But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies.
We saw in the last Lecture that the best and the only true remedy for sorrows is, when the faithful are convinced that they are chastised only by the paternal hand of God, and that, the end of all their evils will be blessed. Now this they cannot of themselves assume; but God comes to their aid, and declares that he will not be angry for ever with his children.
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
To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth. These words, with what follow in Lam 3:35; either depend upon the preceding, and are to be connected with them, "he doth not afflict", &c. Lam 3:33; though he lays his hand on men, he do not crush them under his feet, or break them in pieces, and utterly destroy them, even such, and...