Lamentations 3

Introduction

This is now our third week in the book of Lamentations, where the author, who may have been Jeremiah, is lamenting before the Lord because of what happened to Jerusalem in 587 BC. Let me once again remind you what happened in case you’ve forgotten or weren’t here.

In 2 Kings 23, we read that the southern kingdom of Judah became subject to Egypt. Shortly after that, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, invaded the land and Judah became subject to Babylon. At that time, Nebuchadnezzar removed all the treasures from the temple and from the royal palace and he took away all the gold articles that Solomon had made for the temple and for the worship of the Lord. And as well as taking these treasures and articles, Nebuchadnezzar also took away all the officers and fighting men and all the craftsmen and artisans. Only the poorest people were left. Judah was stripped of its best people and its wealth.

Zedekiah, the king of Judah, rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar. And so, Nebuchadnezzar sent his army to lay siege to Jerusalem. The siege lasted from the ninth to the eleventh year of Zedekiah’s reign and the people inside the city suffered terribly when they ran out of food. The king and his army tried to flee, but they were captured by the Babylonians. The palace and temple were then destroyed along with most of the houses in the city and the city wall. Most of the remaining people were taken into exile and the high priest and other officials were executed.

Jerusalem, the city of God, was left in ruins. Back in 1 Kings, people from all over the world came to see Solomon and they marvelled at the city and its buildings and Solomon’s wealth and wisdom. The Queen of Sheba visited and said:

The report I heard in my own country about your achievements and your wisdom is true. But I did not believe these things until I came and saw with my own eyes. Indeed, not even half was told me; in wisdom and wealth you have far exceeded the report I heard. How happy your men must be! How happy your officials, who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom!

How happy his men must be, because they get to stand in the presence of Solomon each day and to live in this fabulous city and kingdom. However, by the end of 2 Kings, it was all in ruins. The people in the northern kingdom of Israel had gone into exile to Assyria. Now the people in the southern kingdom of Judah had gone into exile to Babylon. And the city of Jerusalem was in ruins.

And the writer of Lamentations laments before the Lord. He calls on the Lord because of their sorrow and suffering. He said in verse 1 of chapter 1: ‘How deserted lies the city, once so full of people.’ Once it was full of people who lived there and who worshipped there. But now it was deserted. The streets were empty. No one gathered at the city gates. Instead of the sound of joy and celebrations, there was only the sound of weeping. And throughout the first part of chapter 2, the writer made clear that the Lord was the one who had brought this sorrow and suffering on Jerusalem. He covered the city with the cloud of his anger. He hurled down the splendour of Israel. He swallowed up all their dwellings. He tore down their strongholds. He brought the kingdom and its princes down to nothing. In his fierce anger, he cut off every horn or leader in Israel.

The Lord had done it. He had afflicted them. And why had he afflicted them? Back to chapter 1: ‘The Lord has brought her grief because of her many sins.’ From the very beginning, God’s people were sinfully inclined to disobey him. And he was very patient with them, because again and again he sent them prophets to summon them to repent and to warn them about what he would do if they continued in their sin and rebellion. Sometimes the people listened and they returned to the Lord. But more and more they failed to listen and their hearts were hard and they refused to repent. And so, eventually the Lord did what he said he would do and first he sent the Assyrians to invade the northern kingdom of Israel; and then he sent the Babylonians to invade and conquer the southern kingdom of Judah. Jerusalem was destroyed and the people were exiled.

God was the one who afflicted them. He brought grief on Jerusalem. And he afflicted them like this because of their many sins and their persistent rebellion. If they have repented, they would have discovered that the Lord is gracious and merciful and slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and he does not treat us as our sins deserves, because he’s willing to remove our sins from us as far as the east is from the west. But because they did not repent, the Lord was angry with them and he punished them.

And so, as I’ve said before, Job’s suffering is not the only suffering we read about in the Bible. Job hadn’t done anything to deserve his suffering. He did not suffer for doing wrong, but for doing right; and the devil hated him and wanted to destroy his faith. That’s one kind of suffering. But sometimes people suffer for doing what is wrong and for not confessing their sins or turning from them. When we continue in sin, without confessing it or turning from it, God may cause us to suffer in this life in order to humble us so that we will return to him. And the moment we do, the moment we humble ourselves and return to God in repentance and faith, he’s willing to remove the hand of discipline from us and to forgive us and to restore our joy. As we were thinking about last week, the Lord’s anger towards his people last only a moment, whereas his favour last a lifetime. The writer wrote about the day of the Lord’s anger. It lasts a day. It is short-lived. It is brief. It is temporary. But his love for his people is from everlasting to everlasting. And so, even though we have offended him, he continues to love us and he’s waiting for us, longing for us, to return to him so that he can forgive us and restore our joy.

How do we know he loves us? We know he loves us because he sent his Son to die for us and for our salvation. And since he loved us like that, not sparing his Son, but giving him up for us, then how will he not also, along with Christ, give us all that we need?

I’ve said before that chapters 1 and 2 were two acrostic poems which means that each of the 22 verses begins with successive letters from the Hebrew alphabet. Chapter 3 is also an acrostic poem, but it’s more complex because each of the first three verses begins with the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet; and each of the the next three verses begins with the second letter and so on. And so, chapter 3 contains 66 verses which is 22 times 3. And it’s not only different because of the number of verses. It’s different because of the hope it contains in verses 21 to 24 where the writer says:

Remember my affliction and my wandering,
the bitterness and the gall.
I well remember them,
and my soul is downcast within me.
Yet this I call to mind
and therefore I have hope:
Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.

Think of someone who is lost in the ocean and he’s being tossed up and down by the waves; and again and again he’s plunged under the water and he’s sure he’s going to drown. But then he comes across a rock to cling to. And now he has hope. And the writer is pouring out his sorrow. He’s describing his suffering. It’s too much for him. It’s overwhelming. He cannot continue. But then he discovers a rock on which to stand.

Verses 1 to 24

Let’s turn to verses 1 to 24 of Lamentations 3. And, as I mentioned last week, when I read through the book of Lamentations thirty or more years ago, my former self, or my younger self, highlighted with a red pencil the words ‘he has’ in verses 1 to 18. He has driven me away and made me walk in darkness rather than light. He has turned his hand against me again and again. He has made my skin and my flesh grow old and has broken my bones. He has besieged me and surrounded me. He has made me dwell in darkness like those long dead. Who has done all these things to the writer? God has done it. The Lord has done it.

That was the point in chapter 2 as well, wasn’t it? God was the one who made Jerusalem suffer. He had attacked them like an enemy. He had turned on them in his fierce anger. And the writer is making the same point in chapter 3. But there’s a difference, isn’t there? There’s a difference. In chapter 2 he described the suffering of Jerusalem. He described the suffering of the people. In chapter 3, he’s describing his own personsal suffering. And so, he begins the chapter with the words, ‘I am the man who has seen affliction’. Chapter 2 was about the suffering of the city. Chapter 3 is about his own personal suffering.

So, God has driven me away. God has made me walk in darkness. God has turned his hand against me. He has made my skin and my flesh grow old. He has besieged, not the city, but me. He has made me dwell in darkness. He has walled me in. And so on. This is personal suffering.

And he uses different images to describe what God has done to him. So, in verse 5, God is like an advancing army which was besieged him. In verse 7 God was walled him in. God has imprisoned him so that he can’t escape from his suffering. God has barred his way and made his paths crooked. It’s as if God has placed him in a maze and he can find his way out. In verse 10 he likens the Lord to a bear and lion, lying in wait to attack him. In fact, God has mangled him. He has torn him into pieces as a lion might do to its prey. God is like an archer who has drawn his bow and fired at him. And so, God has pierced his heart with arrows from his quiver. And then, in verse 14, he says that he has become a laughing-stock. People mock him. And God has filled him with bitter herbs and sated him with gall. Gall is a bitter-tasking drink. So, his only food and drink is bitter. It’s unpleasant.

In verse 16 he says that God has broken his teeth with gravel. He perhaps means that he’s been eating scraps of food which he found in the dirt. And so, when he chews it, he can feel bits of stone which he picked up my mistake with the scraps. He says God has trampled him in the dust. And he’s been deprived of peace and he’s forgotten what prosperity is. He’s forgotten what it’s like to have money in his pocket and to be able to buy nice things to eat and nice clothes to wear. It’s been so long since he had peace and prosperity that he’s forgotten what it’s like. And so, he says, ‘My splendour is gone.’ In chapter 2, he said that the splendour of Israel had been hurled down. Now he says that his own splendour has gone. His hopes and dreams have gone. This is personal suffering. He’s writing about his own sorrow. His own pain. His own trouble. No doubt it represents the suffering of all in Jerusalem. But the focus is on what he is suffering personally.

The NIV translates the beginning of verse 19 as: ‘I remember my affliction and my wanderings, the bitterness and the gall.’ However, it’s perhaps more likely that it should be translated as a request to God. So, he’s calling on the Lord, asking God to remember his affliction and wanderings and his bitterness and gall. In other words, he’s asking God to remember to act on his behalf because of his affliction. He’s saying to God: Take note of my suffering and help me!

He himself remembers his suffering all too well, because every moment of every day he’s aware of what he’s going through. He can’t forget, because the pain and sorrow is constant. And therefore his soul is downcast. That is to say, he is downcast. He is cast down. He is bowed down. He is being crushed by his suffering.

And that’s when he discovers a rock to stand on. That’s when he finds a reason for hope. This is signified by the word ‘Yet’ or ‘But’. Yes, I’m suffering pain all day long. And yet…. And yet … this I call to mind and therefore I have hope. His outlook changes because of what he has called to mind. His perspective has changed because of what he has remembered. His mood has lifted because of what he has just thought of.

And what has he just brought to mind and remembered? He’s remembered the character of God. He’s remembered what the Lord is like. He’s remembered that the Lord his God is a God of love. The Hebrew word translated ‘great love’ is hesed, which is God’s steadfast love, his faithful love, his never-ending love. It’s his covenant love for his people. So, God has bound himself to his people with a promise to be their God and to love them. When a man is married, he promises and covenants to be a loving husband to his wife. And God has promised and covenanted to be a loving God to his people. And because of God’s great love for his people they were not consumed. Yes, they were beaten. They were afflicted. They were exiled. But they were not consumed. They were not destroyed. They were not wiped out. God kept them alive. And he kept them alive because of his covenant love for them. And so, when they were in exile, he helped them. And when the time was right, he brought them out of Babylon and back to the Promised Land. Because of God’s covenant love for them, they were not consumed or destroyed.

And God’s compassions, or God’s mercies, they never fail. They never come to an end. God’s compassions, or his mercies, are his acts of compassion. They are the things he does to help his people in their distress. And so, the writer is saying that God’s willingness to help his people never ends. He’s always willing to help his people. He’s always helping us. As David says in Psalm 23, God’s goodness and mercy follow us, they pursue us, all the days of our life.

If it weren’t for God’s acts of compassion, the people would have been consumed. They would have been destroyed because of their sin and rebellion. But because God’s acts of compassion never run out, he kept them alive.

In verse 23 he says that God’s acts of compassion are new every morning. When the Israelites were in the wilderness, there was new manna for them every morning. And the manna was a sign of God’s faithful provision. He was always going to care for them. And the writer of Lamentation has remembered the same thing about God: God’s acts of love and mercy are new every morning. He’s willing to help his people every day. He helps us today. And he’ll help us tomorrow. And he’ll help us the next day and on and on and on throughout our life. We can always count on the Lord our God, whose faithfulness is great. His commitment to his people is great. If it weren’t for God’s faithfulness to them, they would have been consumed, destroyed by the Babylonians. But they have not been destroyed. They are still alive. God has kept them and God will continue to keep them because of his steadfast love and his compassion and his faithfulness.

The writer has found a rock on which to stand. He has found a reason for hopefulness. And his reason for hopefulness is the character of the Lord, because the Lord is abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.

Well, no doubt next Sunday we’ll be singing ‘Great is thy faithfulness’ at one of our harvest thanksgiving services. And it’s easy to sing of God’s faithfulness when we’re all well-dressed and well-fed and when we have all that we need. But the writer of Lamentations had nothing. His city was in ruins. His life was in ruins. And he knew that God had done it, because of the sins of the people. And that’s when he, as it were, took out his faith and be began to use it. I’ve spoken about this before, when we were thinking about that story in Luke’s gospel when the disciples were in the boat that was caught in the storm. And afterwards, the Lord asked them, ‘Where is your faith?’ They all had faith, but they weren’t using it. And when you’re suffering, you need to take out your faith and use it. You need to call to mind God’s steadfast love. You need to remember his compassions. You need to think about his faithfulness. And when you do that, when you take out your faith and use it, then you will have hope even though you’re suffering. You can keep going, because you know that your God loves you; and that he will help you in the midst of your suffering; and that he will bring it to an end when the right time has come.

The writer says to himself in verse 24: ‘The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.’ The people of Israel received land as their portion. That means they earned their living from the land. However, the Levites, who served in the tabernacle and temple, were told that the Lord was their portion. That meant God would look after them and provide for them. He would give them what they needed for life. And so, the writer is saying to us in verse 24 that the Lord will take care of us. And since that’s true, we should wait for his help. We should trust the Lord to give us what we need. We will not panic or worry or be in despair, because, when the time is right, he will help us.

When the time is right, he will help you. So, wait for him. Hope in him. Trust in him. He’s abounding in steadfast love. He’s full of compassion. He’s faithful. Take out your faith and use it. Trust in him.

Verses 25 to 42

From verse 25 to verse 42, the writer gives us advice. He tells us what we should do, given God’s steadfast love and compassions and faithfulness.

And so, we should hope in him and we should seek him. That is, we should seek his help. And we should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. That is, we should wait for him to deliver us from our trouble. We should also bear the Lord’s yoke, which means we should submit to God’s will for us. Our trouble has come from him ultimately. He has decreed it for us. And though we may not understand it, we believe he has sent it to us for our good, whether it’s to discipline us for our sins or whether it’s to keep us from wandering from him; or whether it’s to test our faith or for another reason. God uses our trials for our good and so we should bear his yoke and submit to his will.

And so, sit in silence, bury your face in the dust, offer your cheek to your opponent. He means you’re to put up with what God has decreed for you, because the Lord is not your enemy, but your friend and he has sent these trials for your good. As the writer says in verse 31, God does not cast off his people for ever. Though he brings grief, he will also show you compassion. He does not willingly bring affliction. He does not take pleasure in it. He does not delight in punishing. He only punishes his people when it’s necessary and when it’s for our good.

In verses 34 to 36 he refers to three things of which the Lord disapproves. And presumably these are things which the writer had suffered at the hands of the Babylonians. So, he had been crushed underfoot. He had been denied his rights. He had been deprived of justice. However, he goes on to say in verses 37 that these things would not have happened to him if the Lord had not decreed it. But God had decreed these things for him because of his many sins.

And since that’s how the Lord dealt with him, then that means that when you suffer, you should examine yourself. This is the writer’s advice to us in verse 40. So, let us examine ourselves to see whether we need to return to the Lord and whether we need to confess our sins and to ask for his forgiveness. If we have unconfessed sins, then we need to lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven and say to him, ‘We have sinned and rebelled and you have not forgiven’. And I think what he means is: ‘We have sinned and rebelled and you have not forgiven, because we hadn’t turned from our sin. But now that we have confessed it and turned from it, will you now forgive us?’

So, when God has afflicted us because of our unconfessed sin, we need to confess it to him. And when we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all that is not right in our lives. And God is able to forgive us and cleanse us because of Christ our Saviour, who came into the world as one of us and who died on the cross in our place to pay for our sins with his life and to cleanse us of our guilt with his blood.

King David said in Psalm 32 that when he was silent — when he did not confess his sins — his bones wasted away and he groaned all day long, because God’s hand was heavy upon him. But then, when he acknowledged his sin, and did not cover it up, and confessed it, God forgave him. That’s what we’re to do. When there’s unconfessed sin in our lives, when we continue in sin without confessing it or turning from it, God may discipline us. But the moment we confess it, he pardons us for the sake of Christ who died for us.

Verses 43 to 66

Some commentators think that the prayer of confession which the writer wants the people to offer to God continues into verse 43 and beyond. The NIV assumes that’s the case and it continues to put the words after verse 42 in quotation marks as if this is the content of the prayer.

However, some commentators believe — and I’m inclined to agree with them — that the prayer which the writer wants the people to say has ended. And so, from verse 43, the writer goes back to addressing the Lord as he did at the beginning of the chapter. That means his advice to us is now over and instead of offering us advice, he’s once again describing his own suffering in verses 43 to 54 which culminates in him being thrown into a pit and left to die. But then, in verse 55, he says that he called on the Lord. And God heard his plea. God drew near to him and told him not to be afraid. And so, the Lord took up his case and the Lord redeemed his life. That is to say, God delivered him from the pit.

And in the following verses, he asks the Lord to pay back his enemies. So, he says in verse 61 that the Lord has heard their insults and their plots against him. God has heard the things they have whispered about him. And then he says in verse 64: ‘Pay them back what they deserve, O Lord, for what their hands have done.’ He goes on to say: ‘Pursue them in anger and destroy them from under the heavens of the Lord.’

I think what he’s doing in these verses is that he’s referring to the Babylonians. Up until this point, he’s been saying that God’s people have sinned and God has been angry with them. And up until this point, he’s been counting on God’s covenant love for his people and God willingness to forgive his people when they repent. But now, in these final verses of chapter 3, he’s writing about the Babylonians. They are not God’s covenant people. They are pagans who do not know the Lord or worship him. And he’s asking God to punish them for the evil things they have done.

And what he’s asking the Lord to do to the Babylonians points forward to that great and terrible day of the Lord, when the Lord will come in the person of his Son to judge the living and the dead and to condemn and punish the wicked for their wickedness and to send them away from his presence for ever. All who have repented from their sins in this life and who have trusted in Christ for forgiveness will be spared on that day. They will be acquitted and not condemned, because Christ was condemned in their place. But all who refused to repent in this life and who never trusted in Christ for salvation will receive from the Lord what they deserve, which is everlasting punishment.

Conclusion

But before we finish, let me point out one more thing from this passage. We’ve seen that much of this chapter is about the suffering of the writer himself. It’s been about his own personal suffering. It’s been about the suffering of one man, who suffered because of the anger of the Lord. It’s been about one man who has seen affliction. One man who cried for help, but his prayer was shut out. One man whose heart was pierced. One man who became a laughing-stock and who was mocked. One man who was given gall to drink. One man whose splendour was taken away. One man who trusted in God’s steadfast love and mercy and who taught the people to return to the Lord with repentance and faith. One man who was thrown into a pit. One man who was rescued from the pit, because the Lord took up his case.

The one man we read about in chapter 3 foreshadows the Lord Jesus Christ, who — though he is God’s Only Begotten Son — came down to earth as one of us and became the man who has seen affliction, when he took upon himself our sin and guilt and bore the punishment of God in our place. On the cross, men mocked him and gave him bitter gall to drink and his heart was pierced. And so, he went down to the pit of death. But God his Father took up his case and redeemed his life from the pit so that he was raised from the dead to live for ever. And through the preaching of his word, he calls on sinners everywhere to repent and believe the good news of salvation. And when the time is right, he will return to judge all people and he’ll condemn and punish his enemies for ever, but he will give eternal life to all who trust in his name.

And all who trust in his name will enjoy eternal life in the new and better city of Jerusalem to come, where there will be no more crying or sorrow or suffering or pain, but only perfect peace and rest and happiness for ever; where all of God’s people will see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ our Saviour. And we will worship him for ever and for ever, because he was pierced for our transgressions and he was crushed for our iniquities and the punishment that brought us everlasting peace was upon him.