John Calvin Commentary Lamentations 3:25

"Jehovah is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him." — Lamentations 3:25 (ASV)

He continues the same subject; however, he now adds something to it, namely that God always deals mercifully with His servants who rely on Him and who seek Him. We therefore see that the last verse is confirmed, where he said that he was content with God alone while suffering all kinds of adversity: How so?

For God, he says, is good to those who wait for Him. It might have been objected that adversities produce sorrow, weariness, sadness, and anguish, so that those who only look to God alone cannot retain hope; and it is undoubtedly true that, when all confess that they hope in God, they afterwards run here and there, and as a consequence, they fail in their adversities.

Since, then, this might have been objected to the Prophet, he indirectly gives this answer: that God is good to those who wait for Him, as though he had said that the confidence which relies on God alone cannot disappoint us, for God will at length show His kindness to all those who hope in Him.

In short, the Prophet teaches us here that the blessings of God, by which He exhilarates His own children, cannot be separated from His mercy or His paternal favor. Such a sentence as this, “Whatever can be expected is found in God,” would be considered frigid by many; for they might object and say, as stated before, that they were at the same time miserable. Therefore, the Prophet reminds us here that God’s blessings flow to us from His favor as from a fountain, as though he had said, “As a perennial fountain sends forth water, so also God’s goodness manifests and extends itself.”

We now, then, understand the Prophet’s meaning. He had indeed said that we ought to acquiesce in God alone; but now he graciously adds, considering the infirmity of men, that God is kind and bountiful to all those who hope in Him.

The sum of what he states is, as I have said, that God’s goodness brings forth its own fruits, and that the faithful find by experience that nothing is better than to have all their thoughts fixed on God alone. God’s goodness, then, ought to be understood, so to speak, as actual—that is, what is really enjoyed.

Since, then, God deals bountifully with all who hope in Him, it follows that they cannot be disappointed while they are satisfied with Him alone and thus patiently submit to all adversities. In short, the Prophet teaches here what the Scripture often declares: hope maketh not ashamed (Romans 5:5).

But the second clause must be noticed: for the Prophet defines what it is to hope in God when he says that He is good to the soul that seeks Him.

Many indeed imagine hope to be I know not what—a dead speculation; and hypocrites, when God spares them, go on securely and exult, but their confidence is mere intoxication, very different from hope.

We must then remember what the Prophet says here: that they alone hope in God who from the heart seek Him—that is, who acknowledge how greatly they need the mercy of God, who go directly to Him whenever any temptation harasses them, and who, when any danger threatens them, flee to His aid, and thus prove that they really hope in God.