The writer’s outlook will be changed from despair to hope. While he expressed hopelessness in Lamentations 3:18, it is now changed. It depicts a well-grounded anticipation of blessing from God. This hope is not the fruit of a breakthrough from his own thoughts or views, but a reminder of the redemptive work of God (see also Psalm 42:5–6). The Old Testament revelation does not simply emphasize the life of the moment, but is strongly historical in nature. That is why memory plays a big role in it. The memory of historic acts of God, such as the exodus from Egypt, or God's dealings with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, suffice to illustrate the point.1 The writer’s hope is thus derived from revelation - that of God’s own character and power to transform even the bleakest of situations.2 Because the writer, by faith, has called this to mind, he now has hope. It is in light of the endless grace of God that the writer’s hope is rekindled.3
21 But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: