Lamentations 3:51 Meaning and Explanation

'Mine eye affecteth mine heart' — what the poet sees wounds him within. The sufferings of 'all the daughters of my city,' the women and the people of Jerusalem, pass through his eyes and pierce his heart. He cannot witness their pain without being broken by it. Seeing and feeling are bound together in him.

This is the cost of compassion. To truly see the suffering of others is to be changed by it, to let it reach the heart rather than holding it at arm's length. The poet does not protect himself from the pain of his people; he lets it in. Such an open heart is what makes him able to lament for them and to intercede for them. Love that sees, and is wounded by what it sees, is love that prays.