45 You have made us mere offscouring and refuse
In the midst of the peoples.
46 All our enemies have opened their mouths against us.
47 Panic and pitfall have befallen us,
Devastation and destruction;
48 My [t]eyes run down with streams of water
Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.
49 My eyes pour down unceasingly,
Without stopping,
50 Until the Lord looks down
And sees from heaven.
51 My eyes bring pain to my soul
Because of all the daughters of my city.
52 My enemies without cause
Hunted me down like a bird;
53 They have silenced [u]me in the pit
And have [v]placed a stone on me.
54 Waters flowed over my head;
I said, “I am cut off!”
55 I called on Your name, O Lord,
Out of the lowest pit.
This, the longest chapter of Lamentations, continues with some gross imagery. Jeremiah describes their situation as filthy dishwater and trash, only filthy to be pitched out, dumped in the sewer or taken to the landfill. Of course, they didn’t really have sewers or landfills, but you get the idea. They were the lowest of the low, and Jeremiah’s resulting tears in vv. 48-51 show the depths of despair they felt.
Yet in the midst of bemoaning their pitiful state, though the people may have forgotten, Jeremiah reminds them there is one place still to go. Their hope is not in anything on this earth, for in that they have found only devastation and destruction (v. 47). Rather, in vv. 49-50 Jeremiah states that his tears will not stop until God looks down and sees them in the pit.
For that reason, and because the Lord alone is the source of hope, Jeremiah calls on His name “out of the lowest pit.” Not a shallow pit, or even a deep pit, but the lowest. Ever felt like you were in the pits? Maybe it isn’t as deep as Jeremiah and his fellow Israelites, who felt abandoned by God. Perhaps you think it is worse, but whatever the case, there is one name to call upon.
Peter said it well in his defense to the very religious leaders who were supposed to know God so well, “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.” They should have been trusting in God, but instead they were too afraid of Rome to acknowledge the Savior who had walked and lived among them.
We dare not make the same mistake, whether we are in distress, or in great joy, in sorrow or gladness, call on the name of the Lord. Put your trust in Him, and find a hope that is sure, a foundation more secure than anything in this earth. He can rescue you, even out of the lowest pit.