John Calvin Commentary Lamentations 3:20

"My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is bowed down within me." — Lamentations 3:20 (ASV)

The Prophet seems, in other words, to confirm what he had said: namely, that the memory of afflictions overwhelmed his soul. For the soul is said to be humbled within or upon a person when that individual lies down under the burden of despair. The soul is what raises a person up and, as it were, revives them. But when the soul is cast, as it were, upon a person, it is a most grievous thing, for it is better to lie down as a dead body than to have this additional burden, which makes the situation even worse. A dead body might indeed lie on the ground without strength and motion, yet it may still retain its own place; but when the soul is thus cast down, it is said to press down the person, though lifeless, more and more.

This, then, is what the Prophet means. And yet he says that he was so preoccupied with this remembrance that he could not withdraw his mind from it.

There is no doubt that he also intended here to confess his own infirmity, and that of all the faithful; we have already explained the reason for this. Therefore, relying on this doctrine, even when all our thoughts press us down, not only leading us to despair but also rushing us headlong into it, let us learn even then to flee to God and to lay all our complaints before Him. Let us not be ashamed, for we see that this way of proceeding is suggested to us by the Holy Spirit.