Jeremiah — Chapter 17
Synopsis: Israel's sin written with an iron pen on the tablet of their hearts. The cursed man who trusts in man vs. the blessed man who trusts in God (the Beatitudes of Jeremiah). The heart's deceitfulness. Jeremiah's prayer for vindication. The Sabbath.
Verse 5
Thus saith the Lord: Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord. The antithesis to the Beatitudes: the curse on the man who trusts in human power rather than God. Lapide cites Pelagius as the ultimate expression of this error — trusting in the flesh of one's own natural virtue rather than in God's grace.
Verse 7
Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and the Lord shall be his confidence. The Beatitude of divine trust, corresponding to the Cursed of v.5. Lapide: this is the entire program of the spiritual life — transferring one's confidence from creatures to the Creator. The blessed man is 'as a tree planted by the waters' (v.8), like Ps.1:3.
Verse 9
The heart is perverse above all things, and unsearchable, who can know it? I the Lord search the heart, and prove the reins. One of the most sobering verses in Scripture on the opacity of the human heart even to itself. Augustine's 'cor inquietum' and Paul's 'I am not conscious of anything against myself, yet I am not thereby acquitted' (1 Cor.4:4) are the New Testament equivalents. Lapide: only God, who created the heart, can fully know it.