I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.
The speaker is Jeremiah, the man who had himself lived through affliction under the rod of God's wrath. His laments are grief over Jerusalem's approaching ruin and sorrows he shared with his people. That suffering is also pictured as the world's wounds under mercy's rod.
The verse gives language for firsthand knowledge of real trouble, beyond ordinary trials and complaints. It belongs to anyone whose life of comfort and happy home has been broken by disaster and the death of a loved husband. Such deep personal sorrow qualifies the bereaved, even a sorrowing mother, to say what true affliction is.
Yet alongside the affliction stands the declaration that the Lord's mercies are new every morning. Trials and sorrows are real and mark human life, but God's mercies have continually sustained His people and flow to them without ceasing. That affliction can work for good when it turns people toward the Saviour.
The speaker is Jeremiah, the man who had himself lived through affliction under the rod of God's wrath. His laments are grief over Jerusalem's approaching ruin and sorrows he shared with his people. That suffering is also pictured as the world's wounds under mercy's rod.
The verse gives language for firsthand knowledge of real trouble, beyond ordinary trials and complaints. It belongs to anyone whose life of comfort and happy home has been broken by disaster and the death of a loved husband. Such deep personal sorrow qualifies the bereaved, even a sorrowing mother, to say what true affliction is.
Yet alongside the affliction stands the declaration that the Lord's mercies are new every morning. Trials and sorrows are real and mark human life, but God's mercies have continually sustained His people and flow to them without ceasing. That affliction can work for good when it turns people toward the Saviour.