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2 lines
11 KiB
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<p>The title of the <a class="bibleref" title="Ps.102.1-Ps.102.28" href="/passage/?search=Ps.102.1-Ps.102.28">Ps. 102:1-28</a> might very fitly be prefixed to this chapter—<i>The prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed, and pours out his complaint before the Lord</i>; 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 (<a class="bibleref" title="Lam.3.1" href="/passage/?search=Lam.3.1">Lam. 3:1</a>): <i>I am the man</i>, the remarkable man, <i>that has seen affliction</i>, and has felt it sensibly, <i>by the rod of his wrath</i>. 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 <i>the rod of his wrath</i>, a chastening which, though grievous for the present, will in the issue be advantageous. By this rod we must expect to <i>see affliction</i>, 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 (<a class="bibleref" title="Lam.3.2" href="/passage/?search=Lam.3.2">Lam. 3:2</a>): “<i>He has led me</i> by his providence, and an unaccountable chain of events, <i>into darkness and not into light</i>, the darkness I feared and not into the light I hoped for.” And (<a class="bibleref" title="Lam.3.6" href="/passage/?search=Lam.3.6">Lam. 3:6</a>), <i>He has set me in dark places</i>, dark as the grave, <i>like those that are dead of old</i>, that are quite forgotten, nobody knows who or what they were. Note, The Israel of God, though children of light, sometimes <i>walk in darkness</i>. 3. That God appears against him as an enemy, as a professed enemy. God had been for him, but no “<i>Surely against me is he turned</i> (<a class="bibleref" title="Lam.3.3" href="/passage/?search=Lam.3.3">Lam. 3:3</a>), as far as I can discern; for <i>his hand is turned against me all the day. I am chastened every morning</i>,” <a class="bibleref" title="Ps.73.14" href="/passage/?search=Ps.73.14">Ps. 73:14</a>. 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 (<a class="bibleref" title="Hos.5.14" href="/passage/?search=Hos.5.14">Hos. 5:14</a>), <i>I will be as a lion to the house of Judah</i>, and now he has made his word good (<a class="bibleref" title="Lam.3.10" href="/passage/?search=Lam.3.10">Lam. 3:10</a>): “<i>He was unto me as a bear lying in wait</i>, surprising me with his judgments, <i>and as a lion in secret places</i>; 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? <i>He has bent his bow</i>, the bow that was ordained against the church’s prosecutors, that is bent against her sons, <a class="bibleref" title="Lam.3.12" href="/passage/?search=Lam.3.12">Lam. 3:12</a>. <i>He has set me as a mark for his arrow</i>, which he aims at, and will be sure to hit, and then <i>the arrows of his quiver enter into my reins</i>, give me a mortal wound, an inward wound, <a class="bibleref" title="Lam.3.13" href="/passage/?search=Lam.3.13">Lam. 3:13</a>. 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 (<a class="bibleref" title="Lam.3.4" href="/passage/?search=Lam.3.4">Lam. 3:4</a>): “<i>My flesh and my skin has he made old</i>; they are wasted and withered, and I look like one that is ready to drop into the grave; nay, <i>he has broken my bones</i>, and so disabled me to help myself, <a
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