Here is a link to a Power Point Overview of Inductive Bible Study - Introduction to Inductive Bible Study using PowerPoint - Hint - View in "Slide Show" mode [see icons at bottom of the Power Point frame - click the one that says "Slide Show" - you can hit your "Escape" key at any time to revert back to the normal screen] - each mouse click will progressively give more information on each slide and make your viewing more "interactive".

Dennis Fisher: Jeremiah organized the book around the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet, using a technique of alphabetic acrostics to aid the reader in memorizing the passages more easily. But using this technique also shows that he didn’t cut short his grieving process. He took deliberate and intentional time to reflect upon and even to write down his heartbreak. You might say he was learning to grieve from A to Z. (Grieving From A To Z Our Daily Bread)

Paul Apple
Commentary on Lamentations

Lamentations - 71 Page Commentary - Irving Jensen's Outline-Page 6

Barnes Notes
Notes on Lamentations

Lamentations 1
Lamentations 2
Lamentations 3
Lamentations 4
Lamentations 5

Brian Bell
Sermon Notes on Lamentations

Lamentations 1
Lamentations 2
Lamentations 3
Lamentations 4
No resources available on Lamentations 5

John Calvin
Commentary on Lamentations

Lamentations 1
Lamentations 2
Lamentations 3
Lamentations 4
Lamentations 5

Adam Clarke
Commentary on Lamentations

Lamentations 1
Lamentations 2
Lamentations 3
Lamentations 4
Lamentations 5

Charles Ellicott
The Old Testament Commentary for English Readers
Lamentations
1884

Map of Ancient Jerusalem
Lamentations 1
Lamentations 2
Lamentations 3
Lamentations 4
Lamentations 5

The Expositor's Bible
Commentary on Lamentations
Walter F Adeney
1895

Lamentations - Hebrews Elegies
Lamentations - Origin of the Poems
Lamentations - The Theme
Lamentations 1:1-7 Desolation
Lamentations 1:8-11 Sin and Suffering
Lamentations 1:12-22 Zion's Appeal
Lamentations 2:1-9 God As Enemy
Lamentations 2:10-17 The Cry of the Children
Lamentations 2:9, 14 Prophets Without a Vision!
Lamentations 2:18-22 The Call to Prayer
Lamentations 3:1-21 The Man that Hath Seen Affliction
Lamentations 3:22-24 The Unfailing Goodness of God
Lamentations 3:25-26 Quiet Waiting
Lamentations 3:37-39 God and Evil
Lamentations 3:40-42 The Return
Lamentations 3:43-54 Grieving Before God
Lamentations 3:55-66 De Profundis
Lamentations 4:1-12 Contrasts
Lamentations 4:13-16 The Lepers
Lamentations 4:17-20 Vain Hopes
Lamentations 4:21-22 The Debt of Guilt Extinguished
Lamentations 5:1-10 An Appeal for God's Compassion
Lamentations 5:11-18 Sin and Shame
Lamentations 5:19-22 The Everlasting Throne

John Gill
Commentary on Lamentations

Lamentations 1
Lamentations 2
Lamentations 3
Lamentations 4
Lamentations 5

Matthew Henry
Commentary on Lamentations

Introduction
Lamentations 1
Lamentations 2
Lamentations 3
Lamentations 4
Lamentations 5

This resource is actually named the Preacher's Homiletical Commentary and aptly so for it has both "germ thoughts" as well as "illustrations" on each of the verses, which are of potential aid to one who preaches through this too often neglected book.

LAMENTATIONS 5
Lamentations 5 - Recapitulation of Zion's Calamities and Prayer
Lamentations 5:1 A Piteous Appeal to Jehovah
Lamentations 5:1 Germ Notes and Illustrations
Lamentations 5:2-5 The Miseries of the Disinherited
Lamentations 5:2-5 Germ Notes and Illustrations
Lamentations 5:6-9 Humiliating Subjection
Lamentations 5:6-9 Germ Notes and Illustrations
Lamentations 5:10-13 The Galling Tyranny of Conquest
Lamentations 5:10-13 Germ Notes and Illustrations
Lamentations 5:14-15 Business and Recreation
Lamentations 5:14-15 Germ Notes and Illustrations
Lamentations 5:16 The Loss of Honor
Lamentations 5:16 Germ Notes and Illustrations
Lamentations 5:17-18 Religious Declension
Lamentations 5:17-18 Germ Notes and Illustrations
Lamentations 5:19-22 An Earnest Prayer for Restoration
Lamentations 5:19-22 Germ Notes and Illustrations

Hymns
Relating to Lamentations

Miscellaneous Resources
Lamentations

Lamentations - Elegy 1-5 - scroll down to middle of page for beginning 5 elegies

An Introduction to the Book of Lamentations - same material as in the MacArthur Study Bible - Themes, Outline

Book of Lamentations - Outline Study -1893

Book of Lamentations - Analyzed Bible

Lamentations: Crosswords - Check this resource if you are planning to preach from Lamentations

Lamentations: Study Guide
Lamentations: Through the Bible Series - transcript and audio

LAMENTATIONS RESOURCES
BY CHAPTER AND VERSE

LAMENTATIONS 1

MyStudyBible.com - Holman Christian Std Bible - Enter "Lamentations 1" and select "Study Bible Notes Tool" for well done notes. As you scroll down the Scripture, the Study Notes usually will synchronize (you may have to click mouse in Scripture window for it to synch) . Click "Read" under the study notes, to bring up all the notes for a given chapter. Hold pointer over a particular word in Scripture for the original word in Hebrew or Greek.

Lamentations 1:1 - In this book there are five songs of sorrow. They were doubtless composed by Jeremiah after the fall of Jerusalem. In them the man is wonderfully revealed. That which he had foretold had come to pass. The city of the great King lay in hopeless ruins. The people of God were scattered far and wide. The outlook on circumstances was one of complete deso­lation. The prophet indulged in no exulta­tion. He was consumed with sorrow for the condition of the city and the sorrows of the people. These five songs constitute the outpouring of his soul. In the first two, he contemplated the situation. In the third, the central one of the collection, he identified himself completely with the people. The last two are concerned with the desolation, and the consequent appeal to Jehovah. Three of these, the first, the second, and the fourth, that is those of contemplation, begin with the word "How." The word (in the Hebrew, Aichah) gives the title to the book in the Hebrew Bible. This is significant. "How" expresses the whole fact of which the song so begun, attempts a description. It is exclamatory, and suggests the im­possibility of description. In this first song there are two movements: The first is the language of an onlooker (Lam 1:1-11); in the second the city personified, speaks herself of her desolation (Lam 1:12-22). In each, the cause of her sorrow is con­fessed (compare verses 8 and 18). When the prophet personified the city he began with an appeal: "Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by?" He saw that the sorrows of the people of God had their message to all other peoples. This is the true meaning of this inquiry. When we use it of Christ, let us not forget this. The appeal is not one for pity, but rather that men should know the issue of sin.

Lamentations 1-2 Study

Lamentations     1:1-7
Lamentations   1:8-11
Lamentations 1:12-17
Lamentations 1:18-22

Lamentations 1:16 The Mournful Complaint...

Perhaps your sorrow will be allowed to press on you more and more sorely till you have been led to self-examination, confession of sin, and acknowledgment of the rightness of God’s dealings with you. There is an alloy of pride in your nature that must be destroyed. If the fire is not hot enough, its heat must be raised till it suffices. Accept the lesson of your present pain, and rebel no longer. The waves of unutterable grief may be breaking in succession against the beaten promontory of your faith, and will be followed by the great tenth wave of apparent desertion: but the return-tide of exultant joy is at hand.

LAMENTATIONS 2

MyStudyBible.com - Holman Christian Std Bible - Enter "Lamentations 2" and select "Study Bible Notes Tool" for well done notes. As you scroll down the Scripture, the Study Notes usually will synchronize (you may have to click mouse in Scripture window for it to synch) . Click "Read" under the study notes, to bring up all the notes for a given chapter. Hold pointer over a particular word in Scripture for the original word in Hebrew or Greek.

Lamentations 2.1 - Again the song opens with this word "How." The prophet was still contem­plating the tragic conditions of his city and his nation; and once again was so deeply impressed with what he saw that he commenced with this exclamatory How! What, then, were the things which he saw? First, that all the desolation upon which he looked was brought about by Jehovah; and secondly that this activity of Jehovah was made inevitable by the sins of His people. The judgment of Adonai, the Sovereign Lord, Who is also named as Jehovah in the course of the description, had fallen upon all material things, and had swept out the sacramental symbols of spiritual relationship. All this because the people had been seduced from their loyalty to Jehovah by the false prophets who had "seen false and foolish visions." At last the song became an appeal to the people in their affliction to come to penitence and contrition, and out of that to make their appeal to Jehovah on behalf of the next generation, that is, "for the life of thy young children." These opening words of the song are poetically suggestive. Neither Jehovah nor the daughter of Zion is conceived of as departed, or destroyed. She is covered in a cloud, and so cut off from the vision of Jehovah, that is, she cannot see Him. Clouds hide God from men; they never hide men from God. Here, then, is the thought. The loss of the vision is the judgment upon those who ceased looking to Jehovah. That condition continues even yet. The daughter of Zion is covered in the cloud. She does not see her God. But her God, watching over her, neither slumbers nor sleeps.

Lamentations 2:18-22
Lamentations 2:7

Lamentations 2:14
The prophet is addressing Jerusalem — ruined, desolate, and afflicted — the city waste; her children in Babylon. Of course the main question was as to their return from captivity, and deliverance from their yoke. The false prophets were perpetually seeing visions of deliverance that were never fulfilled. Now this kingdom would come to their rescue. But they were empty dreams. The captivity would never be turned, until the iniquity which had led to it had been discovered and put away. But the prophets had no desire or ability to do this. Now this is true of yourself as an individual and as a Christian worker. As an Individual: You are suffering in one way or another: in body, or relative, or circumstance. Your one thought is to obtain deliverance, and your mind is filled with vain dreams of how it is to come. It would be better far to ask God to discover to you any reason for the chastisement. If He says nothing, then believe that there is still some wise end in it for yourself or others. But He may indicate some reason for his strokes. As a Christian Worker: Your earnest endeavors have failed. You suppose that some new method will bring success. There may be some reason in yourself which will account for all. Ask God to discover it. When you see it in his light, you will be surprised that you never saw it before; and you will cease to wonder that those over whom you have longed have never yielded to the love of God. It is useless to have visions of a lovely and holy life, unless you are willing to have your iniquity discovered and destroyed. Oh for faithful prophet-voices to do their office for us!

LAMENTATIONS 3

MyStudyBible.com - Holman Christian Std Bible - Enter "Lamentations 3" and select "Study Bible Notes Tool" for well done notes. As you scroll down the Scripture, the Study Notes usually will synchronize (you may have to click mouse in Scripture window for it to synch) . Click "Read" under the study notes, to bring up all the notes for a given chapter. Hold pointer over a particular word in Scripture for the original word in Hebrew or Greek.

Lamentations 3.1 - This is the central song of the five; and its dominant note is that of the prophet's complete identification with the people in the experiences of their sorrow; and his complete agreement with, and understanding of the purpose of God in all His dealings with His people. In these first words he strikes the keynote, and reveals this identification with the people in the experience of affliction. Presently he declared the goodness of God as he had seen it, and said that it was of Jeho­vah's lovingkindness that they had not been consumed. On the basis of this recognition he uttered his appeal to the people, including himself, as he said: people, us search and try our ways." Finally, he called to mind his own personal ex­perience of how, when be had called to God out of the lowest dungeon, He had heard, responded, delivered; and upon that experience he based his certainty that God would ultimately overthrow those who were the instruments of the suffering of His people. As we have said, that which is most impressive in this song is the identification of the prophet with the people and with God. He recognized the necessity for the suffering, but he suffered with the sufferers. The real em­phasis of these opening words would seem to be on the very first word, "I." This is the authentic note of the messenger of Jehovah. He it is who feels most poig­nantly the pain of those who through their own determined disobedience are punished. If that be so of the messenger of God, it is supremely so of God Himself. In that realm of thought we ultimately and inevitably reach the Cross.

Lamentations 3 Study

Lamentations 3 Hope For the Broken

Lamentations 3:1-9  “He hath brought me into darkness, but not into light.”
MOVING TOWARDS DAYBREAK - BUT a man may be in darkness, and yet in motion toward the light. I was in the darkness of the subway, and it was close and oppressive, but I was moving toward the light and fragrance of the open country. I entered into a tunnel in the Black Country in England, but the motion was continued, and we emerged amid fields of loveliness. And therefore the great thing to remember is that God’s darknesses are not His goals; His tunnels are means to get somewhere else. Yes, His darknesses are appointed ways to His light. In God’s keeping we are always moving, and we are moving towards Emmanuel’s land, where the sun shines, and the birds sing night and day. There is no stagnancy for the God-directed soul. He is ever guiding us, sometimes with the delicacy of a glance, sometimes with the firmer ministry of a grip, and He moves with us always, even through “the valley of the shadow of death.” Therefore, be patient, my soul! The darkness is not thy bourn, the tunnel is not thy abiding home! He will bring thee out into a large place where thou shalt know “the liberty of the glory of the children of God.”

Lamentations 3:55-66

Lamentations 3:15 He has given me a cup of deep sorrow to drink
Excerpt: The Lord's people have many hard lessons which they have to learn in the 'school of Christ'. Each one has to carry a daily cross, and are burdened and pressed down under its weight....Hab 3:17, 18, 19.

A child had a little garden in which she planted many flowers, but they never grew. She put them in, as she thought tenderly and carefully, but they would not live. She sowed seeds and they sprang up; but very soon they withered away. So she ran to her father's gardener, and when he came to look at it, he said, "I will make it a nice garden for you, that you may grow whatever you want." He fetched a pick, and when the little child saw the terrible pick, she was afraid for her little garden. The gardener struck his tool into the ground and began to make the earth heave and shake for his pickaxe had caught the edge of a huge stone which underlayed almost all the little plot of ground. All the little flowers were turned out of their places and the garden spoiled for a season so that the little maid wept much. He told her he would make it a fair garden yet, and so he did, for having removed that stone which
had prevented all the plants from striking root he soon filled the ground with flowers which lived and flourished. Just so, the Lord has come, and has turned up all the soil of your present comfort to get rid of some big stone that was at the bottom of all your spiritual prosperity, and would not let your soul flourish. Do not weep with the child, but be comforted by the blessed results and thank your Father’s tender hand!

Lamentations 3:28

Lamentations 3:22-33  - THE FRESH EYE - WE have not to live on yesterday’s manna; we can gather it fresh to-day. Compassion becomes stale when it becomes thoughtless. It is new thought that keeps our pity strong. If our perception of need can remain vivid, as vivid as though we had never seen it before, our sympathies will never fail. The fresh eye insures the sensitive heart. And our God’s compassions are so new because He never becomes accustomed to our need. He always sees it with an eye that is never dulled by the commonplace; He never becomes blind with much seeing! We can look at a thing so often that we cease to see it. God always sees a thing as though He were seeing it for the first time. “Thou, God, seest me,” and “His compassions fail not.” And if my compassions are to be like a river that never knows drought, I must cultivate a freshness of sight. The horrible can lose its horrors. The daily tragedy can become the daily commonplace. My neighbor’s needs can become as familiar as my furniture, and I may never see either the one or the other. And therefore must I ask the Lord for the daily gift of discerning eyes. “Lord, that I may receive my sight.” And with an always newly-awakened interest may I reveal “the compassions of the Lord!”

Lamentations 3:22-23: An Anchor for the Soul: Anchored During Times of Grief

Excerpt: The Christian is surrounded by mercy. When he looks back, he can say, "Surely goodness, and mercy have followed me all the days of my life" (Psalm 23:6). When he looks ahead, he remembers the words of Jude 21--"Looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life." As he begins each new day, he can say; "It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness" (Lamentations 3:22-23).

The more rich—the more wretched;
the more great—the more graceless;
the more honorable—the more miserable
that man will be, who has not God for his portion.

THE PSALM OF INHERITANCE - Lam 3:24 The LORD is my portion... ("I am your portion and your inheritance..." Nu 18:20)

IT IS a wonderful thing when we can look upon God as being our portion, when we can lay our hand upon all His nature and say there is nothing in God which will not in some way contribute to my strength and joy. It makes one think of the early days of the settlement of emigrants in the Far West of Canada or Australia. The settler and his family would slowly travel forward, with their implements and seeds, till they reached the plot of ground allocated to them by the Government. At first the family would encamp on the edge of it, then they would prospect it, and go to and fro over its acres with a sense that it all belonged to them, though it needed to be brought under cultivation. In the first year, within the fence hastily constructed, the farmer and his sons would begin to cultivate some small portion of their newly-acquired territory. This would yield the first crops; next year they would press the fences farther out, until at the end of a term of years the whole would have been brought under cultivation. So it is with the mighty Nature of God. when first we are converted and led to know Him for ourselves, we can claim to apprehend but a small portion of the length and depth and breadth and height of His Love; but as the years go slowly on, amid the circumstances of trouble and temptation and the loss of earthly things, we are led to make more and more of God, until the immensity of our inheritance, which can never be fully explored or utilised, breaks upon our understanding. No wonder that the Psalmist breaks forth into thanksgiving in Psalm 16:6-7, and Psalm 9l. The devout soul rejoices in God as his great Inheritance. When He is always present to our mind, when we are constantly making use of Him, when we find ourselves naturally turning to Him through the hours of the day, then such quiet peace and rest settle down upon us that we cannot be moved by any anxiety of the present or future. Death itself will make no difference, except that the body which has obscured our vision will be left behind, and the emancipated soul will be able more fully to expatiate in its inheritance, which is incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading (1 Peter 1:4-5). PRAYER - We thank Thee, O Lord, that all things are ours in Christ, working for us, co-operating with us, and bearing us onward to that glorious destiny for which Thou art preparing us. AMEN.

Lamentations 3:26
The Lord does not bring his poor and needy children to a throne of grace, and send them away as soon as they have come. But his purpose is, to show them deeply what they are, to make them value his favors, to sink them lower and lower in self, that they may rise higher and higher in Christ, to "teach them to profit" (as the Scripture speaks), to write his laws upon their hearts in lines of the Spirit's drawing, in deep lines, "engraved with an iron pen and lead in the rock forever;" not characters traced out in the sand, to be washed out by the rising tide, or effaced by the wind, but in characters as permanent as the soul itself.  The work of the Spirit in the hearts of the redeemed is radical work, work that goes to the very bottom; nothing flimsy, nothing superficial, nothing which can be effaced and obliterated springs from him, but that which shall have an abiding effect--that which shall last for eternity. The Lord is fitting his people for eternity, and therefore his work in them is thorough work; it goes right through them; it leaves nothing covered up and masked over, but turns all up from the very bottom, "discovering the foundation unto the neck" (Hab. 3:13), and doing in a man spiritually what the Lord threatened to do in Jerusalem literally, "I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipes a dish, wiping it, and turning it upside down" (2 Kings 21:13). Therefore he does not answer the prayers of his children immediately when they come to his throne of mercy and grace, but rather he deepens those convictions that he has implanted; he makes the burdens heavier that he has put upon their back; he hides himself instead of discovering himself, and draws back further instead of coming nearer. Now this is intended to make them wait with greater earnestness, with more unreserved simplicity, with more absolute dependence upon him and him alone to communicate the blessing, with greater separation of heart from all the strength of the creature, with a firmer resolution in the soul to cast away all its own righteousness, and to hang solely and wholly upon the Spirit's teachings, and Jesus' sweet revelation of himself.

Lamentations 3:32 Though He brings grief, He will show Compassion so great is His unfailing Love

Lamentations 3:32 Though He causes suffering...
Lamentations 3:39 Why should any living man complain?

a grief to Him to be grievous to them,
a pain to Him to be punishing of them,
a sorrow to Him to be striking them. 

Lamentations 3:39 No Reason to complain!

You have no reason to complain, as long as you are out of hell. Do you murmur, because you are under pain and sickness? Nay, bless God, you are not there where the worm never dies! Do you grudge, that you are not in so good a condition in the world as some of your neighbors are? Be thankful, rather, that you are not in the condition of the damned! Is your money gone from you? Thank God that the fire of His wrath has not consumed you! Kiss the rod, O sinner! and acknowledge mercy! (From Human Nature in Its Fourfold State)

Lamentations 3:39, 40
I believe in my conscience there are thousands of professors who have never known in the whole course of their religious profession what it is to have "examined and tested their ways;" to have been put into the balances and weighed in the scales of divine justice; or to have stood cast down and condemned in their own feelings before God as the heart-searching Jehovah. From such a trying test, from such an unerring touchstone they have ever shrunk. And why? Because they have an inward consciousness that their religion will not bear a strict and scrutinizing examination.  Like the deceitful tradesman, who allures his customers into a dark corner of his shop, in order to elude detection when he spreads his flimsy, made-up goods before them, so those who have an inward consciousness that their religion is not of heavenly origin, shun the light. As the Lord says, "Every one that does evil hates the light, neither comes to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved; but he that does truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God."  Now if you know nothing of having from time to time your ways searched and tested by God's word, or if you rise up with bitterness against an experimental, heart-searching ministry that would test them for you, it shows that there is some rotten spot in you--something that you dare not bring to the light. The candle of the Lord has not searched the hidden secrets of your heart; nor have you cried with David, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts. And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."

While prayer is an application to divine wealth—it is also a confession of human emptiness. The most healthy state of a Christian—is to be always empty in SELF and constantly depending upon the Lord for supplies; to be always poor in SELF—and rich in Jesus; weak as water personally—but mighty through God to do great exploits. And hence prayer, while it adores God, it lays the creature where it should be—in the very dust!

Prayer is in itself, apart from the answer which it brings, a great benefit to the Christian. As the runner gains strength for the race by daily exercise, so for the great race of life, we acquire energy by the hallowed labor of prayer. Prayer plumes the wings of God's young eaglets—that they may learn to mount above the clouds. Prayer sends God's warriors forth to combat—with their sinews braced and their muscles firm. An earnest pleader comes out of his closet, even as the sun arises from the chambers of the east, rejoicing like a strong man to run his race.

Prayer is that uplifted hand of Moses—which routs the Amalekites more than the sword of Joshua. Prayer girds human weakness with divine strength, turns human folly into Heavenly wisdom, and gives the peace of God to troubled mortals. We have no idea what prayer can do!

We thank you, great God, for the mercy-seat, a choice proof of Your marvelous loving-kindness. Help us to use it aright throughout this day! (From Morning and Evening)

Lamentations 3:41
When the Lord lays judgment to the line, and righteousness to the plummet, when he makes the living man complain on account of deserved chastisement for his sins, and thus brings him to search and try his ways, he raises up an earnest cry in his soul. "Let us lift up our heart with our hands," and not the hands without the heart; not the mere bended knee; not the mere grave and solemn countenance, that easiest and most frequent cover of hypocrisy; not the mere form of prayer, that increasing idol of the day--but the lifting up of the heart with the hand. This is the only true prayer, when the heart is poured out before the throne of grace, the Spirit interceding for us and within us with groanings that cannot be uttered. "God is a Spirit; and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." The contrite heart and broken spirit, the inward panting of the soul after his manifested presence, the heaving sigh and penitential tear will be regarded by him, when he will turn away from mere lip-service and bodily exercise. But there is much also implied in the words, "God in the heavens." This expression represents him as seated far above all heavens, enthroned in light, majesty, and glory unspeakable; and yet sitting on his throne of mercy and grace to bless the soul that waits upon him, full of love and compassion for the poor and needy one that lifts up his heart together with the hand, that he may receive pardon and peace out of Jesus' fullness, and pants with unutterable longings that the Lord himself would graciously smile and beam love and favor into his soul. This lifting up of the heart--the only true and acceptable prayer--no man can create in himself. God, who works all things after the counsel of his own will, can alone work in us thus "to will and to do of his own good pleasure." Nature cannot, with all her efforts, and all her counterfeit imitations of vital godliness, accomplish this spiritual sacrifice. She may cut her flesh with lancets, and cry, "Baal, hear us," from morning until evening, but she cannot bring down the holy fire from heaven. She can lift the hand, but she cannot lift up the heart. Depend upon it that in this spiritual communion with the living God, out of the sight and out of the reach of the most refined hypocrite and self-deceiver, much of the power of vital godliness lies. This lifting up of the heart when no eye sees and no ear hears, in the daily and often hourly transactions of life, in the lonely chamber, and on the midnight bed, surrounded perhaps by the world, and yet in spirit separate from it, is a secret known only to the living family of God.

Lamentations 3:57
Jeremiah is referring to his own experiences of the dungeon, into which the malice of his foes had plunged him. As he reached its lowest depths, he began to call upon God, and continued to call. His reliance was on the name (i.e., the nature) of God. This is the most potent argument that any soul can employ. Not our faith, but his faithfulness: not our trust, but his trustworthiness. “Act worthily of that great name, which Thou hast taken for Thyself, O God, we beseech Thee.” No sooner was that appeal made than it was heard. “Thou heardest my voice.” Notice that the very breathing of the persecuted soul was heard by the Most High. A mother listens for the breathing of her babe in the dark. It will tell her so much. The soft, measured breath, or the laboring, gasping breath. God never hides his ear from our breathing; or from those inarticulate cries, which express, as words could not do, the deep anguish and yearning of the heart. If you cannot speak, cry, sob, or groan, then be still. God can interpret all. Then He draws nigh. Of course, He is ever nigh. “Nearer than breathing.” But He gives a sweet consciousness of his presence. The dark dungeon of bereavement, or sorrow, suddenly becomes luminous with the radiance of the Shekinah; the stillness is broken by the approaching footfall of the Almighty Friend, who is never so near as when lover and friend are unable to help. Oh, how tenderly He draws nigh! Solitude indeed hath charms, for it is our Savior’s opportunity; and the dungeon becomes desirable, for it is the ante-room to the presence-chamber of our King. Happy they who have learned to detect the secret of the Lord, and his whispered Fear not!

Lamentations 4-5 Study

LAMENTATIONS 4

MyStudyBible.com - Holman Christian Std Bible - Enter "Lamentations 4" and select "Study Bible Notes Tool" for well done notes. As you scroll down the Scripture, the Study Notes usually will synchronize (you may have to click mouse in Scripture window for it to synch) . Click "Read" under the study notes, to bring up all the notes for a given chapter. Hold pointer over a particular word in Scripture for the original word in Hebrew or Greek.

Lamentations 4.1 -Again this fourth song commences with the exclamatory "How!" The prophet had been meditating, considering, pondering. He was about to give expression to the things which had occupied his mind, and the first word of the message of interpre­tation is one which means that the facts defy expression—"How!" Yet here, in a sentence, the whole result is gathered up and uttered, before the detailed explana­tion. That one sentence tells the whole story. "The gold is become dim!" Those which follow express the same fact in slightly varying form. "The most pure gold is changed! The stones of the sanc­tuary are poured out at the top of every street!" Follow the prophet, and the next statement interprets the figure. "The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold. How are they esteemed as earthen-pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!" That is the appalling spectacle, compelling the introductory "How," and inspiring all that follows. This was the vision of a man who saw the facts in true perspective and proportion. The tragedy of Israel's breakdown and deso­lation was created by the glory of the Divine purpose for that nation among nations of men. "Gold," "the most pure gold," "fine gold;" these were the words and phrases fittingly expressing the glory of the Divine thought and purpose for that nation among the nations of men. But the gold had become dim; the most pure gold was changed, the fine gold had become common earth. This is the deepest note of calamity whenever the people of God break down in loyalty, and so are broken down in necessary judgment. The failure to fulfil an appointed function in the Divine economy, is a more terrible thing than personal shortcoming, and personal suffering.

Lamentations 4:20
The people tell the sad tale of the pursuit of their foes. Swifter than the eagles, they chased them on the mountains, and laid wait for them in the wilderness. Then they narrate how their king fell into the hands of them who sought his life. He was dear to them as the breath of their nostrils; his person was sacred as the anointed of the Lord; they had thought that even though they were carried into captivity they would find some alleviation to their hardships in dwelling under his protection; they said, “Under his shadow we shall live among the nations.” But even he was taken in their pits. What a likeness and a contrast to our blessed Lord? There is LIKENESS. He is as the breath of our life. As we inhale the air around us, so we expand our souls to drink in of his most blessed nature. We open our mouths, and inhale Him as our vital element; his Spirit for our spirit; his blood for our souls; his resurrection strength for our bodies. He is the Anointed of the Father, who anoints us. Because He is the Christ (Anointed), we are Christians (anointed ones). His shadow is a most grateful and wide-spreading one, beneath which we may dwell in safety. But how great the CONTRAST! Though He was once taken in the pit of Satanic malice and the shadow of death, yet now He liveth to be the shield and protector of his people wherever they are scattered among the nations. He that sitteth on the throne shall spread his tabernacle over them. They shall hunger and thirst no more, neither shall the sun strike them. However far our bodies are from one another, we all dwell beneath the shadow of the Lord, which is as a great rock in a weary land.

Lamentations 4:17-20
Lamentations 4:21-22
Lamentations   5:1-10
Lamentations 5:19-22

LAMENTATIONS 5

MyStudyBible.com - Holman Christian Std Bible - Enter "Lamentations 5" and select "Study Bible Notes Tool" for well done notes. As you scroll down the Scripture, the Study Notes usually will synchronize (you may have to click mouse in Scripture window for it to synch) . Click "Read" under the study notes, to bring up all the notes for a given chapter. Hold pointer over a particular word in Scripture for the original word in Hebrew or Greek.

Lamentations 5.1 -Thus opens the last of the five songs, the final message of this great heroic messenger of Jehovah. The first movement of the song described anew the sorrows of the suffering people; the actual desolation in the midst of which Jeremiah lived; the afflictions of all classes of the community; the prevailing and abundant grief. His description prepared for, and led up to prayer. In that prayer the eternity of God, and the stability of His Throne were first confessed. Then, notice very carefully, that following what seems to be a protest against the long forsaking of His people by Jehovah, the central concluding peti­tion of the prophet was not that God should turn unto His people, but rather that He would turn His people unto Him. The notes of this final song are full of value for us In days of darkness and discipline, in which many loyal souls, like Jeremiah himself, may be involved, it is ever given to them to speak of their sorrows before Jehovah; and that speaking may ever take the form of appeal to Jehovah to remember. It is not to be supposed that Jeremiah imagined that Jehovah could forget, but here was his last resort. He himself remembered all the afflictions of the people and of his own soul, in communion with God, and in this call to Jehovah to remember, he was realizing that communion, and finding reinforcement for his own soul in the process of trial. Thus, prayers which break down in intellectual logical con­sistency are oft times those which in experience bring us nearest God; and thus find surest answers in that they make it possible for Him to act with us and for us in ways not possible unless and until we have such communion.

Lamentations 5:21 .
Weary of chastening, and longing to have again all the blessed enjoyments and privileges of the past, the backslider desires to be right with God, as he used to be. But he is often met with great initial difficulties. He would pray, but cannot; he would feel broken and penitent, but his heart is as hard as the nether millstone; he would take the old pleasure in the service and worship of the Most High, but it evades his grasp. This perplexes and daunts him. What should be our attitude under such circumstances? There is nothing better than to adopt the cry of the prophet, and ask God to turn the soul, and renew its blessed and holy experiences. There will be no doubt of our being turned, if He turns us. It is not difficult to recover the attitude, emotions, and work of past days, when we have yielded ourselves absolutely to God, and have cast on Him the responsibility of making us all that He has taught us to desire. Let Him assign what standard He chooses, there will be no difficulty in our attaining it, if He fulfils in us all the good pleasure of his will, and the work of faith with power. The happy life is that which does not need to ask for the olden days to be renewed, because it is ever anticipating that it will be better further on, and that the dawn will grow into the perfect day; but where the past was better than the present is, let us ask that God would restore the years that the caterpillar and cankerworm have eaten. Just because God abides for ever, and his throne is from generation to generation, He is able to renew the soul with new pulses of energy and life. Each spring He makes the world as fair as on the morning of creation. “Renew our days as of old.”

Lamentations 5:15 Encouragements to Patient Waiting: Past Joys

Lamentations 5:21
If we do not wish to deceive ourselves, if God has made us honest, if he has planted his fear in our hearts, if he has begun and is carrying on a good work in us, there will be evidences of the existence of the life of God within. Life is the commencement of salvation as an inward reality; for whatever the eternal purposes of God are, or whatever standing the vessel of mercy has in Christ previous to effectual calling, there is no more movement in the soul Godwards until life is imparted, than there is natural life and motion in a breathless corpse that lies interred in the churchyard. But wherever divine life is implanted there will be certain fruits and feelings that spring out of this life. One fruit will be 'complaint', and this will arise sometimes from a feeling of the burden of sin, and at others from a sense of merited chastisement from God on account of it. But wherever this complaining is spiritual, there will be accompanying it "an accepting the punishment of our iniquity," and "a putting of our mouth in the dust." Thus where there is spiritual life there will be complaint, confession, and submission; the effect being meekness, brokenness, and humility. This breaks to pieces self-conceit and self-justification, and the result is a searching and trying our ways whether they are of God. The fruit of this search will be, for the most part, a solemn and painful conviction that the greater part have been in the flesh; or, at least, there will be many anxious suspicions which cannot be relieved except by an express testimony from the Lord himself. This produces a going out of soul unto him, the cry now being, "Let us turn again to the Lord;" and towards him the heart turns as to the only Source and Author of every good and perfect gift. As the quickened soul knows that he is a heart-searching God, this appeal will purge away much hypocrisy and insincerity, and deepen uprightness, sincerity, and godly integrity. And the blessed fruit and end of all this sifting work will be a coming down of gracious answers, divine testimonies, smiles of the Savior's loving countenance, soft whispers of God's eternal favor, and the blessed witness of the Spirit within.

See also - devotional from January 25 - Lamentations 5:21
See also - devotional from July 23 - Lamentations 5:21