For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, and the particular theme, as with studies elsewhere, each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read on the main Bible page.

Passage:  Lam 3:1-9

1 I am the man who has seen affliction
    by the rod of the Lord’s wrath.
2 He has driven me away and made me walk
    in darkness rather than light;
3 indeed, he has turned his hand against me
    again and again, all day long.

4 He has made my skin and my flesh grow old
    and has broken my bones.
5 He has besieged me and surrounded me
    with bitterness and hardship.
6 He has made me dwell in darkness
    like those long dead.

7 He has walled me in so I cannot escape;
    he has weighed me down with chains.
8 Even when I call out or cry for help,
    he shuts out my prayer.
9 He has barred my way with blocks of stone;
    he has made my paths crooked.

A. Find Out

• 1. Where did the prophet walk and why? v.1-3,6
• 2. What does he feel has happened to him? v.4
• 3. With what has he been surrounded? v.5
• 4. What does he feel has happened? v.7
• 5. What does he feel about his prayers? v.8
• 6. What has the Lord done to him? v.9

B. Think:

• 1. How does this passage differ from what has gone before?
• 2. Summarise the things the writer feels have been done to him.

C. Comment:

The first 24 verses of chapter 3 are characterised by the word, “me” and “I”. In other words they are spoken from a very person viewpoint. Whether they are spoken as from Jeremiah, or from some imaginary person, or from Jerusalem personified is not made clear – poetry is often like that; it leaves you wondering.

This man declares, first of all, that he’s been beaten by God and driven away from God’s presence (implied) into a place of darkness (see the link with 2:19). The first stage of judgment is exclusion from God’s presence.

But it doesn’t end there. It’s not merely a place of isolation, it’s a place of affliction (v.4) characterised by bitterness and hardship (v.5), a place that is indeed truly dark (v.6). The second stage of judgement is anguish.  It is a place that is intolerable. We yearn to get out of it.

But then comes a third awareness – we cannot escape from it. It’s like we’ve been walled in and chained up so there is no escape (v.7) and there is no answer when we cry out (v.8). In daily life the way ahead seems blocked off and our path seems to be all over the place (v.9).

These are the terrible characteristics of the judgement of God – isolation, anguish and an inability to escape or change it all. Judgement is not a casual thing to be spoken about. When God brings it, it is terrible in every aspect of it. We don’t want to go there!

D. Application:

• 1. If God judges, there is no escape. He is the Lord.
• 2. Judgement is avoided  by heart-felt repentance.

Passage:  Lam 3:10-18

10 Like a bear lying in wait,
    like a lion in hiding,
11 he dragged me from the path and mangled me
    and left me without help.
12 He drew his bow
    and made me the target for his arrows.

13 He pierced my heart
    with arrows from his quiver.
14 I became the laughingstock of all my people;
    they mock me in song all day long.
15 He has filled me with bitter herbs
    and given me gall to drink.

16 He has broken my teeth with gravel;
    he has trampled me in the dust.
17 I have been deprived of peace;
    I have forgotten what prosperity is.
18 So I say, “My splendor is gone
    and all that I had hoped from the Lord.”

A. Find Out

• 1. What did the writer say it felt like the Lord had done? v.10,11
• 2. What other analogy does he use for what had happened? v.12,13
• 3. What also had he to endure? v.14
• 4. What did it feel like? v.15
• 5. What also had happened to him? v.16
• 6. And how had he been left? v.17,18

B. Think:

• 1. How many different pictures of what had happened are here?
• 2. What is the feeling you are left with about what happened?

C. Comment:

You might wonder why we take what is a mournful poem verse by verse. The answer is so that, like the prophet, we have a chance to enter into the awfulness of what had happened. From head to heart!

These verses, we said previously, were very personal. Whether a person or Jerusalem itself is not clear, but the prophet-writer-poet uses lots of different pictures to convey what he felt had happened. First, he says it was like I was mugged by a bear, snatched from the path of life and mauled (v.10,11). Or, he continues, it was like I was picked out by an archer; my heart was made a target (v.12,13) and I am in deep anguish as a result. It was like (third picture) I was tramped underfoot (v.16), stamped into the gravel, my teeth broken by the force against the road surface. Note these three attacks: grabbed off the path of life, picked out and pierced, trampled underfoot and made a nothing; three different expressions of the same terrible thing. Think on them more.

The results?  First, as far as others are concerned, I’m a mockery (v.14), an object of derision. Second, as far as I’m concerned, I feel sick (v.15), and third, as far as my life is concerned generally, I’m left poverty-stricken  (v.17,18) and all of his previous splendour in life had been taken. More and more the writer piles on the various descriptions to try to convey, more and more, the awfulness of what had happened so that we may enter into it and understand it.

D. Application:

• 1. By understanding, we may act to ensure it never happens again.
• 2. Do we stop and really take note of what God has done in life?

Passage:  Lam 3:19-26

19 I remember my affliction and my wandering,
    the bitterness and the gall.
20 I well remember them,
    and my soul is downcast within me.
21 Yet this I call to mind
    and therefore I have hope:

22 Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
    for his compassions never fail.
23 They are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.
24 I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion;
    therefore I will wait for him.” 25 The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him,
    to the one who seeks him;
26 it is good to wait quietly
    for the salvation of the Lord.

A. Find Out

• 1. What does he remember and with what effect upon him? v.19,20
• 2. Yet what gives him hope? v.21,22a
• 3. How does he describe the Lord’s blessings? v.22b,23
• 4. What did he determine to do? v.24
• 5. The Lord is good to whom? v.25
• 6. So what is it good to do? v.26

B. Think:

• 1. What was his initial state?
• 2. Yet what did he know about the Lord?
• 3. So what did he resolve to do?

C. Comment:

This is the high point of the book!  It starts, continuing with what has gone before, with an awareness of his present state (v.19). He remembers the awfulness of what has happened to him (affliction), being left like a waif and stray (wandering), in complete turmoil over what had happened (bitterness) and feeling sick (gall). In this awareness he feels completely down (v.20).

Yet that is only part of the truth. That is the truth about what has happened to him in his experience, but there is also what he knows about God. That is the other part of the truth to be held onto!  The reality is they have not been consumed (v.22), they are still alive and the only reason he can see for that is God’s love. It’s only because God loves them that they are still there. God’s acts of compassion will always be seen in any and every situation, however bad it seems. For every new day there are new acts of God’s compassion for the Lord is faithful and will never abandon his people (v.23).

He reminds himself of what he knows of the Lord: God always blesses those who seek Him. This is a cast iron certainty and this gives him hope. In the face of all that has happened, there is only one thing left to do, to wait for the Lord, to seek Him and see what He will do next. He has this sure knowledge: God is, God acts and God will continue to act for the good of His people. You’ve just got to be patient and look.

D. Application:

• 1. In the face of adversity, remember what you know of the Lord.
• 2. Let that knowledge give you hope; there IS a future with God.

Passage:  Lam 3:27- 39

27 It is good for a man to bear the yoke
    while he is young.

28 Let him sit alone in silence,
    for the Lord has laid it on him.
29 Let him bury his face in the dust—
    there may yet be hope.
30 Let him offer his cheek to one who would strike him,
    and let him be filled with disgrace.

31 For no one is cast off
    by the Lord forever.
32 Though he brings grief, he will show compassion,
    so great is his unfailing love.
33 For he does not willingly bring affliction
    or grief to anyone.

34 To crush underfoot
    all prisoners in the land,
35 to deny people their rights
    before the Most High,
36 to deprive them of justice—
    would not the Lord see such things?

37 Who can speak and have it happen
    if the Lord has not decreed it?
38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
    that both calamities and good things come?
39 Why should the living complain
    when punished for their sins?

A. Find Out

• 1. What is good? v.27
• 2. What 4 things should he ‘let’ happen? v.28-30
• 3. Why may he be able to do this? v.31-33
• 4. What four wrongs would the Lord see? v.34-36
• 5. What does he say about such things? v.37,38
• 6. So what does he conclude? v.39

B. Think:

• 1. What two reasons are given why the prophet can wait?
• 2. What is he essentially doing in this passage?.

C. Comment:

Having declared that the Lord is good, he now goes about justifying what has happened in the light of that truth. OK, he says, it’s a good thing to be trained up (the yoke indicates being harnessed – see Mt 11:29) when a man is young (perhaps a wry indication that he believes he still has many more years). This training involves learning to be silent (v.28) when everything in you wants to cry out. Face down in the dust (v.29) means learning humility and perseverance, openly facing his judge (v.30a) to receive whatever punishment is due. Let him receive the condemnation that is due – the disgrace (v.30b).

It’s good to learn these things because it won’t go on forever (v.31), God’s compassion will show through (v.32) because He doesn’t willingly bring these things (v.33) and will want to move on soon (implied).  All these wrongs which we’ve observed – the land crushed under an invader (v.34), people snatched into slavery (v.35), justice apparently removed (v.36) – God sees and will do not leave them like this. These things couldn’t have happened without the Lord’s approval (v.37), He decrees both good and bad (v.38), so if He decrees judgement, why should we, the guilty, complain? (v.39).

This is both a passage of understanding and therefore of hope. He understands the Lord in a measure and that measure helps him see why it has happened and that this is NOT the end. There is yet hope!

D. Application:

• 1. Do we seek to understand the things that happen in our world?
• 2. Are we reassured, do we have hope for the future?

Passage:  Lam 3:40-51

40 Let us examine our ways and test them,
    and let us return to the Lord.
41 Let us lift up our hearts and our hands
    to God in heaven, and say:
42 “We have sinned and rebelled
    and you have not forgiven.

43 “You have covered yourself with anger and pursued us;
    you have slain without pity.
44 You have covered yourself with a cloud
    so that no prayer can get through.
45 You have made us scum and refuse
    among the nations.

46 “All our enemies have opened their mouths
    wide against us.
47 We have suffered terror and pitfalls,
    ruin and destruction.”
48 Streams of tears flow from my eyes
    because my people are destroyed.

49 My eyes will flow unceasingly,
    without relief,
50 until the Lord looks down
    from heaven and sees.
51 What I see brings grief to my soul
    because of all the women of my city.

A. Find Out

• 1. What twofold thing does he say they should do? v.40
• 2. What is the first stage of the second thing? v.41,42a
• 3. What had the Lord not done and so had done? v.42b,43
• 4. What also did it seem He had done? v.44
• 5. What had the Lord done with them? v.45-47
• 6. What had that left him feeling and why? v.48-51

B. Think:

• 1. If there was to be any hope, what was to happen?
• 2. What signs are there of this happening?

C. Comment:

The prophet has come through to a place of accepting that all that has happened, has happened justly because of the sin of Jerusalem and because of the Lord’s righteous judgement. He has arrived at the place of recognition of the NEED TO RETURN TO THE LORD. They had been away from the Lord for so long and had been judged as a result of that. The only hope for their future is to turn back to God. Now if that was to be meaningful they would have to face the truth about themselves, the truth about what had happened and go to the Lord with it in repentance. Merely saying sorry because of unpleasant circumstances is not repentance. Repentance truly faces the sin, acknowledges it, is sorry for it (not just for the judgement but for the sin that brought the judgement), and genuinely turns away from it.

The prophet thus TURNS TO THE LORD (v.43-) having acknowledged their sin and rebellion (v.42) and first of all declares his recognition of what the Lord has done: Because of their long-term rejection of the Lord, the Lord has put on anger (v.43). It was not a quick burst of anger but something sustained because of the ingrained nature of this sin. The nature of the anger reflected the nature of the sin. The Lord cut Himself off from them (v.44), a further indication of the depth of their sin, and then gave them over to the enemy so anguish is the outcome (v.45-48). All this indicates the depth of the sin.

D. Application:

• 1. Repentance means life change, not merely words.
• 2. Repentance involves genuinely facing the truth.

Passage:  Lam 3:52-66

52 Those who were my enemies without cause
    hunted me like a bird.
53 They tried to end my life in a pit
    and threw stones at me;
54 the waters closed over my head,
    and I thought I was about to perish.

55 I called on your name, Lord,
    from the depths of the pit.
56 You heard my plea: “Do not close your ears
    to my cry for relief.”
57 You came near when I called you,
    and you said, “Do not fear.”

58 You, Lord, took up my case;
    you redeemed my life.
59 Lord, you have seen the wrong done to me.
    Uphold my cause!
60 You have seen the depth of their vengeance,
    all their plots against me.

61 Lord, you have heard their insults,
    all their plots against me—
62 what my enemies whisper and mutter
    against me all day long.
63 Look at them! Sitting or standing,
    they mock me in their songs.

64 Pay them back what they deserve, Lord,
    for what their hands have done.
65 Put a veil over their hearts,
    and may your curse be on them!
66 Pursue them in anger and destroy them
    from under the heavens of the Lord.

A. Find Out

• 1. What 3 pictures does he use to convey what happened? v.52-54
• 2. So what did he do? v.55
• 3. What response did he get? v.56,57
• 4. What does he know the Lord has seen and heard? v.58-63
• 5. What does he ask the Lord to do? v.64
• 6. How does he extend that? v.65,66

B. Think:

• 1. What 3 stages of awareness come through now in these verses?
• 2. How does that lead him to pray and why do you think that is?

C. Comment:

In the previous part of this chapter the writer had come through to a place of acknowledging the Lord’s sovereignty and their sin and subsequent need for repentance. He has been reiterating the awfulness of what has happened and he concludes that with 3 figurative pictures describing what has happened to him: he had been hunted, put into a pit and stoned and it felt like he was about to be drowned – death was very near. But in that place he called out to the Lord in desperation and was aware of the Lord drawing near and reassuring him.

That had been a turning point. Up until then despair had almost overwhelmed him, but now there is hope, God is there, communication is open. See the order: the Lord heard (v.56), came near (v.57) and took up his case (v.58).  Then he becomes aware that the Lord has seen and heard all that has gone on, the Lord KNOWS the wrongs that were committed in this act of judgement. It seems more likely he is writing as Jerusalem again – plotted against and mocked. In the face of the Lord’s presence, he is now aware of the unrighteousness of the enemies of Jerusalem. Elsewhere in prophetic Scripture the Lord speaks against the wrong attitudes of those He had used to bring judgement, and He will not let that go; He will deal with it. It is that sense that the prophet catches as he prays and asks the Lord to come and deal with these enemies of Jerusalem, for that is right.

D. Application:

• 1. When we become aware of the Lord, we see the truth more clearly.
• 2. Truth demands that unrighteousness be dealt with.