c. And turn back to the LORD: All the self-examination in the world does little good if it does not lead us back to this place. If inward impressions do not answer to outward expressions, we mock God, and deceive ourselves. i. From my sighing, my cry for help: He dared not even to complain, nor to cry, nor to pray aloud: he was obliged to whisper his prayer to God. Who is he who speaks and it comes to pass, when the Lord has not commanded it? Of this, death would deprive him; therefore let not a living man complain. (Clarke), ii. Those who in their haste have chidden with God must, in the reflection, chide themselves for it. Shall a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins? This hindered God's favours from coming down upon them. That God has compassions and comforts in store even for those whom he has himself grieved. Against all the despair, Jeremiah proclaimed to himself and all others the goodness of hope and patient seeking of God. 9. He laments the direful effects of the famine to which they were reduced by the siege, ver 3-10. You need to be saved from sin, in this Book God has revealed the way of salvation, therefore do not shut up the Book, and fasten the clasps, and leave it neglected. Gods response to this seeking soul was, Do not fear!, i. Even if he could only manage a sigh, it would be his cry for help that he longed for God to hear. 3. All the prisoners of the earth By the prisoners of the earth, or land, Dr. Blayney understands those insolvent debtors who were put in prison, and there obliged to work out the debt. Desolation and destruction. He has been to me like a bear lying in wait: Using the eloquence that misery sometimes brings, Jeremiah described all the ways that they felt God opposed and even attacked them. Commentary on Lamentations 3 by Matthew Henry 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. These are the words of a satisfied soul. He comes out of his place to punish, for his place is the mercy-seat. To every mourner we may say, on the authority of God, Fear not! In a season of great suffering or calamity, it may be difficult to remember that God rules over all things if not directly, then in what He allows. II. 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.
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