Lamentations 5

Introduction

We come today to the fifth and final chapter of the book of Lamentations. The writer — who may well have been Jeremiah the prophet — has been lamenting before the Lord, calling out to him because of everything that has happened to the writer himself and to the people of Jerusalem. The Babylonian army besieged the city and the siege went on for so long that there was a terrible famine in city; when the king and his men tried to escape, the Babylonians chased after them and captured them. The king’s sons were killed before his eyes and then his eyes were put out and he was taken away to Babylon. The Babylonians then overthrew the city. They destroyed the temple of the Lord and most of the houses in the city. They also tore down the city wall and they took the people into exile. The glory of Jerusalem was gone. The splendour of the city was thrown down to the ground. The city which was once so full of people became desolate; and instead of the sound of joy, there was only the sound of weeping. God’s great city was in ruins.

And, as we have seen, it happened because the Lord was angry with his people for their persistent sin and rebellion. Because of their many sins, he sent the Babylonians to punish them. But he punished them, not to destroy them, but in order that they might humble themselves before him, confess their sins, turn from them, and return to him. And if they returned to him, they would discover all over again that the Lord’s love for his people is from everlasting to everlasting. It does not cease. It does not run out. His anger lasts only for a moment, but his favour last a lifetime. It is for ever. And so, if they returned to him, they would discover that he was waiting for them to return to him so that he might freely pardon them for their sins.

And whenever we sin against the Lord and when we continue in it, without confessing it or turning from it, when we cherish our sins and hold on to them, the Lord may have to punish us. He may have to send trouble into our lives. But when he does so, it’s always for a good purpose. It’s so that we too will humble ourselves and confess our sins and turn from them and return to him. And when we return to him, he will freely pardon us and remove his rod from our back. And God is able to forgive his people because of Christ our Saviour who came into the world as one of us and who gave up his life on the cross to pay for our sins and shortcomings and who shed his blood to cleanse us of our guilt. By the sacrifice of himself he has established a lasting peace for us with God so that 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.

As we turn now to chapter 5, you get a sense that the book is winding down. In fact the book began to wind down in chapter 4, because chapter 4 was shorter than chapters 1 to 3. And chapter 5 is even shorter than chapter 4. So, while it contains twenty-two verses, like chapters 1 and 2 and 4, the verses are shorter. Furthermore, while the previous chapters were acrostic, so that each verse began with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet, chapter 5 is not acrostic, because the twenty-two verses do not begin with successive letters of the alphabet. And so, the lack of the acrostic style, and the shorter verses suggests that the book is winding down to an end.

But chapter 5 completes the book by supplying something that was missing from chapter 4, but which appeared in chapters 1 to 3. Chapter 1 to 3 all ended with a prayer. If you’ve got your Bible open, turn to verse 20 of chapter 1, where the writer prays: ‘See, O Lord, how distressed I am!’ And the prayer continues to the end of the chapter. Then take a look at verse 20 of chapter 2, where the writer prays: ‘Look, O Lord, and consider….’ And the prayer continues to the end of the chapter. Now, look at verse 58 of chapter 3, where he prays: ‘O Lord, you took up my case; you redeemed my life….’ And the prayer continues to the end of the chapter. But take a look at the end of chapter 4 now. How does it end? It ends with the writer addressing the Edomites and the people of Jerusalem: ‘Rejoice and be glad, O Daughter of Edom’ and ‘O Daughter of Zion, your punishment will end….’ Chapter 1 ended with a prayer. Chapter 2 ended with a prayer. Chapter 3 ended with a prayer. Where’s chapter 4’s closing prayer? Well, chapter 4’s closing prayer is the whole of chapter 5. Chapter 5 begins: ‘Remember, O Lord, what has happened to us….’ The whole of chapter 5 is a prayer which closes chapter 4 and which closes the whole of the book.

The chapter can be divided into two main parts: verses 1 to 18 and then verses 19 to 22. At the beginning of the first main part, he mentions God’s name. He says: ‘Remember, O Lord, what has happened to us….’ And at the beginning of the second main part, he also mentions God’s name: ‘You, O Lord, reign for ever….’ He goes on to mention God’s name again in verse 21: ‘Restore us to yourself, O Lord, that we may return….’ As we’ve seen before, he’s using God’s special covenant name, which appears in our English Bibles as Lord in capital letters. It speaks to us of God’s commitment to his people. He has bound himself to his people with a promise to be their God and to take care of them always. And it’s fitting that the writer should use God’s special covenant name, because, when we’re suffering, when we’re struggling, when life’s troubles and trials and afflictions are getting on top of us, we need to remember that our God is committed to us. He has bound himself to us. And, despite our troubles, he hasn’t stopped loving us, because he has promised to love us for ever. And so, since our God loves us with an everlasting love, then he must have some good and loving reason for sending this trouble into our lives. And when the time is right, or when he has accomplished his purpose, he will bring the trouble to an end. We can be sure of it, because he is the Lord our God and nothing can separate us from his love for us in Christ Jesus.

Verse 1 to 18

In verse 1 he asks the Lord to remember what has happened to his people. He then asks the Lord to look and see their disgrace. When he asks the Lord to remember, he’s really asking the Lord to remember to act on their behalf, because of what has happened to them. So, look at what has happened to them and look at the way they have been disgraced, with their enemies taunting them and mocking them and insulting them. See what has befallen us! And remember to act on our behalf! That is to say, remember to act in accordance with your covenant promise to be our God and to take care of us. Take away our disgrace and our misery, because we’re counting on you, the Lord our God. We’re counting on your commitment to us and on the fact that you, the Lord, never lie and you’re always faithful to yourself and to your promises.

And then the writer describes once again their suffering. And as we read through this chapter, we get the sense that the city fell a while go and they’re now living in the aftermath of the invasion. So, most of the people have been taken away to Babylon and the writer is describing for us what life was like for those who remained. And it’s clear that life was hard.

And so, he says in verse 2 that their inheritance has been turned over to aliens and their homes to foreigners. Once of the nice things about Hebrew poetry is that you have these parallel lines and if one line isn’t clear, the next one is often clearer. So, what does he mean when he says that their inheritance has been turned over to aliens? He means that their homes have been turned over to foreigners. The Lord had given them their homes, and the land on which their homes were built, as an inheritance which they were to pass on from one generation to the next. If anyone ever fell into debt and had to sell their home and land, there was always the opportunity to receive it back again during the Year of Jubilee when debts were cancelled and property was returned. But now, because of what has happened, their homes and land have been handed over to foreigners. The Babylonians have taken possession of their homes and land. He’s probably thinking, not of Jerusalem, but of the land throughout Judah. Babylon took over all of it. The whole of Judah was now owned and controlled by aliens and foreigners instead of by families.

And in verse 3 he says that they have become orphans and fatherless and their mothers have become widows. He means that the children have become orphans because their fathers have either been killed or taken away into exile. And the women have become widows for the same reason: their husbands have either been killed or exiled. And that meant that they had become weak and vulnerable and penniless, because in those days the men were the ones who provided for their children and wives. And so, they were defenceless. They were destitute.

And verse 4 highlights for us how things were so very different now, because once they would collect water from a well for free and they could gather wood for themselves in the forests. But now they’re required to pay for their water and for the wood they need for fire. So, do you remember how the Lord used to describe the land as flowing with milk and honey? The land of Canaan was depicted as an Eden-like land where they would have all that they needed. But now the people are poor and they are in need and they’re kept from enjoying the produce of the land and they have to buy daily necessities like water and fire-wood.

In verse 5 he mentions those who pursue them. And he says about them that they are at their heels, so that the people are weary and they have no rest. Their pursuers are really their persecutors who now possess their homes and rule the land. It’s not entirely clear that he means when he says that their persecutors are ‘at their heels’, but he must mean that they’re doing something to make them weary all the time. The Promised Land was to be a land of rest for them. When they were slaves in Egypt, they were given no rest, but had to work continually. But God promised to give them rest in the Promised Land. The land would produce food for them easily and they could rest every Sabbath Day. The land itself was to enjoy a Sabbath rest every seven years. And, of course, the rest they enjoyed in the land foreshadowed the eternal rest which all of God’s people will enjoy in the life to come. However, because of what had happened to Jerusalem and Judah, the people who were left had no rest. Because of their enemies, they were now weary.

In verse 6 he says that they submitted to Egypt and Assyria to get enough bread. It’s not clear what he means, but some commentators think he’s saying that they once entered into political alliances with Egypt and Assyria. For instance, in Isaiah 31, Isaiah mentions how they went down to Egypt for help. And in 2 Kings 16 we read how Ahaz the king of Judah looked to Assyria for help against the kings of Aram and Israel. However, whenever they looked to other nations for help, the prophets would remind them that they’re meant to trust in the Lord and not on pagan nations. They would remind them that the Lord is your shield. He is your rock and refuge. Trust in him and not in mortal men. But they did not listen and they turned from God to foreign nations.

And so, the writers speaks for the people in verse 7 and confesses before God that their fathers sinned against the Lord. He says that their fathers are now no more and we bear their punishment. He’s not saying that the present generation is innocent and the people are being punished unjustly for what their fathers once did. We know he’s not saying that, because later on in the chapter he’ll confess that the present generation is sinful. And so, what he probably means is that the present generation has repeated the sins of their fathers. Their fathers relied on pagan nations instead of the Lord; and the present generation has done likewise. But their fathers did not live long enough to see God’s punishment. After all, God was patient with them and he put up with their sin and unbelief for generations. But God has finally done what he said he would do and he’s punishing the present generation for their sins, which are the same sins as their fathers committed.

And so, slaves now rule over them. That’s in verse 8. He probably means that the Babylonians have appointed people to rule over Judah. So, people who serve Babylon are ruling over them. And there’s nothing they can do about it.

In verse 9 he says that they get their bread at the risk of their lives because of the sword in the desert. So, when they go out to find food, they face danger. And their skin is hot as an oven, because they’re suffering from some kind of hunger-induced fever.

So, they’re oppressed by the Babylonians and by those whom the Babylonians have appointed over them. Their farms have been taken from them. They have to pay for water and wood. Food is scarce. Searching for food is dangerous. As a result they are sick and tired and weary. A long time before all of this happened, in the days of Solomon, each man sat under his own vine and fig tree and enjoyed peace and prosperity and contentment. But their lives were very different now.

In verses 11 to 14 he mentions what has happened to the women and to the princes and elders and to the young men. Women, he says, have been ravished in Zion. He means they have been raped. And the same thing has happened to the young women or virgins in the towns of Judah. So, the Lord’s holy land has become unholy and unsafe. Princes, or rulers, have been hung up by their hands. It’s not clear, but perhaps they have been hung up to die. And the elders, who should have been treated with respect, are shown no respect. Young men, he says, toil at the millstones and boys stagger under loads of wood. Millstones were used to grind flour and grinding was a hard job which involved lifting these large millstones and turning them around and around. In the past, servants or slaves would have been given this job to do. But now the young men are being treated like slaves and they are made to do this work. And boys, who should be playing, are also working as slaves.

In verse 14 he says that the elders are gone from the city gate. They used to gather there to conduct business and to discuss and debate important issues. But they have gone. Maybe they are dead. Or maybe they have been exiled. Or the ones who are left perhaps don’t go out anymore because no-one shows them any respect. And the young men used to get together to play music. But that has stopped too.

Life in Jerusalem and in Judah has become joyless. It is bleak. And it is dangerous. And so, he says in verse 15 that the joy has gone from their hearts. Their dancing has turned into mourning. And the crown has fallen from their heads. He’s perhaps referring to a garland or — we might say — a party hat. They no longer wear such things, because no one is going to parties. Or perhaps he’s referring to the king’s crown. It has fallen from the king who was the head of the nation.

And this is where our writer — speaking on behalf of the people — confesses that they have sinned. So, in his prayer to the Lord, he not only describes their suffering, but he also confesses their sinfulness. He’s acknowledging that they have done wrong. Instead of walking in the ways of the Lord, they have gone astray. And when they should have given up their sins, they continued in them. But it now seems that finally they are doing what they should have done before, and they are confessing their guilt before the Lord.

What did David write in Psalm 32? ‘When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me.’ Before he confessed his sin, God’s hand was on him to discipline him. But as soon as David confessed his sin, God forgave the guilt of his sin. And God’s hand was heavy on the people of Jerusalem and Judah. His hand was very heavy on them and he caused them to suffer terribly. But our writer’s confession in verse 16 shows us that God’s method has worked. He has punished them, not because he hates them and wants to destroy them. He punished them in order to humble them so that they would confess their sin and turn from it and discover all over again that the Lord their God is compassionate and gracious and slow to anger and abounding in love and he does not always accuse and he does not harbour his anger for ever. In fact, when we confess our sins, he is willing to remove them from us as far as the east is from the west. He remembers them no more. And he restores to us the joy of our salvation.

Woe to us, the writer says, for we have sinned. Because of this, he says, or because of our sins and what God has done to us, our hearts are faint and our eyes grow dim. Mount Zion, the city of God, lies desolate. Jackals prowl over it, because there is no one to chase them away. But now that they have confessed their sin, this will all change. It will all change, because when we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us. Light will dawn on Jerusalem, because the people have confessed their guilt. God will lift his hand from them. He will put away his rod. He will pick them up and dry their eyes. God’s anger lasts only a moment, but his favour lasts a lifetime.

And we need to believe this too. Since we’re sinners, we sin against the Lord continually. And since we sin against the Lord continually, then we must confess our sins continually and turn from them continually. Every day we need to confess our sins and ask for his forgiveness. But since we’re sinners, we often cherish our sins. We hold on to them. We do not want to give them up.

And God our Father is patient with us. He does not punish us immediately, but he puts up with our waywardness. But when we continue in our sin, then the time will come when he may discipline us. He may punish us in this life (but never in the life to come!) He may lay his hand on us and cause us to suffer. But as soon as we humble ourselves before him and confess our sin and turn from it, he’s willing to pardon us all over again, because his steadfast love for his people is never-ending and his favour lasts a lifetime and he’s always willing to forgive us, because of Christ who died to make a lasting peace for us with God.

Verses 19 to 22

And so, we come to the second main part of chapter 15 and to the final verses of this book. And our writer once again uses God’s special covenant name, which is Lord in capital letters. And he says about the Lord our God that he reigns for ever and his throne endures from generation to generation. That’s in verse 19. And then, in verse 21, he mentions the Lord again, where he asks the Lord to restore us to himself. And I think we’re to take these two verses — verse 19 and verse 21 — together, because the writer addresses the Lord in both verses. So, they are in parallel with one another and in both verses he cries out, ‘O Lord’.

And so, let’s take verse 19 first. And there are two things to say about this one verse. The first thing to say about verse 19 is that, since God reigns for ever, then what has happened to Jerusalem and Judah was under his control. It happened because of him and according to his will. In fact, everything that happens in the world happens according to his will, because he’s the Most High God who rules and reigns in heaven over all that he has made. And that means it was was God’s will for the Babylonians to conquer Jerusalem and to take the people into exile.

And yet here’s the thing: just as God sent his people into exile, so he was able, by his mighty power, to bring his people back from exile. And so, we read at the end of 2 Chronicles that, in the first year of Cyrus King of Persia, God moved his heart to make a proclamation throughout his realm saying that God’s people may return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. The Lord, who reigns for ever, gave the order and his people were sent home.

And the lesson for us is that whatever happens to us, whatever trouble we face, comes to us, not by chance, but by God’s mighty hand. He is in control of our lives. And just as he is able to send adversity in our lives, so he’s also able to send peace into our lives when the time is right. All the events and circumstances of our lives are under the control of the Lord our God, whose love for us is everlasting and who has bound himself to us with a promise to be our God and to take care of us always.

And since the Lord our God is in control of all things, then we can be patient in adversity, grateful in the midst of blessing, and we can trust in him for the future.

So, that’s the first thing to say about verse 19. The second is this: the writer is lifting his thoughts above the desolation of Jerusalem to the throne of God in heaven. He’s lifting his thoughts to heaven, where God is seated on his throne and where the angels surround him and are worshipping him; and it’s where God’s faithful people who have gone before us are gathered.

In John’s vision of heaven in Revelation 7, he saw this great multitude of people which no one could count from every nation. And they’re worshipping the Lord who is seated on his throne. And someone explained to John that the multitude he saw in heaven are all those who have come out of the great tribulation. In other words, they are believers who have died. And by dying, they have left behind all the trials and tribulations of this life, all the sorrow and sadness, all the pain and misery which we experience continually. They have come out of it and they have left it behind and they have now come into the perfect peace of heaven where they worship the Lord and give thanks to him always.

The writer of Lamentations was surrounded by desolation. He was surrounded by God’s people who were suffering unbearably. But in verse 19 he looked above the desolation and the tribulation all around him and he fixed his thoughts on heaven, where God is enthroned as king and where God’s people are safe and secure and where they are waiting for the resurrection of their bodies and everlasting life in the new and better world to come, where they will be no more tears ever again. And so, he’s thinking about the great hope which God gives to all of his people and which Christ our Saviour has secured for us by his life and death and resurrection for us and for our salvation.

And whenever we’re suffering, we should do as the writer did and lift our thoughts above the tribulations of this world and we should comfort ourselves with the hope of eternal life in the presence of God, where God will wipe away our tears and we’ll be happy and safe for ever.

That’s verse 19. Now let’s think about verse 21, where the writer cries out to the Lord a second time. And he cries out to the Lord to restore us to himself so that we may return. In other words, he’s asking the Lord to enable his people to repent. You see, not only must we confess our sins, as the writer did in verse 16, but we must also turn from them and we must return to the Lord. But the ability to repent, the power to turn from our sins, must come from the Lord, because none of us is able to give up our sins without the help of the Lord. And he helps us by sending his Spirit into our lives to renew our hearts so that we will hate our sins and we will want to do what’s right.

And so, the writer asks the Lord to restore us to himself. He’s saying: Restore us so that we will be restored. Turn us so that we will turn. Cause us to repent so that we will repent. He’s saying to the Lord: We have wandered away from you into sin. But now we want to turn from our sin and return to you. But we can only turn if you help us. So, will you help us?

And that brings us to verse 20 and to verse 22. He asks in verse 20: ‘Why do you always forget us? Why do you forsake us so long?’ And then he says in verse 22: ‘unless you have rejected us and are angry with us beyond measure’. So, has God forgotten his people for ever? Has he forsaken them completely? Has he rejected them for ever? Is he angry with them beyond measure?

How would you answer him? What would you say to the writer of Lamentations if you could speak to him? This is what I would say to him: Yes, you’re surrounded by desolation and destruction, which God has brought about because of your many sins. But God has not rejected you for ever. He is not angry with you beyond measure. In seventy years time, he will issue the order and the exiles will be set free from their captivity and they will be allowed to return to Jerusalem. And with the Lord’s help, they will rebuild the city of Jerusalem and live in it again. And then, when the time is right, God will send his Only-Begotten Son to Jerusalem to save you and to save all his people from the guilt of your sins.

So, yes, you have sinned and done wickedly. However, because of God’s great love, he will send his Son to pay for your sins with his life. Yes, God has been angry with you. However, because of his great love, he will send his Son to make peace for you with him. Yes, God has been angry with you. But he will not always forget you, and he will not forsake you for ever and he will not reject you completely and he will not be angry for ever, because he is going to send his Son to Jerusalem save you and to save all his people in every nation by suffering for you in Jerusalem, so that all of God’s people in every generation will be restored to him for ever to enjoy perfect peace and rest in the new Jerusalem to come.