I am sure I have posted this previously when working our way through Lamentations. Here it is in a simple list. What great hope there is in the middle of Lamentations. The immediate context is, of course, the destruction of Jerusalem and the weeping of Jeremiah. In that "it-can't-get-any-worse-than-this" situation, Jeremiah found hope. Matthew Henry put it in principle form. I love this "plaque."
1. That, bad as things are, it is owing to the mercy of God that
they are not worse, v22.
2. That even in the depth of their affliction they still have
experience of the tenderness of the divine pity and the truth of the divine
promise, v23.
3. That God is, and ever will be, the all-sufficient happiness of
his people; they have chosen him and depend upon him to be such, v24.
4. That those who deal with God will find it is not in vain to
trust in him, v25-26.
5. That afflictions are really good for us, and if we bear them
aright, will work very much for our good. It is not only good to hope and wait
for the salvation, but it is good to be under the trouble in the mean time,
v27-30.
6. That God will graciously return to his people with seasonable
comforts according to the time that he has afflicted them, v31,32.
7. That when God does cause grief, it is for wise and holy ends,
and he takes not delight in our calamities, v33.
8. And even then he retains his kindness to his people. That though he makes use of men as his hand,
or rather instruments in his hand, for the correcting of his people, yet he is
far from being pleased with the injustice of their proceedings and the wrong
they do them, v34-39.
MATTHEW HENRY
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