“Remember my
affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall! My soul continually remembers it and is bowed
down within me. But this I call to mind,
and therefore I have hope: The steadfast
love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new
every morning; great is Your faithfulness. ‘The Lord is my portion’, says my
soul, ‘therefore I will hope in Him.’
The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the
salvation of the Lord.” –Lamentations
3:19-26.
Even
though the book of Lamentations is a long poem recounting the destruction and
devastation of Jerusalem’s fall in 587 B. C. under Babylon’s attack, still the
major theme is God’s mercy and faithfulness through the judgment of God. Hope permeates the whole poem, and the
anticipation that God will restore again and renew the nation to God’s favor
and purpose is very evident throughout.
Hope, not despair, is the theme of this book. Our cited verses for today give the theme of
Lamentations. The writer remembers the
afflictions, wanderings “wormwood and gall” (bitterness) that has been a part
of the people’s penalty and suffering for wrongdoing. But still this truth is paramount: God’s love is steadfast; His mercies are
endless; every morning blessings come anew for that day! And waiting for the Lord is good, for in due
time His mercies will be revealed. They
who wait quietly for the Lord’s salvation will surely experience it and be
renewed and restored. We can but say
that even this beautiful poem by the writer (or writers) of Lamentations is
Messianic in nature, looking forward to the time when God will send the one who
has the power and might to restore His people unto Himself. And we, today, living in a time after the
Messiah, know this to be true. “When the time was right” God sent His Son to fulfill His promise of
Hope! Hear that anticipation, even in
Lamentations 3:24: “’The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul; ‘therefore I will hope in Him.’
Lamentations is sometimes a neglected
book in that we do not hear a lot of sermons based on its texts nor do we often
have Sunday School lessons from it. This
is unfortunate, because Lamentations is rich in both theology and history. Here are seven summary teachings from
Lamentations: (1) Prayers expressed in
Lamentations confess sin, express hope and declare dependence on God’s
grace. (2) Its author (or authors, if
more than one poet wrote its contents) gave an eye-witness account of “the day
of the Lord,” meaning the judgment of the nation because of its
rebelliousness. (3) Its contents underline the nature of pain,
the causes of that pain (sin) and point
toward redemption. (4) Jeremiah agrees with other books (like Leviticus,
Deuteronomy, Joshua, Kings and Jeremiah) that Jerusalem fell as a result of sin
and the people’s not heeding repeated warnings.
(5) Despite sin, repentance is
possible, and when that occurs, God is faithful to forgive and restore. (6)
Lamentations shares with the Psalms in confession and honest expressions
of pain and suffering—and turning again to God for forgiveness. (7)
“The day of the Lord” is a firm emphasis in Lamentations, meaning both
the time in 587 B. C. when Babylon overcame the nation, and in the end-times
“day of the Lord.” Both are times of
judgment; both give serious and solemn warnings about what the people of God
are to do.
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