First, it is a prayer unto God, to remember.
When God remembers, it means that he pays attention to a prayer and acts mercifully in response to it (see Exodus 2:24; Psalm 25:6–7; Psalm 89:47, Psalm 89:50; Psalm 132:1).1 The writer asks God to remember two things: his affliction and…wanderings.
For affliction,
see notes on Lamentations 3:1. Wanderings
are a result of being uprooted. Here it is due to the exile and homelessness caused by the Babylonian destruction of homes.2 The remembering of his affliction and… wanderings
he has endured are expressed as wormwood
and gall
(see notes on Lamentations 3:15 for an explanation of these terms). These words form the response to the entire previous complaint in Lamentations 3:1–16 as a summary of his disasters.3
The speaker’s personal agony and desperation is the motivation for the prayer and is also reflected in the content. While he did not doubt God’s existence, the problem was to reconcile his present situation with a positive view of God's attitude towards him. His prayer is therefore a plea for God’s merciful action due to his desperate circumstances.4
The content of this prayer echoes several other texts in Scripture. For example, in Exodus 2:23–25 the desperate situation of the Israelites led to God’s saving action of the exodus. God sees, hears, knows, and remembers Israel.5
19 Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall!