Lamentations

The Lamentations of Jeremiah — a touching expression of the interest which God feels in the afflictions which His people undergo on account of their sins — will not require much explanation as to the general meaning of the book. A few remarks may be useful, to show the true character of this book, and its connection with the dealings of God, as revealed to us elsewhere. The first interesting point — to which I have already alluded — is that the affliction of His people does not escape the eye of God. He is afflicted in their affliction: His Spirit takes knowledge of it; and, acting in the heart of those whose mouth He uses, gives expression to the feelings He has produced there. Thus Christ wept over the hard-heartedness of Jerusalem, and invited its inhabitants to do so likewise. And here also His Spirit not only reproves and reveals things to come; He gives a form to the grief of those who love what God loves, and furnishes the expression of it Himself.