are men; let us herein show ourselves men. Shall a man
complain? And again, a man! We are men, and not brutes, reasonable
creatures, who should act with reason, who should look upward and look
forward, and both ways may fetch considerations enough to silence our
complaints. We are men, and not children that cry for every thing that hurts
them. We are men, and not gods, subjects, not lords; we are not our own
masters, not our own carvers; we are bound and must obey, must submit. We are
men, and not angels, and therefore cannot expect to be free from troubles as
they are; we are not inhabitants of that world where there is no sorrow, but
this where there is nothing but sorrow. We are men, and not devils, are not in
that deplorable, helpless, hopeless, state that they are in, but have
something to comfort ourselves with which they have not. 2. We are living men.
Through the good hand of our God upon us we are alive yet, though dying daily;
and shall a living man complain? No; he has more reason to be thankful
for life than to complain of any of the burdens and calamities of life. Our
lives are frail and forfeited, and yet we are alive; now the living, the
living, they should praise, and not complain (Isa. xxxviii. 19);
while there is life there is hope, and therefore, instead of complaining that
things are bad, we should encourage ourselves with the hope that they will be
better. 3. We are sinful men, and that which we complain of is the just punishment
of our sins; nay, it is far less than our iniquities have deserved. We
have little reason to complain of our trouble, for it is our own doing; we may
thank ourselves. Our own wickedness corrects us, Prov. xix. 3. We have no
reason to quarrel with God, for he is righteous in it; he is the governor of
the world, and it is necessary that he should maintain the honour of his
government by chastising the disobedient. Are we suffering for our sins? Then
let us not complain; for we have other work to do; instead of repining, we
must be repenting; and, as an evidence that God is reconciled to us, we must
be endeavouring to reconcile ourselves to his holy will. Are we punished
for our sins? It is our wisdom then to submit, and to kiss the rod; for,
if we still walk contrary to God, he will punish us yet seven times more; for when
he judges he will overcome. But, if we accommodate ourselves to him,
though we be chastened of the Lord we shall not be condemned with
the world.
III. We must set ourselves to answer God's intention in afflicting us, which
is to bring sin to our remembrance, and to bring us home to himself, v.
40. These are the two things which our afflictions should put us upon. 1. A
serious consideration of ourselves and a reflection upon our past lives. Let
us search and try our ways, search what they have been, and then try
whether they have been right and good or no; search as for a malefactor in
disguise, that flees and hides himself, and then try whether guilty or not
guilty. Let conscience be employed both to search and to try, and let it have
leave to deal faithfully, to accomplish a diligent search and to make an
impartial trial. Let us try our ways, that by them we may try
ourselves, for we are to judge of our state not by our faint wishes, but by
our steps, not by one particular step, but by our ways, the ends we aim at,
the rules we go by, and the agreeableness of the temper of our minds and the
tenour of our lives to those ends and those rules. When we are in affliction
it is seasonable to consider our ways (Hag. i. 5), that what is amiss
may be repented of and amended for the future, and so we may answer the
intention of the affliction. We are apt, in times of public calamity, to
reflect upon other people's ways, and lay blame upon them; whereas our
business is to search and try our own ways. We have work enough
to do at home; we must each of us say, "What have I done? What have I
contributed to the public flames?" that we may each of us mend one, and
then we should all be mended. 2. A sincere conversion to God: "Let us turn
again to the Lord, to him who is turned against us and whom we have turned
from; to him let us turn by repentance and reformation, as to our owner and
ruler. We have been with him, and it has never been well with us since we
forsook him; let us therefore now turn again to him." This must accompany
the former and be the fruit of it; therefore we must search and try
our ways, that we may turn from the evil of them to God. This was the
method David took. Ps. cxix. 59, I thought on my ways, and turned my feet
unto thy testimonies.
IV. We must offer up ourselves to God, and our best affections and services,
in the flames of devotion, v. 41. When we are in affliction, 1. We must
look up to God as a God in the heavens, infinitely above us, and who
has an incontestable dominion over us; for the heavens do rule, and are
therefore not to be quarrelled with, but submitted to. 2. We must pray to him,
with a believing expectation to receive mercy from him; for that is implied in
our lifting up our hands to him (a gesture commonly used in prayer and
sometimes put for it, as Ps. cxli. 2, Let the lifting up of my hands be as
the evening sacrifice); it signifies our requesting mercy from him and our
readiness to receive that mercy. (3.) Our hearts must go along with our
prayers. We must lift up our hearts with our hands, as we must pour out
our souls with our words. It is the heart that God looks at in that and every
other service; for what will a sacrifice without a heart avail? If inward
impressions be not in some measure answerable to outward expressions, we do
but mock God and deceive ourselves. Praying is lifting up the soul to God (Ps.
xxv. 1) as to our Father in heaven; and the soul that hopes to be with
God in heaven for ever will thus, by frequent acts of devotion, be still
learning the way thither and pressing forward in that way.
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Complaining
to God.
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B.
C. 588.
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42 We have transgressed and have rebelled: thou
hast not pardoned. 43 Thou hast covered with anger, and persecuted
us: thou hast slain, thou hast not pitied. 44 Thou hast covered
thyself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through.
45 Thou hast made us as the offscouring and refuse in the midst of the
people. 46 All our enemies have opened their mouths against
us. 47 Fear and a snare is come upon us, desolation and
destruction. 48 Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the
destruction of the daughter of my people. 49 Mine eye trickleth
down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission, 50 Till the LORD
look down, and behold from heaven. 51 Mine eye affecteth mine
heart because of all the daughters of my city. 52 Mine enemies
chased me sore, like a bird, without cause. 53 They have cut off
my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me. 54 Waters flowed
over mine head; then I said, I am cut off.
It is easier to chide ourselves for complaining than to chide ourselves out of
it. The prophet had owned that a living man should not complain, as if he
checked himself for his complaints in the former part of the chapter; and yet
here the clouds return after the rain and the wound bleeds afresh; for great
pains must be taken with a troubled spirit to bring it into temper.
I. They confess the righteousness of God in afflicting them (v. 42): We
have transgressed and have rebelled. Note, It becomes us, when we are in
trouble, to justify God, by owning our sins, and laying the load upon
ourselves for them. Call sin a transgression, call it a rebellion, and you do
not miscall it. This is the result of their searching and trying their ways;
the more they enquired into them the worse they found them. Yet,
II. They complain of the afflictions they are under, not without some
reflections upon God, which we are not to imitate, but, under the sharpest
trials, must always think and speak highly and kindly of him.
1. They complain of his frowns and the tokens of his displeasure against them.
Their sins were repented of, and yet (v. 42), Thou hast not
pardoned. They had not the assurance and comfort of the pardon; the
judgments brought upon them for their sins were not removed, and therefore
they thought they could not say the sin was pardoned, which was a mistake, but
a common mistake with the people of God when their souls are cast down and
disquieted within them. Their case was really pitiable, yet they complain, Thou
hast not pitied, v. 43. Their enemies persecuted and slew them, but
that was not the worst of it; they were but the instruments in God's hand:
"Thou hast persecuted us, and thou hast slain us, though we
expected thou wouldst protect and deliver us." They complain that there
was a wall of partition between them and God, and, (1.) This hindered God's
favours from coming down upon them. The reflected beams of God's kindness to
them used to be the beauty of Israel; but now "thou hast covered
us with anger, so that our glory is concealed and gone; now God is
angry with us, and we do not appear that illustrious people that we have
formerly been thought to be." Or, "Thou hast covered us up as
men that are buried are covered up and forgotten." (2.) It hindered their
prayers from coming up unto God (v. 44): "Thou hast covered
thyself with a cloud," not like that bright cloud in which he took
possession of the temple, which enabled the worshippers to draw near to him,
but like that in which he came down upon Mount Sinai, which obliged the people
to stand at a distance. "This cloud is so thick that our prayers
seem as if they were lost in it; they cannot pass through; we cannot
obtain an audience." Note, The prolonging of troubles is sometimes a
temptation, even to praying people, to question whether God be what they have
always believed him to be, a prayer-hearing God.
2. They complain of the contempt of their neighbours and the reproach and
ignominy they were under (v. 45): "Thou hast made us as the
off-scouring, or scrapings, of the first floor, which are thrown to the
dunghill." This St. Paul refers to in his account of the sufferings of
the apostles. 1 Cor. iv. 13, We are made as the filth of the world and are
the off-scouring of all things. "We are the refuse, or dross, in
the midst of the people, trodden upon by every body, and looked upon as
the vilest of the nations, and good for nothing but to be cast out as salt
which has lost its savour. Our enemies have opened their mouths against us
(v. 46), have gaped upon us as roaring lions, to swallow us up,
or made mouths at us, or have taken liberty to say what they please of
us." These complaints we had before, ch. ii. 15, 16. Note, It is
common for base and ill-natured men to run upon, and run down, those that have
fallen into the depths of distress from the height of honour. But this they
brought upon themselves by sin. If they had not made themselves vile, their
enemies could not have made them so: but therefore men call them reprobate
silver, because the Lord has rejected them for rejecting him.
3. They complain of the lamentable destruction that their enemies made of them
(v. 47): Fear and a snare have come upon us; the enemies have
not only terrified us with those alarms, but prevailed against us by their
stratagems, and surprised us with the ambushes they laid for us; and then
follows nothing but desolation and destruction, the destruction of
the daughter of my people (v. 48), of all the daughters of my
city, v. 51. The enemies, having taken some of them like a bird
in a snare, chased others as a harmless bird is chased by a bird of
prey (v. 52): My enemies chased me sorely like a bird which is
beaten from bush to bush, as Saul hunted David like a partridge. Thus
restless was the enmity of their persecutors, and yet causeless. They have
done it without cause, without any provocation given them. Though God
was righteous, they were unrighteous. David often complains of those that hated
him without cause; and such are the enemies of Christ and his church, John
xv. 25. Their enemies chased them till they had quite prevailed over them (v.
53): They have cut off my life in the dungeon. They have shut up their
captives in close and dark prisons, where they are as it were cut off from
the land of the living (as v. 6), or the state and kingdom are sunk
and ruined, the life and being of them are gone, and they are as it were
thrown into the dungeon or grave and a stone cast upon them, such as
used to be rolled to the door of the sepulchres. They look upon the
Jewish nation as dead and buried, and imagine that there is not possibility of
its resurrection. Thus Ezekiel saw it, in vision, a valley full of dead and
dry bones. Their destruction is compared not only to the burying of a dead
man, but to the sinking of a living man into the water, who cannot long be a
living man there, v. 54. Waters of affliction flowed over my
head. The deluge prevailed and quite overwhelmed them. The Chaldean forces
broke in upon them as the breaking forth of waters, which rose so high
as to flow over their heads; they could not wade, they could not swim,
and therefore must unavoidably sink. Note, The distresses of God's people
sometimes prevail to such a degree that they cannot find any footing for their
faith, nor keep their head above water, with any comfortable expectation.
4. They complain of their own excessive grief and fear upon this account. (1.)
The afflicted church is drowned in tears, and the prophet for her (v.
48, 49): My eye runs down with rivers of water, so abundant was their
weeping; it trickles down and ceases not, so constant was their
weeping, without any intermission, there being no relaxation of
their miseries. The distemper was in continual extremity, and they had no
better day. It is added (v. 51), "My eye affects my heart.
My seeing eye affects my heart. The more I look upon the desolation of the
city and country the more I am grieved. Which way soever I cast my eye, I see
that which renews my sorrow, even because of all the daughters of my city,"
all the neighbouring towns, which were as daughters to Jerusalem the
mother-city. Or, My weeping eye affects my heart; the venting of the
grief, instead of easing it, did but increase and exasperate it. Or, My eye
melts my soul; I have quite wept away my spirits; not only my eye is
consumed with grief, but my soul and my life are spent with it, Ps. xxxi.
9, 10. Great and long grief exhausts the spirits, and brings not only many a gray
head, but many a green head too, to the grave. I weep, ways the
prophet, more than all the daughters of my city (so the margin reads
it); he outdid even those of the tender sex in the expressions of grief. And
it is no diminution to any to be much in tears for the sins of sinners and the
sufferings of saints; our Lord Jesus was so; for, when he came near, he
beheld this same city and wept over it, which the daughters of
Jerusalem did not. (2.) She is overwhelmed with fears, not only grieves for
what is, but fears worse, and gives up all for gone (v. 54): "Then
I said, I am cut off, ruined, and see no hope of recovery; I am as one
dead." Note, Those that are cast down are commonly tempted to think
themselves cast off, Ps. xxxi. 22; Jon. ii. 4.
5. In the midst of these sad complaints here is one word of comfort, by which
it appears that their case was not altogether so bad as they made it, v.
50. We continue thus weeping till the Lord look down and behold from
heaven. This intimates, (1.) That they were satisfied that God's gracious
regard to them in their miseries would be an effectual redress of all their
grievances. "If God, who now covers himself with a cloud, as if he
took no notice of our troubles (Job xxii. 13), would but shine forth, all
would be well; if he look upon us, we shall be saved," Ps. lxxx.
19; Dan. ix. 17. Bad as the case is, one favourable look from heaven will set
all to rights. (2.) That they had hopes that he would at length look
graciously upon them and relieve them; nay, they take it for granted that he
will: "Though he contend long, he will not contend for ever, thou we
deserve that he should." (3.) That while they continued weeping they
continued waiting, and neither did nor would expect relief and succour from
any hand but his; nothing shall comfort them but his gracious returns, nor
shall any thing wipe tears from their eyes till he look down. Their
eyes, which now run down with water, shall still wait upon the Lord
their God until he have mercy upon them, Ps. cxxiii. 2.
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God's
Goodness Acknowledged; An Appeal to God.
B. C. 588.
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55 I called upon thy name, O LORD,
out of the low dungeon. 56 Thou hast heard my voice: hide not
thine ear at my breathing, at my cry. 57 Thou drewest near in the
day that I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not. 58 O
Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed my
life. 59 O LORD,
thou hast seen my wrong: judge thou my cause. 60 Thou hast seen
all their vengeance and all their imaginations against me.
61 Thou hast heard their reproach, O LORD,
and all their imaginations against me; 62 The lips of those
that rose up against me, and their device against me all the day.
63 Behold their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their
music. 64 Render unto them a recompence, O LORD,
according to the work of their hands. 65 Give them sorrow of
heart, thy curse unto them. 66 Persecute and destroy them in anger
from under the heavens of the LORD.
We may observe throughout this chapter a struggle in the prophet's breast
between sense and faith, fear and hope; he complains and then comforts
himself, yet drops his comforts and returns again to his complaints, as Ps.
xlii. But, as there, so here, faith gets the last word and comes off a
conqueror; for in these verses he concludes with some comfort. And here are
two things with which he comforts himself:--
I. His experience of God's goodness even in his affliction. This may refer to
the prophet's personal experience, with which he encourages himself in
reference to the public troubles. He that has seasonably succoured particular
saints will not fail the church in general. Or it may include the remnant of
good people that were among the Jews, who had found that it was not in vain to
wait upon God. In three things the prophet and his pious friends had found God
good to them:-- 1. He had heard their prayers; though they had been
ready to fear that the cloud of wrath was such as their prayers could not
pass through (v. 44), yet upon second thoughts, or at least upon
further trial, they find it otherwise, and that God had not said unto them, Seek
you me in vain. When they were in the low dungeon, as free among
the dead, they called upon God's name (v. 55); their weeping
did not hinder praying. Note, Though we are cast into ever so low a dungeon,
we may thence find a way of access to God in the highest heavens. Out of
the depths have I cried unto thee (Ps. cxxx. 1), as Jonah out of the
whale's belly. And could God hear them out of the low dungeon, and would he?
Yes, he did: Thou hast heard my voice; and some read the following
words as carrying on the same thankful acknowledgment: Thou didst not hide
thy ear at my breathing, at my cry; and the original will bear that
reading. We read it as a petition for further audience: Hide not thy ear.
God's having heard our voice when we cried to him, even out of the
low dungeon, is an encouragement for us to hope that he will not at any
time hide his ear. Observe how he calls prayer his breathing;
for in prayer we breathe towards God, we breathe after him. Though we be but
weak in prayer, cannot cry aloud, but only breathe in groanings that
cannot be uttered, yet we shall not be neglected if we be sincere. Prayer
is the breath of the new man, sucking in the air of mercy in petitions and
returning it in praises; it is both the evidence and the maintenance of the
spiritual life. Some read it, at my gasping. "When I lay gasping
for life, and ready to expire, and thought i was breathing my last, then thou
tookest cognizance of my distressed case." 2. He had silenced their fears
and quieted their spirits (v. 57): "Thou drewest near in the
day that I called upon thee; thou didst graciously assure me of thy
presence with me, and give me to see thee nigh unto me, whereas I had thought
thee to be at a distance from me." Note, When we draw nigh to God in a
way of duty we may by faith see him drawing nigh to us in a way of mercy. But
this was not all: Thou saidst, Fear not. This was the language of God's
prophets preaching to them not to fear (Isa. xli. 10, 13, 14), of his
providence preventing those things which they were afraid of, and of his grace
quieting their minds, and making them easy, by the witness of his Spirit with
their spirits that they were his people still, though in distress, and
therefore ought not to fear. 3. He had already begun to appear for them (v.
58): "O Lord! thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul" (that
is, as it follows), "thou hast redeemed my life, hast rescued that
out of the hands of those who would have taken it away, hast saved that when
it was ready to be swallowed up, hast given me that for a prey." And this
is an encouragement to them to hope that he would yet further appear for them:
"Thou hast delivered my soul from death, and therefore wilt
deliver my feet from falling; thou hast pleaded the causes of my
life, and therefore wilt plead my other causes."
II. He comforts himself with an appeal to God's justice, and (in order to the
sentence of that) to his omniscience.
1. He appeals to God's knowledge of the matter of fact, how very spiteful and
malicious his enemies were (v. 59): "O Lord! thou hast seen my
wrong, that I have done no wrong at all, but suffer a great deal." He
that knows all things knew, (1.) The malice they had against him: "Thou
hast seen all their vengeance, how they desire to do me a mischief, as if
it were by way of reprisal for some great injury I had done them." Note,
We should consider, to our terror and caution, that God knows all the
revengeful thoughts we have in our minds against others, and therefore we
should not allow of those thoughts nor harbour them, and that he knows all the
revengeful thoughts others have causelessly in their minds against us, and
therefore we should not be afraid of them, but leave it to him to protect us
from them. (2.) The designs and projects they had laid to do him a mischief: Thou
hast seen all their imaginations against me (v. 60), and again,
"Thou hast heard all their imaginations against me (v. 61),
both the desire and the device they have to ruin me; whether it show itself in
word or deed, it is known to thee; nay, though the products of it are not to
be seen nor heard, yet their device against me all the day is perceived and
understood by him to whom all things are naked and open." Note, The most
secret contrivances of the church's enemies are perfectly known to the
church's God, from whom they can hide nothing. (3.) The contempt and calumny
wherewith they loaded him, all that they spoke slightly of him, and all that
they spoke reproachfully: "Thou hast heard their reproach (v.
61), all the bad characters they give me, laying to my charge things that I
know not, all the methods they use to make me odious and contemptible, even
the lips of those that rose up against me (v. 62), the
contumelious language they use whenever they speak of me, and that at their
sitting down and rising up, when they lie down at night and get up in the
morning, when they sit down to their meat and with their company, and when
they rise from both, still I am their music; they make themselves and one
another merry with my miseries, as the Philistines made sport with
Samson." Jerusalem was the tabret they played upon. Perhaps they had some
tune or play, some opera or interlude, that was called the destruction of
Jerusalem, which, though in the nature of a tragedy, was very entertaining
to those who wished ill to the holy city. Note, God will one day call sinners
to account for all the hard speeches which they have spoken against him and
his people, Jude 15.
2. He appeals to God's judgment upon this fact: "Lord, thou hast seen
my wrong; there is no need of any evidence to prove it, nor any prosecutor
to enforce and aggravate it; thou seest it in its true colours; and now I
leave it with thee. Judge thou my cause, v. 59. Let them be
dealt with," (1.) "As they deserve (v. 64): Render to them
a recompence according to the work of their hands. Let them be dealt with
as they have dealt with us; let thy hand be against them as their hand has
been against us. They have created us a great deal of vexation; now, Lord, give
them sorrow of heart (v. 65), perplexity of heart" (so
some read it); "let them be surrounded with threatening mischiefs on all
sides, and not be able to see their way out. Give them despondence of heart"
(so others read it); "let them be driven to despair, and give themselves
up for gone." God can entangle the head that thinks itself clearest, and
sink the heart that thinks itself stoutest. (2.) "Let them be dealt with
according to the threatenings: Thy curse unto them; that is, let thy
curse come upon them, all the evils that are pronounced in thy word against
the enemies of thy people, v. 65. They have loaded us with curses; as
they loved cursing, so let it come unto them, thy curse which will make them
truly miserable. Theirs is causeless, and therefore fruitless, it shall not
come; but thine is just, and shall take effect. Those whom thou cursest are
cursed indeed. Let the curse be executed, v. 66. Persecute and
destroy them in anger, as they persecute and destroy us in their anger. Destroy
them from under the heavens of the Lord; let them have no benefit of the
light and influence of the heavens. Destroy them in such a manner that all who
see it may say, It is a destruction from the Almighty, who sits in the
heavens and laughs at them (Ps. ii. 4), and may own that the heavens do
rule," Dan. iv. 26. What is said of the idols is here said of their
worshippers (who in this also shall be like unto them), They shall perish
from under these heavens, Jer. x. 11. They shall be not only excluded from
the happiness of the invisible heavens, but cut off from the comfort even of
these visible ones, which are the heavens of the Lord (Ps. cxv. 16) and
which those therefore are unworthy to be taken under the protection of who
rebel against him.
Contents
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Next
Section
