1Keep in mind, O Lord, what has come to us: take note and see our shame. 2Our heritage is given up to men of strange lands, our houses to those who are not our countrymen. 3We are children without fathers, our mothers are like widows. 4We give money for a drink of water, we get our wood for a price. 5Our attackers are on our necks: overcome with weariness, we have no rest. 6We have given our hands to the Egyptians and to the Assyrians so that we might have enough bread. 7Our fathers were sinners and are dead; and the weight of their evil-doing is on us. 8Servants are ruling over us, and there is no one to make us free from their hands. 9We put our lives in danger to get our bread, because of the sword of the waste land. 10Our skin is heated like an oven because of our burning heat from need of food. 11They took by force the women in Zion, the virgins in the towns of Judah. 12Their hands put princes to death by hanging: the faces of old men were not honoured. 13The young men were crushing the grain, and the boys were falling under the wood. 14The old men are no longer seated in the doorway, and the music of the young men has come to an end. 15The joy of our hearts is ended; our dancing is changed into sorrow. 16The crown has been taken from our head: sorrow is ours, for we are sinners. 17Because of this our hearts are feeble; for these things our eyes are dark; 18Because of the mountain of Zion which is a waste; jackals go over it. 19You, O Lord, are seated as King for ever; the seat of your power is eternal. 20Why have we gone from your memory for ever? why have you been turned away from us for so long? 21Make us come back to you, O Lord, and let us be turned; make our days new again as in the past. 22But you have quite given us up; you are full of wrath against us.
Matthew Henry's Commentary
The Jewish nation supplicating the Divine favour. 1-16 Is any afflicted? Let him pray; and let him in prayer pour out his complaint to God. The people of God do so here; they complain not of evils feared, but of evils felt. If penitent and patient under what we suffer for the sins of our fathers, we may expect that He who punishes, will return in mercy to us. They acknowledge, Woe unto us that we have sinned! All our woes are owing to our own sin and folly. Though our sins and God's just displeasure cause our sufferings, we may hope in his pardoning mercy, his sanctifying grace, and his kind providence. But the sins of a man's whole life will be punished with vengeance at last, unless he obtains an interest in Him who bare our sins in his own body on the tree. 17-22 The people of God express deep concern for the ruins of the temple, more than for any other of their calamities. But whatever changes there are on earth, God is still the same, and remains for ever wise and holy, just and good; with Him there is no variableness nor shadow of turning. They earnestly pray to God for mercy and grace; Turn us to thee, O Lord. God never leaves any till they first leave him; if he turns them to him in a way of duty, no doubt he will quickly return to them in a way of mercy. If God by his grace renew our hearts, he will by his favour renew our days. Troubles may cause our hearts to be faint, and our eyes to be dim, but the way to the mercy-seat of our reconciled God is open. Let us, in all our trials, put our whole trust and confidence in his mercy; let us confess our sins, and pour out our hearts before him. Let us watch against repinings and despondency; for we surely know, that it shall be well in the end with all that trust in, fear, love, and serve the Lord. Are not the Lord's judgments in the earth the same as in Jeremiah's days? Let Zion then be remembered by us in our prayers, and her welfare be sought above every earthly joy. Spare, Lord, spare thy people, and give not thine heritage to reproach, for the heathen to rule over them.