Lamentations 3

2. The second season is, when affliction has done its work upon them: when it has effected that God has sent it for. As first, when it has humbled them (Lamentations 3:19): Remembering my affliction, the wormwood and gall, my soul is humbled in me. When God's corrosive has eaten…

God has mercy, first, of all dimensions; he has depth of mercy, it reaches as low as sinners; and height of mercy, it reaches above the clouds. Secondly, God has mercies of all seasons; mercies for the night, he gives sleep, indeed sometimes he gives a song in the night (Psalm 4…

(Isaiah 59:15) Truth fails; truth on earth does, but not truth in heaven: God can as well cease to be God, as cease to be true. Has God said he will be good to the soul that seeks him (Lamentations 3:25), he will give rest to the weary (Matthew 11:28)? Here is a safe anchor hold…

Isaiah 27:4: "Fury is not in me" — that is, I do not delight in it. Acts of severity are rather forced from God; he does not afflict willingly (Lamentations 3:33). The bee naturally gives honey; it stings only when it is provoked.

Unbelief raises jealous thoughts of God, it represents him as a severe judge, this discourages many a soul and takes it off from duty. Beware of unbelief, believe the promises; (Lamentations 3:25) God is good to the soul that seeks him; seek him earnestly and he will open both h…

Ea lege nati sumus. The world is a place where much wormwood grows (Lamentations 3:15): He has filled me with bitterness, Hebr. Bammerorim, with bitternesses, he has made me drunk with wormwood. Troubles arise like sparks out of a furnace.

He can turn down that column in the leaves of our hearts where grace or anything comforting is written, and turn over and hold our eyes fixed to read nothing but where our errors and sins are written. So he causes a man's soul to forget all good — as in Lamentations 3:17 the chu…

Heman was almost distracted and out of his wits with terrors (Psalm 88:15). So the church thought (Lamentations 3), yes, and concluded it for certain that God was her enemy: 'Surely he is turned against me' (verse 3).

But he acknowledges his error: 'It was my infirmity' (verse 10) thus to speak. So the church in Lamentations 3:17-18: 'I said, my hope is perished from the Lord' — what a desperate speech. But she eats her words again with grief, in verse 21: 'This I recall to mind, therefore I…

First, examine what might be the true cause that provokes God thus to leave you. So in Lamentations 3:40: 'Let us search and try our ways,' spoken by the church in desertion as appears from the former part of the chapter. To help yourself in this, go over all the cases that have…

And so he will take down nothing that is given him. So also the church in Lamentations 3:17-18 — her heart was deeply possessed with a desperate apprehension: 'My hope,' says she, 'is perished from the Lord.' And what was it that shot her soul into so fixed a despair?

I set a 'proven remedy' stamp on it — take it, practice it; it is a tried one. It is that which in the end the church in desertion comes to in Lamentations 3:40: 'Come, let us try our ways and turn to the Lord' — that is the last way and course she takes. Now when the water is a…

Waiting is an act of faith resting on God; an act of hope expecting help from him; an act of patience, the mind quietly contenting itself until God does come; and of submission if he should not come. Therefore the church being in this very case says: 'It is good to hope and quie…

Go and strip yourself, and with all submission present a naked back to him, and though every stroke draws not only blood but well-nigh your soul away, yet complain not at all of him. Put your mouth in the dust (Lamentations 3:29-30) — be still, not a word — but only such words a…

Now lesser afflictions work with most of his, through his blessing — mercies work, disgrace works, poverty works. And he does not willingly afflict (Lamentations 3:33), and therefore not unnecessarily. He does not put men into the dungeon for every fault.

You who have been free from those terrors of conscience which are beyond all the miseries the world has — for as the joy of the Holy Spirit is unspeakable and glorious, so these terrors are unutterable and insupportably grievous — which yet souls that fear God and have obeyed hi…

And the proper action of Hope, is to wait, and expect for a blessing to come: so, hope waits for salvation, but properly apprehends it not. For, salvation must first be believed, and then hoped or expected: so says Jeremiah, Lamentations 3:26, It is good both to trust and to wai…

7. See here that Scripture fulfilled, Psalm 73.1. God is good to Israel. When one looks upon cross Providences, and sees the Lord covering his people with ashes, and making them drunk with Wormwood, Lamentations 3.15. he would be ready to call in question the Love of God, and to…

And therefore all mankind sinning in him, was likewise deprived of heaven. The people of Israel being in woe and misery, cried out that they had sinned, and therefore the Lord had covered himself with a cloud, that their prayers could not pass through (Lamentations 3:44). And Is…

2. It is comfort when the righteous are humbled by affliction (Lamentations 3:16). He has covered me with ashes.

This also was what quieted Job: he does not rail and vow revenge upon the Chaldeans and Sabeans, but eyes God as the orderer of those troubles and is quiet — 'The Lord has taken away; blessed be his name' — Job 1:21. Objection. But you will say: 'To turn aside the right of a man…

Surely I was as a Bullock unaccustomed to the yoke. Indeed I may say with them (Lamentations 3:19-20), Remembering my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall, my soul has them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me. I dare not say that ever I felt my heart discon…

Or if you did not foresee it, it is now your duty to search and examine yourselves. So the Church in their afflictions resolved (Lamentations 3:40), Let us search and try our ways. When God is smiting we should be searching.

O, it is a mercy to the afflicted to have a Barnabas with him, an interpreter, one among a thousand; and it will be the great sin, and folly of the afflicted to spill those excellent cordials prepared and offered to them, like water upon the ground, out of a perverse, or dead sp…

Carnal sorrow is not to be commended, but sober sadness, or a grave and composed frame of spirit, is better than a light and unsettled frame, it being very hard, if not impossible to keep the heart right even where there is grace, but where there is some counterpoise or wither-w…

But Christ's Cross did not smile on him, his Cross was a cross, and his ship sailed in blood, and his blessed soul was sea-sick, and heavy even to death. Thirdly, we love to sail in fresh waters, within a step to the shore, we consider not that our Lord, though he afflicts not,…

First, the blowing of the soft and pleasant breathings of the south wind of free grace, lying under the only work of sovereignty when and where and in the measure the Lord pleases, is a high and deep expression of the freedom of grace. For in one and the same prayer (the like by…

But I held my peace and said nothing, for you Lord have done it (Psalm 39:19). A sign we have him for our Lord when in all his providences, we acknowledge his good hand in it, and he is our Lord if we can so sit down and not murmur nor grudge against him, according to that you r…

Man receives an imperceptible taint from his company; he that lives in a shop of perfumes, often handles them, is conversant among them, carries away somewhat of the fragrance of these good ointments, so by conversing with God we are made like him. (2.) Nearer we cannot come to…

Oh my Dove that is in the clefts of the rock, in the secret place of the stairs, that is, in an afflicted persecuted and desolate condition, Let me see your countenance, let me hear your voice, that is, in the duties of prayer, praise, and Gospel ordinances: For then was her voi…

First, we are to be spies, in respect of our own sinnes, and corruptions, to spie them out. Lam 3:40. Let ussearch our waies, and inquire, and turne againe to the Lord.

Fanne you, O nation, not worthie to be loued. Lam 3:40. Let vs search our hearts, and turne againe to the Lord.

Indeede their punishment was occasioned by his sinne: but caused by their own: for no man, though neuer so holy, is without sinne, and therefore none but deserue punishment: in fact, it is Gods mercie, that we are not consumed. Lam 3:22. And albeit all the infants perished in th…

This verse therefore confirms that which I said earlier: where the Prophet having spoken of the calamities which were already happened, did in brief manner conjoin with it the event which should shortly ensue: as if he should have said, Suffer not yourselves to be beguiled with…

Let us not doubt then but that the Lord will in his due time manifest his power both in avenging himself upon the enemies of his Church which oppress it, and in restoring of her to her first beauty. When he says, Jacob shall not be confounded; we often see that the faithful are…

And this is often met withal in the Scriptures: as in Amos 3:6. Is there evil in the city, and the Lord has not done it? Jeremiah also accuses the people, in that they knew not that God was the author both of evil and good (Lamentations 3:38). The Lord then punishes the sins of…

When he says, they should lift up their voice, it is to show, that during the captivity, there should be silence; because the tongues of the Prophets should then cleave to the roof of their mouths: for although they admonished every one privately, yet they should not have libert…

We are also to note this particle therefore, for from there it follows, that they were not to murmur against God, as if he kept no measure in his corrections, seeing they had so often abused his Majesty. Why is the living man sorrowful? Man suffers for his sin. (Lamentations 3:3…

It is written, that our prayers are as it were a wall which hinders our approach to God, (Isaiah 59:2,) or a cloud which prevents him from beholding us, (Isaiah 44:22,) and that "he has covered himself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through," (Lamentations 3:44.)…

Ahab, when he had a visible Humility, a Resemblance of true Humility, went softly, 1 Kings 21:27. A Penitent, in the Exercise of true Humiliation, is represented as still and silent, Lamentations 3:28. He sitteth alone, and keepeth Silence, because he hath borne it upon him.

Why, this you may often see, if you will duly observe the works of Providence towards you. We hope and pray for such and such mercies to the Church, or to our selves; but God delayes the accomplishment of our hopes, suspends the answer of our prayers, and seems to speak to us, a…

It is not so bad now as it might, and we deserved it should be, and it will be better hereatr. This the Church observed, and reasoned her self quiet from it, Lam. 3:22 Hath he taken some? he might have taken all. Are we afflicted? it's mercy we are not destroyed.

To display this Providence, we will consider it in the following particulars. (1.) The assiduity and constancy of the care of Providence for the saints, Lam. 3:23 His mercies are new every morning. It is not the supply of one or two pressing needs, but all your wants, as they gr…

The like expression of prayer you have, Psalm 25:1: "Lord" (says David) "I lift up my soul to you." Hence prayers not answered, not accepted, are said to be stopped from ascending (Lamentations 3:44): "You have covered yourself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass throu…

The soul is enabled thereby to resign it self unto the disposal of Soveraign grace, in self-abhorrency, and a Renunciation of all other wayes of Relief. Lamentations 3:29. He putts his mouth in the dust, if so be there may be hope.

Hence this waiting it self is sometimes expressed by silence. To wait, is to be silent, Lamentations 3:6. It is good both to hope, and to be silent for the salvation of the Lord; that is, to wait quietly, as we have rendred the word.

3. God does expect that London should now search and try their ways. When God had punished Jerusalem with dreadful judgments, in the lamentation of which, the Prophet Jeremiah does spend a book, see what use and improvement he calls upon the people to make hereof (Lamentations 3…

Unbelief does the Devil the greatest kindness; it makes way for his temptations to enter, which do so enchant and bewitch us, that we cannot work. Beware of this sin; believe the promises: God is good to the soul that seeks him (Lamentations 3:25). Do but seek him with importuni…

To this purpose it was well noted by Bernard, speaking of Christ's humiliation; was Christ the Lord of glory thus humbled and emptied of his fulness of glory? and shall such a worm as I swell? (2) The desert of sin (Lamentations 3:39), why does the living man complain? It was a…

One that has walked in sweet communion with God, sunning himself in the light of his countenance, may afterwards walk in darkness, and see no light (Isaiah 50:10). He that has cast anchor within the veil, and rode securely in the peaceful harbour of assurance, may seem to feel h…