Lamentations chapter 3 - help understanding

[dougishere]

In Lamentations 3, the writer goes thru times where God shuts out his prayer, but then toward the end of the chapter God hears the prayer, and I can't understand what he is doing any differently. Maybe you have some insight.

Verse 8
Even when I cry out and call for help, He shuts out my prayer.

Verse 44
You have covered Yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can pass through.

But, in verses 55-57
I called on Your name, O Lord, Out of the Lowest pit. You have heard my voice, "Do not not hide Your ear from my prayer for relief. From my cry for help." You drew near when I called on You; You said, "Do not fear!"

I don't understand what the writer of Lamentations is doing so that God hears him in verse 55-57, in view of verses 8 and 44.

 

[HammerStone]

Well, the best way I can break it down is like this...

Start with the name of the book - it's Lamentations - you may or may not be more familiar with the term lament. If not, dictionary.com can shed some light on it. (Not meant to insult intelligence if you do.) I don't know that the word really gets used anymore, but its a very, very, very deep sorrow. I'd argue that you now called it depression. Essentially, this is what Lamentations is - it's a book from the deeply depressed human perspective (though still directed by God!) of how Jeremiah felt upon the destruction of Jerusalem.

God foretold of the destruction, but Judah (all of Israel as a whole as well) would not heed the warning, as this verse hints at:

Lamentations 1:5 Her foes have become the head; her enemies prosper, because the LORD has afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions; her children have gone away, captives before the foe.

God was allowing/carrying out punishment because of the collective majority's failure to adhere to the covenant many times over a long period of time. This meant that people like Jeremiah saw their beloved home destroyed. Jeremiah was a man of God (not a bull frog - bad joke) and witnessed this. He would have prayed for his home, but would not see it saved. If anything, I'd view it as illustration that God doesn't always answer every prayer for a reason and Jeremiah is, just like us, wrestling with it. The message in the end, though, is that God does listen even though he might not answer certain prayers.

It's really an account of someone being drug to the lowest of the low (trauma beyond what many of us will ever see), and then "waking up" to realize God was with him all along.

 

[veteran]

it's like with the Book of Esther, a Babylon captivity time-era Book.

Check me out. You won't find God's Name mentioned anywhere in the writings of the Book of Esther. You won't find, Lord (capitalized or uncapitalized), nor God, nor Jehovah, Almighty, no name referring to God. Yet according to the 19th century Christian scholar E.W. Bullinger, you will find an Acrostic of God's Name underlying within the Book of Esther. God removed Himself from His people because of their rebellion, like He said He would do. Yet, He was always there.