The Song of Solomon : and the Lamentations of Jeremiah

176 THE LAMENTATIONS OF JEREMIAH
Lord. The image here used is not without parallel in
scripture. Thus a psalmist exclaims
—
" I am poured out like water,
And all my bones are out of joint
My heart is like wax;
It is melted in the midst of my bowels." '
But the ideas are not just the same in the two cases.
While the psalmist thinks of himself as crushed and
shattered, as though his very being were dissolved, the
thought of the elegist has more action about it, with a
deliberate intention and object in view. His image
suggests complete openness before God. Nothing is to
be withheld. It is not so much that the secrets of the
soul are to be. disclosed. The end aimed at is not
confession, but confidence. Therefore what the writer
would urge is that the sufferer should tell the whole tale
of his grief to God, quite freely, without any reserve,
trusting absolutely to the Divine sympathy.
This confidence is a primary requisite in prayer.
Until we can trust our Father it is useless to petition
for His aid; we could not avail ourselves of it if it
were offered us. Indeed, the soul must come into
relations of sympathy with God before any real prayer
is at all possible.
We may go further. The attitude of soul that is
.vere recommended is in itself the very essence of
prayer. The devotions that consist in a series of
definite petitions are of secondary worth, and super-
ficial in comparison with this outpouring of the heart
before God. To enter into relations of sympathy and
confidence with God is to pray in the truest, deepest
way possible, or even conceivable. Prayer in the heart
Psalm xxii. 14.
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