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.