John Calvin Commentary Lamentations 3:15

"He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath sated me with wormwood." — Lamentations 3:15 (ASV)

Some render the last word “wormwood,” but this word does not seem to me to suit the passage, because although wormwood is bitter, it is also a wholesome herb. I therefore take it in this and similar places to mean poison or gall; and ראש, rash, as we shall see, is joined with it. To satiate is also a very common metaphor. The Prophet, then, means that he was full of bitterness and gall; and he thus referred to those calamities from which so much sorrow had come.

From this we also gather that the faithful were not free from sorrow in their afflictions, for bitterness and gall sufficiently show that their minds were so disturbed that they did not bear their troubles with enough patience. But they struggled with their own weakness, and this example is set before us so that we may not despair when bitterness and gall take hold of our minds. For since the same thing happened to the best servants of God, let us bear in mind our own weakness and, at the same time, flee to God.

The unbelieving nourish their bitterness, for they do not unburden their souls into the bosom of God. But the best way of comfort is when we do not flatter ourselves in our bitterness and grief, but seek the purifying of our souls and, in a way, lay them open, so that whatever bitter thing may be there, God may take it away and so feed us, as it is said elsewhere, with the sweetness of his goodness. He adds, —