NOTES for Lam 3:1-33

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¹I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.

²He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into light.

³Surely against me is he turned; he turneth his hand against me all the day.

⁴My flesh and my skin hath he made old; he hath broken my bones.

⁵He hath builded against me, and compassed me with gall and travail.

⁶He hath set me in dark places, as they that be dead of old.

⁷He hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out: he hath made my chain heavy.

⁸Also when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer.

⁹He hath inclosed my ways with hewn stone, he hath made my paths crooked.

¹⁰He was unto me as a bear lying in wait, and as a lion in secret places.

¹¹He hath turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces: he hath made me desolate.

¹²He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.

¹³He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins.

¹⁴I was a derision to all my people; and their song all the day.

¹⁵He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunken with wormwood.

¹⁶He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones, he hath covered me with ashes.

¹⁷And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace: I forgat prosperity.

¹⁸And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the LORD:

¹⁹Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.

²⁰My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me.

²¹This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.

²²It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.

²³They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.

²⁴The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.

²⁵The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.

²⁶It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.

²⁷It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.

²⁸He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him.

²⁹He putteth his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope.

³⁰He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him: he is filled full with reproach.

³¹For the Lord will not cast off for ever:

³²But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies.

³³For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men.

Today's text immediately brings the book of Psalms to mind. It contains a sorrowful lament, a prayer of repentance and hope, a remembrance of the mercies that the Lord has given and continues to give, and an exhortation to turn back. On the one hand, the prophet describes the sufferings and calamities of the chosen people. Yet after rereading this text, one gets the impression that it is at the same time the groaning of the one chosen to tell people why such punishments have fallen upon them, to show them the full weight of apostasy. And the prophet's lot is all the heavier because he experiences together with the people all their hardships and privations, while also being mocked for speaking an unpleasant and painful truth.

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For Lam 3:22-23

²²It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.

²³They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.

All the later prophets said that the people of God exist only because of God's mercy. Indeed, if not for God's direct intervention in history, the Jewish people would hardly have formed as a people at all, and without God's intervention they would certainly have had no chance of surviving in the historical situation in which their historical path began. And later too the survival of the people often required God's direct intervention in their fate.

What determined this intervention? The covenant-union concluded at Sinai? Yes, of course. But this union was violated by the people more than once, and if all God's relations with His people had been reduced only to it, the Jewish people could not have counted on God's help. The author of Lamentations points to two grounds for intervention: God's mercy and His faithfulness.

The matter is, first of all, faithfulness to the union concluded at Sinai. Unlike His people, God remains faithful to it. And not only because He loves His people, but also because this people has become part of His plan, that grand plan of saving humanity and joining it to the life of the Kingdom, which cannot be allowed to fail.

God's faithfulness is inseparable from His mercy. The corresponding Hebrew word has a quite definite meaning. Mercy means readiness to do for a person more than he deserves, or more than he has a right to by law or according to a contract made with him. Mercy is a sign of love that gives without counting. It can belong to a human being too, but God's mercy, of course, is incomparable with human mercy, as the finite is incomparable with the infinite.

And one more thing is absolutely important: the actuality of a person's relations with God. According to the word of the author of the book, God's mercy is "new every morning." This is not surprising, since relations, whether relations with God or with a person, are always dynamic. If they are not active, not actual, if they are not here and now, then they no longer exist. Then God's mercy and His faithfulness will remain for a person only abstractions. But if God's mercy and His faithfulness depend entirely on God, the actuality and effectiveness of His relations with a person depend no less on the person himself. Little is required of a person: to trust God and let Him into his life. He will handle the rest.

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NOTES for Lam 3:1-33

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