He putteth his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope.
He continues the same subject; for he describes to us men so subdued to obedience that they are ready to bear whatever God may lay on them. He then says that the sitting and the silence of which he spoke, so far prevailed, that the children of God, though in extreme evils, did not yet cease to persevere in their obedience.
Here the clouds disperse and hope returns to save the heart from breaking. The church is like Moses's bush: burning yet unconsumed, persecuted by men but not forsaken by God. Though cast down, it is not destroyed, refined as silver in the furnace but never consumed as dross.
AI summary
Commenting on Lamentations 3:21-36
He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him,.... Either to God that afflicts him, and patiently bears it; see Isa 9:13; or rather to men. To be smitten on the cheek is always reckoned a very great affront; to turn the cheek to an injurious man is to give him an opportunity and leave to smite, and signifies the taking of it patiently, and...