It is of Jehovah's loving-kindness we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not;
Lamentations is a book of grief over a ruined city, and chapter 3 speaks for the people who lived through it. Verse 22 is where the mourner stops counting his wounds and asks why anyone is still alive.
The turn from complaint to hope
The verses before this one are bitter. Then the speaker turns and takes God's side.
Verse 22 strikes a completely different note, and a tone of high, joyful confidence carries on down to verse 36. Instead of complaining that his sorrows were greater than he deserved, he declares God right, and thankfully admits that justice has been mixed with grace… How precious the faith that, at such a time, could so speak! And what tested believer can honestly say anything else? Only when the soul is away from God's presence does His correction seem too severe, and partly undeserved.
Survival as evidence of mercy
Older English versions read the first line as "It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed," and most of the writers here quote it that way. On that reading, the verse points at the bare fact that the speaker and his people are still alive.
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He was still alive, bowed under the weight of his troubles, and that was evidence of mercy. What he had been through fits the present state of the city and the nation. The city lay in ruins and the nation was in great trouble, yet they were not consumed. Jeremiah was one of them, and he and others still alive were witnesses of this. How could they explain it? They deserved to be swept off the earth, but God in mercy had stepped in… His justice demanded the judgment they deserved. His mercy gave hope for the future, and they were living examples of it.
Compassions that do not fail
The second half of the verse explains the first. It tells us what God feels, not only what He does.
"His compassions fail not." No cold, indifferent heart ever directs the rod. He feels as no other can for the people of His choice, the children He loves. Every morning brings fresh evidence of His loving-kindness.
There is a note on the wording worth knowing. Older translations turned the first line around, so that it is God's mercies, rather than the people, that "are not consumed."
The Targum and the older versions, apart from the Latin one, turn it this way: "The mercies of Jehovah are not consumed, for His compassions fail not." I see no good reason for that, though Calvin thinks this sense fits better. The Latin version and our own English one read better to me. They are clearer, and they give more prominence to His people themselves… So His mercies have no end.
Mercy measured out day by day
The next verse says these compassions are new every morning. Writers tie that rhythm to the manna, the bread God gave His people each morning in the desert.
The manna also had to be gathered in the morning. It was the evidence of God's provision for His people day by day, as we read elsewhere: "His compassions fail not. They are new every morning" (Lamentations 3:22-23).
Daily mercy carries a person through a long wait. Joseph waited like that, forgotten by people.
The devil may tempt us day by day, and God may test us by keeping us waiting from day to day. Still, He renews His mercy every day… Man forgets Joseph, but the Lord remembers him.
Where hope rests
The passage does not stop at the mercies themselves. It goes on to the Giver, so hope holds even when no mercy can be seen.
What held our souls up in the past, when they were almost overwhelmed? The Lord's mercies! So we have hope… The sorrows did not come alone, the mercies followed hard on their heels. Therefore we have hope! And suppose there were neither mercies nor compassions — what then? Then, "The LORD is my portion," says my soul, "therefore I will hope in Him." It is good to hear hope's song break into the prophet's funeral song, and to learn that the Lord was greater than his greatest sorrow.
Summary
- Not consumed — the verse starts from survival. They deserved to be swept off the earth, and mercy stepped in instead.
- Not deserved — he stops arguing that his suffering was too heavy, and admits that justice came mixed with grace. Only a soul away from God calls the correction too severe.
- Not cold — the hand holding the rod is not indifferent. His compassions do not fail, so the blow fell only in part.
- Not exhausted — mercy comes in daily portions, like the manna gathered each morning. That is what carries a person through a long wait.
- Not dependent — even if no mercies could be counted, hope still stands, because the Lord Himself is the portion.