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Lam 3:1-66  Part 3, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? (Psa 22:1)

[Study Aired August 26, 2023]

It is normal for the unspiritual mind to view the Book of Lamentations as only relevant to unbelievers and believers who have turned away, most eminently old Israel. However, for the Lord’s dragging us to see that we are the Beast, the man of perdition, we would remain dead in those strong delusions. In deep gratitude for His spirit of truth, the only form of righteously “looking back” is not in regret for the destruction of Sodom within, but fearing its embrace.

We can genuinely thank David, among many others, for going before us to have the Lord’s spiritual sword never leaving our house within. David’s adulterous adventure with Bathsheba, and her apparent weakness to resist his lust, typifies the camp of Israel which abides with us. There is no account given of Bathsheba crying out in resistance to David’s attention, and I’d find it hard to believe that his relative integrity would result in rape. Regardless, according to Deuteronomy 22, particularly verse 25, King David set the path of the Lord’s spiritual sword never to depart our house.

Deu 22:25 But if a man find a betrothed damsel [Bathsheba] in the field [a place away from observance or hidden among the populace], and the man force her, and lie with her: then the man only that lay with her shall die:
Deu 22:26 But unto the damsel thou shalt do nothing; there is in the damsel no sin worthy of death: for as when a man riseth against his neighbour, and slayeth him, even so is this matter:

From that account, David’s ‘forcing’ Bathsheba appears psychologically passive since death was proclaimed upon his house and not her.

David represents the Lord’s Elect, who are grateful for the sword never leaving their house within until all spiritually evil children are slain. Bathsheba represents adultery with our near kin, our Gentile Christian brothers and sisters who, like Bathsheba with apparent passivity, equivocate spousal allegiance. Our Lord will not suffer our intrigue for another Jesus, furthermore from another woman and her husband’s sacrifice resulting in a relatively innocent child sharing pitiless judgment in death for our sin (David’s bastard child).

In 2 Samuel 11:5, Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband, positively represents Christ, wittingly sent by decree of the Father to die at the forefront of our spiritual battles for our adulterous sins in bed with Babylon.

2Sa 11:14 And it came to pass in the morning, that David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah. 
2Sa 11:15 And he wrote in the letter, saying, Set ye Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, and retire ye from him, that he may be smitten, and die.

Psa 22:1 To the chief Musician upon Aijeleth [ah-yeh’-leth] Shahar, A Psalm of David. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring? 
Psa 22:2 O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent. 
Psa 22:3 But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.
Psa 22:4 Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted, and thou didst deliver them.
Psa 22:5 They cried unto thee, and were delivered: they trusted in thee, and were not confounded.

Chapter three of Lamentations is a variation of the same lamentable pattern depicting our journey in sin to becoming Christ. The overview presents the first twenty verses as definitive ‘lamentations’ of our wretched flesh born in sin, and the remainder of the Book is our wry hope (1Pe 4:18) in Christ and His account of why He temporarily chastises us. With that summary, we will launch directly into the hopefully relatively easy decrypting of our Lord’s word without first unnecessarily reading the entire sixty-six verses.

Great Is Your Faithfulness [is the KJV outcome of the chapter]

The following twenty verses identify a particular “he” who is our enemy, as portrayed in Part 1 of this study. That personage is Christ, yet, as we know, that “he” is negatively likewise us, ‘who is the man’ as Nathan told King David upon the earthquake of David seeing himself as the chief of sinners. Most remarkably, we all equate individually as ‘that man of sin’. The first verse speaks personally to us as Christ within judging ourselves and subsequently reflects upon who initiates the chastisement. As we look behind ourselves, these verses starkly relate to our brother Job’s experiences, who typifies us. Every ‘enemy’ mentioned in this Book is within and not some other evil person imagined more evil than ourselves. 

Lam 3:1 I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. 

Thankfully, the Elect of God are given to receive the rod of judgment today in preparation for the First Resurrection, and not the Resurrection to Judgment.

Rev 20:6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

Lam 3:2 He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into light.
Lam 3:3 Surely against me is he turned; he turneth his hand against me all the day.
Lam 3:4 My flesh and my skin hath he made old; he hath broken my bones.
Lam 3:5 He hath builded against me, and compassed me with gall and travail.
Lam 3:6 He hath set me in dark places, as they that be dead of old.

We know that everywhere in scripture, darkness comes before light, directly corresponding to the same experience every human will endure. The “he” is Christ who gives us to come out of the ‘abussos‘, the deep, the bottomless pit represented by the ocean of directionless humanity.

Gen 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
Gen 1:2 And the earth [directly corresponding to man] was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep [H8415 – 1. deep, depths, deep places, abyss, the deep, sea]. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

Rev 13:1 And I [John; and we upon looking back on our life] stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.

Our Lord gradually builds us up for destruction by the coming blinding light of His word. We see the seemingly endless destruction of our flesh everywhere in scripture to this day and to the First Resurrection when the downpayment of that ‘blinding light’ will manifest fully in our bodies as we instantly become as our Husband is.

The “gall” that is bile, stomach acid, responds to our adrenalin that results from fear. Our judgment manifests in spiritually broken bones, and skin and flesh all seem consumed by fire, adding to our initial bewilderment while coming out of the darkness of the abussos.

Rom 10:7 Or, Who shall descend into the deep? [Greek: abussos] (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.) 

The ‘abussos‘ is the realm of the dead. Descending into the abussos is the same as bringing Christ again from the dead. The people in the millennium are spiritually dead while they are physically alive. Christ entered the realm of the dead the moment He emptied Himself of His divinity and came into His physical mother, Mary’s womb, to be offered as the sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. Christ refers to all men living without knowing Himself or His Father as the walking dead: 

Mat 8:21 And another of his disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. 
Mat 8:22 But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.

From the outset, we are hedged in by the depths of the abussos of Babylon until we cry out, acknowledging our hopeless and lamentable condition. In His good timing, often decades later, He answers our prayers. Even after coming into and living His truth, we are assaulted by our lusts of the eyes and flesh, and worse, hold fast to our self-righteousness.

Lam 3:7 He hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out: he hath made my chain heavy. 
Lam 3:8 Also when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer. 
Lam 3:9 He hath inclosed my ways with hewn stone, he hath made my paths crooked. 
Lam 3:10 He was unto me as a bear lying in wait, and as a lion in secret places. 
Lam 3:11 He hath turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces: he hath made me desolate.
Lam 3:12 He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow. 
Lam 3:13 He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins [H3629 – 1. kidneys a. of physical organ (lit.) b. of seat of emotion and affection]. 

The severing of our reins is the destruction of the ureteral tubes from our kidneys to the bladder. Mild pain, fever and infection to severe loss of kidney function causes death. Spiritually, our blood that gives life becomes overloaded with doctrinal toxins, and we figuratively die and are delivered from the Syrians within, as seen in 2 Kings 13 and highlighted in verse 17.

2Ki 13:17 And he said [Elisha to Joah, King of Israel], Open the window eastward. And he opened it. Then Elisha said, Shoot. And he shot. And he said, The arrow [H2686 – divide] of the LORD’S deliverance, and the arrow of deliverance from Syria: for thou shalt smite the Syrians in Aphek, till thou have consumed them.

Lam 3:14 I was a derision to all my people; and their song all the day 
Lam 3:15 He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunken with wormwood. 
Lam 3:16 He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones, he hath covered me with ashes.
Lam 3:17 And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace: I forgat prosperity.
Lam 3:18 And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the LORD: 
Lam 3:19 Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. 
Lam 3:20 My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me.

Such is our devastation when comparing our alleged righteousness to our Lord’s; we are made as chaff and dust and blown away in the summer breeze.

Ecc 9:2 All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath. 
Ecc 9:3 This is an evil among all things that are done under the sun, that there is one event unto all: yea, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead. 

Heb 12:6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. 
Heb 12:7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? 

Even the babe in Christ profoundly equates with the deepest sighs of mourning in the first twenty verses. Upon looking behind, he and the maturing Christs see the milk of the all-too-common repeated pattern of our journey depicted in Lamentations. Our short-term pain is quickly overtaken by unspeakable joy when we acknowledge our sins and look to our inheritance in Christ. 

Lam 3:21 This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.
Lam 3:22 It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.
Lam 3:23 They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. 
Lam 3:24 The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him. 
Lam 3:25 The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. 
Lam 3:26 It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.

We must wait in the fullness of time the Lord ordains for each of us for His specific purpose for the trials tailored for our endurance in chastisements and symbolised by seven x ten.

Jer 29:10 For thus saith the LORD, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place.
Jer 29:11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
Jer 29:12 Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.
Jer 29:13 And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.

Lam 3:27 It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. 

Most parents find that timeless dictum dismissed by their children as their kids set about reproving, regrettably, what their parents had learned from their parents. Each child in his time can’t wait to buck the yoke of righteous guidance and, to varying degrees, experience wastage of his guidance upon riotous living and repeat the Book of Lamentations. Each Elect of God, in his own time and order, quietly reflects his past and gives God glory for the good and evil. He fills up behind the same afflictions as Christ, only in reproach.

Lam 3:28 He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him. 
Lam 3:29 He putteth his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope. 
Lam 3:30 He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him: he is filled full with reproach. 
Lam 3:31 For the Lord will not cast off for ever: 
Lam 3:32 But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. 
Lam 3:33 For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men.
Lam 3:34 To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth, 
Lam 3:35 To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the most High, 
Lam 3:36 To subvert a man in his cause, the Lord approveth not. 
Lam 3:37 Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not? [We did in Babylon]
Lam 3:38 Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and good? [Isa 45:7]
Lam 3:39 Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins? [Isa 40:27-31]
Lam 3:40 Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD. [Psa 139:23]
Lam 3:41 Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens. [Deu 4:29, Jer 29:13]
Lam 3:42 We have transgressed and have rebelled: thou hast not pardoned. [Isa 1:18]
Lam 3:43 Thou hast covered with anger, and persecuted us: thou hast slain, thou hast not pitied.
Lam 3:44 Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through. [Isa 54:6-8]
Lam 3:45 Thou hast made us as the offscouring and refuse in the midst of the people.

It is appropriate to correlate these surrounding verses with 1 Corinthian 4:7-16. At its conclusion, can we, with good conscience, boldly say, as Paul, “be imitators of me?”

1Co 4:7 For who makes you to differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?
1Co 4:8 Already you are full! Already you are rich! You have reigned as kings without us! And oh that indeed you did reign, that we also might reign with you. 
1Co 4:9 For I think that God has set forth us last, the apostles, as it were appointed to death; for we have become a spectacle to the world and to angels and to men.
1Co 4:10 We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are honorable, but we are despised. 
1Co 4:11 Even until this present hour we both hunger and thirst and are naked and are buffeted and have no certain dwelling place. 
1Co 4:12 And we labor, working with our own hands. Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it; 
1Co 4:13 being defamed, we entreat. We are made as the filth of the world, the offscouring of all things until now. 
1Co 4:14 I do not write these things to shame you, but as my beloved children I warn you.
1Co 4:15 For though you have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers; for I have begotten you in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
1Co 4:16 Therefore I beseech you, be imitators of me.

Lam 3:46 All our enemies have opened their mouths against us. 
Lam 3:47 Fear and a snare is come upon us, desolation and destruction. 
Lam 3:48 Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people. 
Lam 3:49 Mine eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission, 
Lam 3:50 Till the LORD look down, and behold from heaven. 
Lam 3:51 Mine eye affecteth mine heart because of all the daughters of my city. 
Lam 3:52 Mine enemies chased me sore, like a bird, without cause. 
Lam 3:53 They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me. 
Lam 3:54 Waters flowed over mine head; then I said, I am cut off. 
Lam 3:55 I called upon thy name, O LORD, out of the low dungeon. 
Lam 3:56 Thou hast heard my voice: hide not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry. 
Lam 3:57 Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not. 
Lam 3:58 O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life. 
Lam 3:59 O LORD, thou hast seen my wrong: judge thou my cause. 
Lam 3:60 Thou hast seen all their vengeance and all their imaginations against me. 
Lam 3:61 Thou hast heard their reproach, O LORD, and all their imaginations against me;
Lam 3:62 The lips of those that rose up against me, and their device against me all the day.
Lam 3:63 Behold their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their musick [song].
Lam 3:64 Render unto them a recompence, O LORD, according to the work of their hands. 
Lam 3:65 Give them sorrow of heart, thy curse unto them.
Lam 3:66 Persecute and destroy them in anger from under the heavens of the LORD.

Those verses can leave us quivering for His dreadfulness. His curse is our flesh existing, sullying the purity of the Godhead’s spiritual realm whereby it needed laws of control (Gal 3:10-14). In effect and like manner, our Lord is righteously kicking against the annoying pricks our flesh inflicts on him (Acts 9:4-6 – Saul confronted by the Lord).

Jer 15:5 For who shall have pity on you, O Jerusalem? Or who shall weep over you? Or who shall turn aside to ask your welfare? 
Jer 15:6 You have forsaken Me, says Jehovah; you have gone backward; therefore I will stretch out My hand against you, and destroy you; I am weary with repenting.

The Lord’s expression that He is weary with repenting is that He has created Beasts that are diametrically opposed to Him, highlighting His earnest desire to finish His work, to “come quickly” and relieve us (and Himself) of our suffering flesh.

Psa 6:2 Have mercy upon me, O LORD; for I am weak: O LORD, heal me; for my bones are vexed. 
Psa 6:3 My soul is also sore vexed: but thou, O LORD, how long? 
Psa 6:4 Return, O LORD, deliver my soul: oh save me for thy mercies’ sake. 

For those who sigh and groan for ‘how long, oh lord…’ – likewise is our Lord mourning that He has to keep forgiving our endemically sinful hearts, and our continually going to Him for forgiveness.  It is the nature of being born sin from our mother’s womb. Our inherent nature is to indulge the temptation to indulge in innocuous things that can become sin and, most damningly, be tempted to partake of nocuous (unlawful) acts.

Our Lord’s repenting is a lamentation for having evil flesh existing in His eternal spiritual realm, an annoying kicking against us, yet a necessary and temporary wart on His very Body! (1Co 12:27, Eph 5:30)

Gen 6:5 And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth [in us] and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 
Gen 6:6 And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.
Gen 6:7 And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them. 
Gen 6:8 But Noah [the saving Christs’, His Body] found grace in the eyes of the LORD. 

2Co 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. 
2Co 5:16 Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.

Rom 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

Lam 3:66 Persecute and destroy them in anger from under the heavens of the LORD.

With those understandings, we are grateful for our Lord’s persecution and destruction of our flesh, the earth under His heavens, to become one spirit in Him.

Isa 41:10 Do not fear; for I am with you; be not dismayed; for I am your God. I will make you strong; yes, I will help you; yes, I will uphold you with the right hand of My righteousness. 

Heb 13:5 Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.