Lamentations 3 - 12.16.25
Scripture - I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of the Lord’s wrath. He has driven me away and made me walk in the darkness rather than light… I have been deprived of peace; I have forgotten what prosperity is. So I say, “My splendor is gone and all that I had hoped from the Lord.” … 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. I say to myself “The Lord is my portion; therefore, I will wait for Him.” The Lord is good to those whose hope is in Him, to the one who seeks Him; It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.
Lamentations 3:1-2,17-18, 22-26
Observation - This lament, written by the weeping prophet Jeremiah, is often quoted usually just the “Your compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” I believe this does that scripture a disservice because it doesn’t always acknowledge the great amount of pain it took Jeremiah to come to that conclusion. Jeremiah is prophesying during a dark time. All of Israel has turned their backs not only on Him but on the Lord by choosing to serve idols, their own greed, and then raising up false prophets to speak good and happy things thinking they could avoid the judgement of the Lord. They went into exile because they were unfaithful. They were stripped of their homeland because they had perverted the very soil the Lord had given them to harvest. They were led into captivity by the Lord to be punished. But the Lord did promise that if they went willingly, He would restore them. This lament is obviously written from the perspective of the prophet who had endured much for the sake of his calling. Jeremiah had been beaten, imprisoned, placed in stocks, mocked and threatened by the people. Jeremiah was told by God he could take no wife, have no children, he couldn’t even mourn or celebrate with the people of Israel. I imagine his duty left him unimaginably lonely but he always knew he had the Lord.
“Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm: “Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me. Would you discredit My justice? Would you condemn Me to justify yourself? Do you have an arm like God’s, and can your voice thunder like His? Then adorn yourself with glory and splendor, and clothe yourself with honor and majesty. Unleash the fury of your wrath..” Job 40:6-11a
“Your statutes are my heritage forever; they are the joy of my heart. My heart is set on keeping your decrees to the very end” Psalm 119: 111-112
Application - In my own life I have suffered quite a bit. Walking into my calling after becoming a Christian was no easy feat for me. I was often isolated from others, and dealt with a great deal of loneliness is some seasons. Because of that I did, at one point, slip away from the church. I was led into a darkness by my own mistakes that lasted well over a year. But I never stopped calling on the Lord. It was because of Him that I was not completely consumed by the darkness. It is because of the desolate experience I had I can truly say “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for Him.” God is faithful and He does hear us when we cry. Often times the question isn’t whether or not He can hear you (I assure you He can) but the questions should be “Is this a darkness He has led me into? Is this a storm the Lord has whipped up? Is this feeling of being held captive going to bring alive the true meaning of the promise Jeremiah 29 “I know the plans I have for you a plan to prosper you..” We cannot lose hope in the Lord. If there’s one thing I have learned reading the words of Jeremiah it’s that a lot of the promises were made to give hope in a time where the Lord had to strip away everything to bring His people to repentance. The bible is full of hope for us all when we can humble ourselves, admit most of our sufferings can refine us, and some of the dark places we are trying to avoid can be walked into, hand in hand, with the Lord remembering He is always with us, but a Father who loves His children must discipline them. When the Lord comes to prune us it hurts. He removed things from us that we once relied on more than Him to show us Himself in greater measure. A plant does not fight the gardener to keep dead fruit; it yields to the shearers because it knows pruning produces more healthy fruit. Yield to His shears knowing this will produce good fruit and implanted in your heart can be “…His compassions never fail. They are new every morning.”
Prayer:
Blessed are you Lord in all that You do. For who can counsel the Lord? You are great and mighty are Your ways. Your ways are not our ways, and Your thoughts not our thoughts. We will never be able to fully comprehend why you do the things you do, but we should have hope in Your promise to see us to the other side. Lord Your word in Hebrews 11:1 says “Now faith is the assurance of what we hope for and the certainty of what we do not see.” Let us always remember that just because we can’t see the reason behind the “why,” that we should trust the one behind the shears who is faithful to complete the good work He started in us. May we yield to you even when we have to go through hard times to produce a faith fortified, tried and tested. Amen.
- Shanese Hamilton
