Matthew Henry on Lamentations 3:21-36
Here the clouds begin to disperse and the sky to clear up; the complaint was very melancholy in the former part of the chapter, and yet here the tune is altered and the mourners in Zion begin to look a little pleasant. But for hope, the heart would break. To save the heart from being quite broken, here is something called to mind, which gives ground for hope (Lam 3:21), which refers to what comes after, not to what goes before. I make to return to my heart (so the margin words it); what we have had in our hearts, and have laid to our hearts, is sometimes as if it were quite lost and forgotten, till God by his grace make it return to our hearts, that it may be ready to us when we have occasio…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Lamentations 3:21
This--namely, what follows; the view of the divine character (Lam 3:22-23). CALVIN makes "this" refer to Jeremiah's infirmity. His very weakness (Lam 3:19-20) gives him hope of God interposing His strength for him (compare Psa 25:11, Psa 25:17; Psa 42:5, Psa 42:8; Co2 12:9-10).
Adam Clarke on Lamentations 3:20
By soul - is humbled in me - It is evident that in the preceding verses there is a bitterness of complaint against the bitterness of adversity, that is not becoming to man when under the chastising hand of God; and, while indulging this feeling, all hope fled. Here we find a different feeling; he humbles himself under the mighty hand of God, and then his hope revives, Lam 3:21.
John Gill on Lamentations 3:21
This I recall to my mind,.... Not affliction and misery, but the Lord's remembrance of his people; what he had been used to do, and would do again; and particularly what follows, the abundant mercy of God, and his great faithfulness; these things the prophet fetched back to his mind; and revolved them in his heart; says he,
and therefore have I hope; this revived his hope, which he was ready to say was perished from the Lord, and there was no foundation for it; but now he saw there was, and therefore took heart, and encouraged himself in the grace and mercy of God.
