Mine eye poureth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission,
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
till Jehovah look down and behold from the heavens.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
Mine eye affecteth my soul, because of all the daughters of my city.
Jeremiah's tears have already run like rivers over the ruin of Jerusalem, and here he traces the path grief takes: what the eye sees, the heart feels. So what should the sight of ruin among God's people do to a heart that loves them?
What we look at shapes us, and that works for good as well as for sorrow. The older translation quoted here reads "my eye affects my heart"; the ESV puts it "my eyes cause me grief."
Christ's words must remain in us. Our heart's affections must be formed in them and by them. Then we shall find the truth of the saying, both in good and in evil: "My eye affects my heart" (Lam. 3:51). There is power in the word and revealed wisdom of God for the renewed man... to lay hold on heart and conscience, and to fix the mind of the inner man with forming power. It produces good in us; we live by it, we are changed into the image of what we contemplate. "Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth."
Jeremiah weeps over a city that God Himself has judged. He repeats his words to turn that grief toward the Lord.
Here he repeats the words of the previous stanza in order to bring Jehovah in. Faith does not hinder grief over the terrible state of what is near to God. It increases that grief, when that state is so evil that it becomes the object of His judgments. Yet faith is sure that such grief is not wasted, and that He will surely step in.
Some would call such weeping excessive. One writer says the opposite: the fault would have been to feel nothing.
Hard indeed must have been the heart that could look on their sorrows and not be deeply touched... It was the manly grief of one who was not ashamed of tears when his people were under the chastening hand of the Lord. To have felt nothing about it all would have deserved blame.
The weeping here is not just human emotion. It is the Spirit of God shaping in a man the feelings God Himself has about His people.
The affliction of His people does not escape the eye of God. He is afflicted in their affliction. His Spirit takes notice of it. He works in the hearts of those whose mouth He uses, and gives expression to the feelings He has produced there... He gives a form to the grief of those who love what God loves, and supplies the expression of it Himself.
One writer answers the worry that such sorrow is unbelief — and adds an honest note about Jeremiah himself.
It is not sinful to feel trouble and distress at the thought of God's judgment falling on those whom He loves. In Jeremiah's case, though, his heart sometimes failed him.
Jeremiah is not the last man to stand before Jerusalem with tears. The pattern of this verse reaches forward to One who saw further than the prophet could.
But a greater One than Jeremiah stood centuries later before the same city, rebuilt after the ruin of Jeremiah's time. And as He looked at that city He wept. His all-seeing eye saw a still more terrible judgment coming on the city and the nation.
Jeremiah's grief did not end in itself. What he learned in his own trials became something he could pass on.
He has passed through seasons of trial, so he can tell Jerusalem what he has found — a knowledge of great value... He had proved what it was to hope and quietly wait for the salvation of Jehovah.
- Sight — what the eye takes in shapes the heart. Fill it with God's word, and you grow into the image of what you look at.
- Sorrow — faith deepens grief over the ruin of what is near to God. It also stays sure that He will step in.
- Settled — such distress is not sin and not weakness. The Spirit gives shape to the feelings of those who love what God loves.
- Shared — God is afflicted in the affliction of His people. Later, One greater than Jeremiah wept over the same city.
- Staying power — grief carried to God turns into tested knowledge of Him, worth passing on to others.
They that are mine enemies without cause have chased me sore like a bird.
Lamentations 3 turns from the city's ruin to one man's voice. That voice describes being chased like a bird by people who had no reason for it. Two questions arise at once. How can trouble be undeserved when God Himself has judged Jerusalem? And whose sorrow is speaking in these lines?
The verse belongs to a short run of pictures. Each one says the same thing in a different way — that escape was impossible.
In verses 52-54 the prophet sets out, through various pictures, the calamities that fall on the Jews from their enemies. They were no more than a bird before skilled fowlers. They were like someone shut up in a dungeon sealed with a stone overhead. They were like someone drowning under waters rolling over him.
A bird has no defence against a trained trapper. That is the point of the picture.
"Without cause" sits oddly in a book about deserved judgment. One writer answers by separating the two parties. God had a reason; the invaders did not.
Identifying himself with the people who had gone wrong, he keeps pleading their cause. He was like a bird chased by hunters without cause. In this he does not ignore the righteousness of God in visiting His people with judgment. On that side there was cause enough. But Babylon's oppression of Judah was quite unjustifiable by any standard of human fairness. Her wars were driven by greed for rule and a hunger for power. It often happens that God allows sorrows to come on His own as discipline which, as far as the actual troubles go, were not really deserved.
The same writer brings this down to everyday life.
For example, a believer may be accused of what he never did, and this brings him deep mental grief. All the while he chafes at knowing he is innocent of the cruel charge, and feels he is treated wickedly. But seen rightly, this is an opportunity to share in Christ's sufferings. For was He not hated "without a cause," and did not false witnesses rise up against Him? Such circumstances, painful as they are to flesh and blood, are often a necessary part of the education of the soul.
One writer ties these verses to what happened to Jeremiah himself, and shows where the passage goes next.
In Lamentations the prophet recalls the distress of his soul in this terrible situation. Feeling that he is perishing, he cries to God: "I called on your name, O Lord, from the depths of the pit. You have heard my voice…" In answer to the eager pleading of His servant, the Lord directs Ebedmelech, an Ethiopian official in the king's household, to draw Jeremiah out of his trouble.
One writer hears more than Jeremiah in this chapter. He sees the prophet speaking by the Spirit of Christ, in a double position: suffering with the people and suffering at their hands.
In chapter 3 the prophet speaks in his own person, by the Spirit of Christ. He expresses everything he felt as one who shared Israel's affliction and was at the same time the target of their hostility. His position was remarkably like that of Christ. What suffering can equal this? He shares the suffering of God's people, yet he cannot turn the evil away, because they refuse to hear God's message.
The same phrase turns up in the Psalms, where it points past David to Christ.
David was a man surrounded by enemies. They spoke evil against him and wanted nothing but harm for him… He had given them some cause for this, as his confession to the Lord shows. Yet all his adversaries were as nothing compared to those who united against Jesus and hated Him "without a cause" (Ps. 69:4).
Three verses later the tone changes. That turn is why the chase is recorded at all. The remnant here means the faithful few left in Israel.
Like someone thrown into a pit and left to die, the remnant call on the Lord from the depths of the pit. Faith can say, "You have heard my voice," and "You came near when I called on You; You said, Do not fear." How comforting this is! God is quick to answer the first cry of a troubled soul when there is integrity of heart before Him.
- Hunted. The verse pictures a man run down like a bird before expert trappers. It is the language of total helplessness, matched by the sealed pit and the rising water beside it.
- Without cause. God had reason to judge Jerusalem; Babylon had none. Discipline from God's hand can reach us through treatment that is unjust.
- Shared. Unjust hostility becomes a share in Christ's sufferings. He too was hated without a cause, and false witnesses rose up against Him.
- Voiced. One writer hears more than Jeremiah here. The prophet speaks by the Spirit of Christ, suffering both with the people and because of them.
- Answered. The chase is on record so the rescue can follow. He called from the depths of the pit, and God came near with "Do not fear!"
They have cut off my life in a pit, and cast a stone upon me.
Enemies drop a man alive into a pit and push a stone over the mouth of it — the sound of a burial, not an arrest. Two questions press on the reader: who is speaking, and does anyone hear a voice from under that stone?
One commentator reads this verse with the two on either side of it, and explains each picture:
In verses 52-54 the prophet sets out, by various figures, the calamities that fall on the Jews from their enemies… They were no more than a bird before skilful bird-catchers. They were like one shut up in dungeons secured by a stone overhead. They were like one truly overwhelmed in waters rolling over him.
The older translation he follows says "dungeon" and "a stone upon me." The ESV says "pit" and "stones."
Behind the poetry lies an event. Jeremiah kept speaking God's word, and his own countrymen read it as treason:
Upon hearing Jeremiah's words, certain men say to the king, in agreement with the princes, "Please let this man be put to death." The Scriptures preserve their names (38:1). In their eyes Jeremiah is nothing but a traitor — an ally of Nebuchadnezzar. Zedekiah has no strength of character. He hands Jeremiah over to them, knowing he is powerless before them. These men seize the prophet and cast him into the pit in the court of the guard. "And in the pit there was no water, but mire; and Jeremiah sank in the mire."
The harm came from his own people, and it came because he spoke for God:
What suffering can be like this? A man shares the suffering of God's people, yet he cannot turn the evil away, because they refuse to hear God's message. He carries that affliction on his heart, feeling that if this foolish people would only have listened, God would have turned His wrath away. It was the lamentation of Christ Himself, "Oh, if you had known," and so on. In the main Jeremiah shared the same feelings… Jeremiah suffers for the testimony, and for the rejection of the testimony.
One commentator separates two things here. The nation's ruin was deserved. The cruelty of the men who carried it out was not:
He does not in this ignore the righteousness of God in visiting His people with judgment. On that side there was cause enough. But by any human standard of fairness, Babylon's oppression of Judah could not be justified… God often permits sorrows to come upon His own as discipline. As far as the troubles themselves go, they were not deserved. For instance, a believer may be wrongly accused, and that brings him extreme mental grief. All the while he frets, knowing he is innocent of the cruel charge, and feeling that people are treating him wickedly. But seen in the right light, this is an opportunity to share in Christ's sufferings. For was He not hated "without a cause," and did not false witnesses rise up against Him?
The stone sealed the pit; it did not seal his mouth. The next verses answer it, in the mouth of the remnant — the faithful few left in the land:
Like a man cast into a pit and left to die, the remnant call upon the Lord "out of the low dungeon." Faith can say, "You have heard my voice," and "You drew near in the day that I called upon You: You said, Fear not." How comforting this is! God is quick to respond to the first cry of a troubled soul when there is integrity of heart before Him.
That rescue is why the prophet's own ordeal belongs in a public lament for the city:
There was one difference, however, between him and his people. God had brought him out of his affliction; they were still in theirs. He suffered with them as one of them. But his own sufferings as God's faithful servant in Israel were over. So one man had been in affliction like theirs and had been delivered. This gives hope, and this is how the book holds them up.
- Pit. Three images stand together: a hunted bird, a sealed dungeon, water closing overhead. Enemies are doing their worst.
- Cause. The nation's judgment was deserved; this cruelty was not. Suffering you did not earn is where a believer shares the sufferings of One hated without a cause.
- Testimony. Jeremiah went into the pit for speaking God's message. He suffered for the testimony, and for its rejection.
- Cry. A stone over the mouth of a pit does not stop prayer; God draws near at the first honest cry and says, "Fear not."
- Hope. God brought him out while his people were still in their trouble. That is why his story stands in the middle of their lament.
Waters streamed over my head; I said, I am cut off.
The pit, the stone and the rising water have done their work, and the prophet's verdict on himself is that it is over. The verse sits inside a long lament. It raises two questions: can a man of faith really say such a thing, and what does God do with him when he does?
The verse closes a short run of images. One commentator reads them together as three ways of saying one thing: hunted, buried, drowned. The commentators quote an older translation, where the ESV's "I am lost" reads "I am cut off."
In verses 52-54 the prophet uses various pictures to set out the calamities that fall on the Jews from their enemies. "My enemies chased me hard, like a bird, without cause. They have cut off my life in the dungeon and cast a stone upon me. Waters flowed over my head; then I said, I am cut off." They were no more than a bird before skilful bird-catchers. They were like someone shut up in a dungeon with a stone over the top. They were like someone actually overwhelmed by waters rolling over him.
Jeremiah was not speaking from imagination. One writer sets out what he said and where it landed him.
Nebuchadnezzar has already besieged the city. So the message from God is to accept the judgment from His hand and surrender to the Chaldeans. In the eyes of his accusers Jeremiah is a mere traitor. These men seize the prophet and throw him into the pit in the court of the guard. "And in the pit there was no water, but mire; and Jeremiah sank in the mire."
Another writer draws a careful line at this kind of sentence. The sufferer says how things look to him, and then names the hand behind the darkness.
He is like someone for whom the business of life is over, discharged from it, "free among the dead," like someone cut off from God's remembrance and His help. Not that he will say this is so, but that so it seems. And God Himself has done this, and laid him in the lowest pit, in the awful darkness of His prison-house — in the depths.
The waters were real. The verdict spoken under them was the judgment of a drowning man.
One writer hears more than one voice in this chapter. The distress is Jeremiah's own, yet the Spirit of Christ shapes it, at a time when Jerusalem stood under judgment.
In Lamentations 3 we find the language of faith, of sorrowing faith, of the Spirit of Christ in the remnant, at the time of the judgment of Jerusalem, the city where God had dwelt… But in chapter 3 he places himself in the middle of the evil to express the sentiments of the Spirit of Christ. This is not, it is true, in an absolute way, according to the perfection of Christ Himself. The Spirit acts in the heart of the prophet, expressing his personal distress — a distress produced by the Spirit, yet clothed in the feelings of the prophet's own heart.
One writer takes the words "without a cause" and hands them to ordinary sufferers today.
God often allows sorrows to come upon His own as discipline, when, as far as the actual troubles go, they were not really deserved. For instance, people may accuse someone falsely and cause him extreme mental grief. All the time he frets under the knowledge that he is not guilty of the cruel charge, and feels that they are treating him wickedly. But seen rightly, this is simply an opportunity to share in Christ's sufferings. For was not He hated "without a cause," and did not false witnesses rise up against Him?
"I am cut off" was not God's last word. The next verses show how the rescue came.
Feeling that he is perishing, he cries to God: "I called on your name, O Lord, from the lowest pit. You have heard my voice"… In answer to the earnest pleading of His servant, the Lord directs Ebed-melech to draw Jeremiah out of his trouble. Ebed-melech is an Ethiopian official in the king's house. This man takes it on himself to go to Zedekiah to plead for the prophet, and gets permission to deliver him.
Others make the same point as a principle: the distress itself became the place where prayer was proved.
But prayer may be, and has been, proved effective even in their distresses; and the following verses show this, as with Jeremiah.
- Picture. Three images stack up: a hunted bird, a sealed dungeon, water closing overhead. The last one shows a man overwhelmed outright.
- Pit. Behind the picture lies a real cistern with no water but mire, where Jeremiah sank for telling the city to surrender to God's judgment.
- Seeming. "I am cut off" reports how things look to a man in the depths. It is not his verdict on God's remembrance of him — and God Himself laid him there.
- Voice. The sorrow is the prophet's own, yet the Spirit of Christ shapes it. The words carry a grief larger than one man's imprisonment.
- Rescue. From the lowest pit the cry went up, and God heard it. The answer came through an unlikely man in the king's house.
I called upon thy name, Jehovah, out of the lowest pit.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
Thou hast heard my voice hide not thine ear at my sighing, at my cry.
Jeremiah cries out from the bottom of a pit, left there to die. Yet right there he says God heard his voice. The verse holds two things at once: a settled fact about the past, and an urgent plea for the present.
One commentator ties this cry to the pit itself, and to the man God sent to pull Jeremiah out:
In Lamentations the prophet recalls the distress of his soul in this terrible situation: "Those who are my enemies without cause … have cut off my life in a pit, and thrown a stone on me. Water flowed over my head; I said, I am cut off" (Lam. 3:52-54). Feeling that he is dying, he cries to God… In answer to the earnest prayer of His servant, the Lord sends Ebed-melech, an Ethiopian eunuch in the king's house, to draw Jeremiah out of the pit.
William Kelly sees three pictures in those verses: the trapped bird, the sealed dungeon, the rising water:
They were no better off than a bird before skilled bird-catchers, like a man shut in a dungeon sealed with a stone overhead, like a man overwhelmed by waters rolling over him.
The verse before this one names where the call came from: the lowest pit. Kelly draws out what that means for anyone praying from a hard place:
But prayer can be effective even in troubles like these, and it has been proved so. The verses that follow show this, as with Jeremiah. "I called upon Your name, O Jehovah, out of the low dungeon. You have heard my voice: do not hide Your ear at my breathing, at my cry. You drew near in the day that I called upon You; You said, Fear not."
The hearing brings more than rescue. It brings a word spoken into the dark. H. A. Ironside points to how fast God answers, and to what He looks for in the one who calls:
Like someone thrown into a pit and left to die, the remnant call on Jehovah "out of the low dungeon." And faith can say, "You have heard my voice," and "You drew near in the day that I called upon You: You said, Fear not" (v.57). How comforting this is! God is quick to respond to the first cry of a troubled soul when there is integrity of heart before Him.
An older translation asks God not to hide His ear at the prophet's breathing, as well as his cry. One writer describes prayer that never reaches words:
When we have the thing given that we have prayed for, the outward answer, then perhaps for the first time we have the sense that we have been heard. But here we have come to God knowing in our souls that we are speaking to One who hears. Perhaps we cannot put the thing into words, but He hears the groans in the heart. He hears the soul that comes to Him with groans that cannot be spoken. It is not the length of the prayer that counts, but just the "five words" said to a Person he sees and knows; and he knows He hears.
Who is the "I" of this chapter? Ironside hears the faithful remnant of Israel in the cry. J. N. Darby hears the Spirit of Christ at work in the prophet's heart:
In Lamentations 3 we find the language of faith — sorrowing faith, the Spirit of Christ in the remnant — at the time of the judgment of Jerusalem, the city where God had lived among His people… Here the prophet puts himself in the middle of the evil to express what the Spirit of Christ feels. This is not absolute, not according to the perfection of Christ Himself; it is the Spirit acting in the heart of the prophet.
Why does a book about a ruined city stop to record one prisoner's answered prayer? Because what God did for him is the ground of hope for everyone else:
But there was one difference between him and his people. God had brought him out of his affliction; they were still in theirs. He suffered with them as one of them, but the personal sufferings he describes, as God's faithful servant in Israel, were over. Here was one man who had been in affliction like theirs, and God had delivered him. That gives hope, and that is how this book holds up the people.
- Pit — The cry rises from a sealed dungeon with water over his head; the lowest place is not out of range.
- Heard — God answers the first cry of a troubled soul where there is integrity of heart before Him.
- Breathing — He catches the groan that never becomes a sentence; five words to a Person you know are enough.
- Near — The answer is not only rescue but a voice: Fear not.
- Hope — One man delivered becomes the ground of hope for a whole ruined nation.
Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee; thou saidst, Fear not.
This is the lowest point of the chapter, and its turning point. A man sunk in a pit, with water over his head, calls out. God comes close enough to speak, and His answer is short: do not fear.
The verses just before this one pile up pictures of a man trapped and finished. Yet he keeps calling. One commentator notes what that proves about prayer at the very bottom.
They were no more than a bird before skilful fowlers, like someone shut in a dungeon with a stone overhead, like someone drowning as waters rolled over him. But prayer can prove effective even in their distresses, and it has; the following verses show this, as with Jeremiah. "I called on Your name, O Jehovah, out of the low dungeon. You have heard my voice: do not hide Your ear at my breathing, at my cry. You drew near in the day that I called on You; You said, Fear not." (verses 55-57)
There is no waiting period here. The older wording these writers use reads "in the day that I called on You," where the ESV has "when I called on you." One writer hears the cry as coming from the remnant — the faithful few among God's people — and draws out how ready God is to answer.
The remnant are like someone thrown into a pit and left to die. They call on Jehovah "out of the low dungeon," and faith can say, "You have heard my voice." How comforting this is! God is quick to respond to the first cry of a troubled soul when there is integrity of heart before Him.
God's answer does not begin with an explanation or a rescue plan. It begins by taking fear away. One writer, hearing the same two words on the lips of the prophet Elisha, explains why grace starts there.
"Fear not," says Elisha. This is always grace's first word. It is able to reassure a troubled soul. How many times this word "Fear not" is spoken in Scripture! It fills the Old and the New Testament. Everything in this world is the sort of thing that fills poor, feeble, sinful people like us with fear.
The same writer follows that word through Israel's history, all the way down to the lowest pit.
This word meets the ears of the people of God every time they have to deal with the enemy, whether in Egypt (Ex. 14:13) or in the wilderness (Num. 14:9; Deut. 31:6), or in Canaan under Joshua (Joshua 8:1; Joshua 10:25), or even in the period of ruin which marked the kingdom of Israel (2 Chr. 20:17; Isa. 7:4), and after the exile (Neh. 4:14). And when Israel lay in the "lowest pit" and cried to God in their distress, the Lord answered, "Fear not" (Lam. 3:57). The whole later part of Isaiah has this comforting word from God as a refrain.
The prophet's confidence rests on what God is known to be — and on a step he presses on the people earlier in the chapter.
Every comfort here comes from the Lord's known character — a wonderful rock to stand on, when all that has happened has been only richly deserved. The enemy brought the afflictions on Jerusalem, but those afflictions were the result of her sins against Jehovah. So the people must own those sins before Him. The prophet urges them to do this (Lam. 3:40-42). As they do, he waits in confidence for the Lord to step in for them, just as he had cried out himself and the Lord had delivered him. (Lam. 3:49-58.)
This chapter can read like abandonment. One writer marks the line between what a believer may feel and what Christ alone went through.
There is a danger in citing Psalm 22:1 as an ordinary believer's experience. Those words suited Jesus on the cross, and certainly no Christian since. He was forsaken then so that we might never be. It is not true, then, that the believer is forsaken by God under any circumstance.
One writer also reads these laments forward, to a distress still ahead for God's earthly people.
Prophetically we may look on these laments as holding the soul-exercise of the godly remnant of God's earthly people. They will pass through the great tribulation in a future day.
- Call. The cry comes from a low dungeon, with a stone overhead and water rising. Prayer works from the bottom, not only from safety.
- Confess. The confidence of this verse follows the owning of sin earlier in the chapter. The prophet urges confession first, then waits for God to act.
- Come near. God draws near the moment a troubled soul cries out, where the heart is honest with Him.
- Calm. "Fear not" is grace's first word — spoken in Egypt, in the wilderness, in Canaan, and at last to Israel in the lowest pit.
- Certainty. Christ was forsaken so that the believer never is. The same cry from the depths will rise again from a future remnant, and God will answer it.
Lord, thou hast pleaded the cause of my soul, thou hast redeemed my life.
Jeremiah prays from the bottom of a pit, with his city in ruins and his life nearly gone. He speaks of God's help as already done, which raises a question: what happens when God takes up a person's cause?
These are not just poetic words. One writer links them to a real pit, and names the man God used to lift Jeremiah out.
Feeling that he is perishing, he cries to God: "I called on your name, O Lord, from the depths of the pit… You have taken up my cause, O Lord; you have redeemed my life" (v.55-58). His servant prays earnestly. In answer, the Lord directs Ebedmelech, an Ethiopian eunuch in the king's house, to draw Jeremiah out of his trouble.
To take up a cause means to plead it; older translations read "you have pleaded the cause of my soul." Two acts stand side by side: God argues the case, and God frees the prisoner. One writer, on the same two requests in a psalm, puts it in plain terms.
He depends on God to be his attorney and plead his case. But he asks for more than this: he asks God to redeem him, that is, to set him free from any bondage put on him.
God was humbling Jeremiah's people, and they deserved it. That fact does not soften his assurance or shut his mouth.
The prophet is confident that He will appear for vindication and deliverance. The deep and deserved humiliation put on His people does not weaken his assurance or stifle his cry. On the one hand, if He has seen the wrong done to a righteous man, He would judge his case. On the other hand, He had seen all the enemy's revenge and all his plans against him.
God has already acted. Now the prophet hands Him the rest of the case, and one writer marks where such a prayer parts from what Jesus taught His followers.
He has pleaded the cause of the soul of His afflicted one. He has redeemed his life. His eye has been on all the wrong done, and the sufferer confidently begs Him to judge the matter (v.58-59). He pours the story of the enemy's heartlessness into God's sympathetic ear and leaves the whole case with Him. He also asks for payback on the oppressor. As we have already seen, that is not the spirit of the Christian age but of the law, where the principle of "an eye for an eye" held (v.60-66). To us who live in this age of grace, our Lord's instruction is to pray for those who mistreat and persecute us, just as He Himself could pray, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."
The chapter does not stay private. What God did for one man, the prophet holds up to a nation that must first own its sins.
Jerusalem's sufferings came at the enemy's hand, but they were the result of their sins against the Lord, so they must own those sins before Him. The prophet urges them to do this (Lam. 3:40-42). As they do, he waits in confidence for the Lord to step in for them, just as he himself had cried out and the Lord had delivered him (Lam. 3:49-58)… He puts his own experience forward as a ground of hope for Jerusalem, which knows what the Lord is.
The pattern behind the verse is simple: a cry, then God drawing near. One writer hears in it the voice of the faithful few left in Israel.
The remnant are like a man thrown into a pit and left to die. They call on the Lord from the depths of the pit, and faith can say, "you heard my plea"… How comforting this is! God is quick to respond to the first cry of a troubled soul when there is integrity of heart before Him.
- Cry — the verse begins in a dungeon, not a sanctuary; God answers the first honest cry of a troubled soul.
- Cause — He acts as the sufferer's attorney, taking the case and pleading it Himself.
- Redeemed — pleading is not the end; He also frees the prisoner from the bondage that held him.
- Confidence — shame that is deserved does not silence this prayer. God has seen the wrong and the enemy's plans.
- Hope — one man's answered cry becomes a whole city's ground of hope in what the Lord is.