John Calvin Commentary Lamentations 1:10

"The adversary hath spread out his hand upon all her pleasant things: For she hath seen that the nations are entered into her sanctuary, Concerning whom thou didst command that they should not enter into thine assembly." — Lamentations 1:10 (ASV)

The Prophet again deplores the profanation of all sacred things. This complaint, as I have said, proceeded from the bitterest sorrow. For though it was a sad thing for the faithful to lose all their property, to wander in exile, and to suffer the lack of all things, it must have been more grievous to them to see the Temple polluted and all religion exposed to shame.

This calamity, then, the Prophet again deplores when he says that enemies had stretched forth their hand against all desirable things. By "desirable things," he does not mean riches or anything that belongs to the condition of an earthly and fading life, but those invaluable treasures which God had deposited with the chosen people. The enemy, then, had extended his hand against the altar, against the table, against the ark of the covenant, and against all the sacred vessels.

Then this indignity was increased, because Jerusalem saw the heathens entering into her sanctuary (for the pronoun is in the feminine gender). The sanctuary of Jerusalem was God’s Temple.

For, though properly speaking, it was God’s sanctuary alone, it was also, at the same time, the sanctuary of the people. This is because God had not had the Temple built for his own benefit, but rather for the benefit of his people. What God, then, had consecrated for himself is rightly called the sanctuary of the people.

He still increases the indignity because God had forbidden the heathens to enter the sanctuary, but they had violently rushed in there. They did not, however, enter to worship God (for it was his command to keep them from the holy assembly). Instead, they had entered by force to violate the Temple, abolish the whole worship of God, and expose religion to all kinds of mockery.

Prayer:

Grant, Almighty God, that as today we see Your church miserably afflicted, we may direct our eyes to see our own sins and so humble ourselves before Your throne, so that we may still not cease to entertain hope and in the midst of death wait for life. And may this confidence open our mouth, that we may courageously persevere in calling on Your name, through Christ our Lord. Amen.