“And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the LORD” (Lamentation 3:18).
One of the more difficult reads in the Bible is the poem called Lamentations. Actually this “book” offers a collection of five poems. The first two and the last two are about as long as each other, yet the middle one, labeled “Chapter 3” in your Bible, is three times longer than the others. This lengthy poem of 22 tercets stands as a tower of refuge in the midst of a sea of overwhelming despair.
You and I think we’ve had bad times, but Jeremiah laments times far worse than what we’ve ever known. During the siege of Jerusalem he had seen friends and fellow countrymen starve to death. Their bodies were thrown over the wall of the city so as not to stink up the area any worse. Rape, vandalism, and cannibalism had invaded the once-great city. Sensibilities were outraged.
After the invading armies broke through the city, they desecrated the Temple, and burned everything that remained in town. From a lonely hillside, possibly Golgotha, Jeremiah looked over the ruins and gave rhythm and symmetry to his chaotic emotions. He swings from questioning God, to blaming God, to confessing his and the nation’s sins, and back again.
Grief destabilizes life. Dishes don’t get done. Details get forgotten. Sorrow can drowned our purpose and we can even despair of hope. After saying his hope had perished, Jeremiah changes his tone. Suddenly he determines to not give up on his hope in God:
It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him. (3:22-24)
While we can’t avoid wondering why bad times come, and even when we deserve the punishment we receive, we must remember that God’s personality is not one of chastisement. He doesn’t “afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men” (3:33). He loves us and gives every opportunity to turn away from punishment. Bring your sorrow to the One who gives hope.
