Lamentations 3.19-26
I 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. 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.
We need to call to mind things about the LORD when difficulties come. We so often are focused on the problems. God wants us to pray before anything we might do.
Jeremiah's reason for hope was not in things improving. He would not live to see that day. It was not in listening to motivational speakers or reading books about being the best you can be, your best life now or becoming a better you. He was very depressed and understandably so.
He had just watched the nation cave in and the capital, Jerusalem, be destroyed. He saw the remains of the city which as rubble and smoke and ruins. The temple was gone. With it the worship center that Jerusalem had been. The feasts could no longer be celebrated, nor the Day of Atonement. He watched the treasures of the temple dating back to Solomon carried off to Babylon. They has entered the sanctuary of the LORD and defiled it and destroyed it. He is depressed and down.
He watched the city of Jerusalem go from being the Splendor of the Whole Earth to rubble and ruin, a place where people now passed by and laughed and mocked. The gates were covered in dust on the ground and the wall had been breached. The city once teeming with people is quiet and what is left of it is a terrifying site. He had held the hand of the nation as it spiritually died.
Yet He has hope!
The reason for his hope from start to finish is the LORD. His hope was in the LORD and what he knew about Him. So should it be with us! Jesus never fails!
Hoping in the LORD, not for things to get better. Hoping in the LORD because of Who He is. Reveling in His Attributes. Lost in wonder and love for Christ. Letting the character of God overwhelm us.
Jeremiah was an example of a faithful man, a man who did what God wanted him to do and did not see results of repentance, the salvation of people or the nation being spared judgment.
And yet he has Hope.
He recalls several things about the LORD that lifts his heart out of depressions and despair over Jerusalem and Judah:
1. The LORD's Great Love
His goodness.
With all the wickedness in the world we need to remember:
The LORD is good.
Psalm 34:8 Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in Him. Jeremiah felt that, he experienced it. He had survived the invasion of the Babylonians. He knew it was because of God's Great Love.
Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail.
His grace is greater than all the sin in the world.
Psalm 25:8 Good and upright is the LORD; therefore He instructs sinners in His ways. The whole lament is because of His Grace! He is speaking to Jeremiah and through Jeremiah after the nation had rejected his message from God.
Psalm 84:11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor; no good thing does He withhold from those whose walk is blameless. Jeremiah found that was true in times of national judgment.
Psalm 85:12 The LORD will indeed give what is good, and our land will yield its harvest.
Psalm 100:5 For the LORD is good and His love endures forever; His faithfulness continues through all generations.
Psalm 118:1 Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; His love endures forever.
Psalm 145:9 The LORD is good to all; He has compassion on all He has made.
The goodness of the LORD shining through His Love.
His kindness
Romans 2:4 Or do you show contempt for the riches of His kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?
NKJV
Titus 3:4-6 But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior,
Jeremiah 31:3 The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying:“I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.
God's kindness to people before they turn to Him and as they turn and after they are following Him they find out that His lovingkindness is wonderful.
Psalm 26:3 For Your lovingkindness is before my eyes, And I have walked in Your truth.
Psalm 42:8 The LORD will command His lovingkindness in the daytime,And in the night His song shall be with me—A prayer to the God of my life.
Psalm 63:3 Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, My lips shall praise You.
2. The LORD's Stedfast Compassion
To love deeply, have tender affection, mercy
Psalm 86:15 But You, LORD, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.
Psalm 103:8 The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.
Psalm 145:9 The LORD is good to all; He has compassion on all He has made.
Jesus has compassion.
Mark 6:34 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.
Mark 8:2 “I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat.
Luke 15:20 So he got up and went to his father.“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.
He cares about you. He feels your pain and sorrow. He knows the deep needs of your heart. He knows the inexpressible things you feel.
The genius of our Blessed Hope Grief Group is Him showing up and speaking through others.
3. The LORD's Great Faithfulness
Psalm 26:2-3 Test me, LORD, and try me, examine my heart and my mind; for I have always been mindful of Your unfailing love and have lived in reliance on Your faithfulness.
Psalm 36:5 Your love, LORD, reaches to the heavens, Your faithfulness to the skies.
Psalm 71:22 I will praise You with the harp for Your faithfulness, my God; I will sing praise to You with the lyre, Holy One of Israel.
Psalm 89:8 Who is like You, LORD God Almighty? You, LORD, are mighty, and Your faithfulness surrounds you.
Psalm 100:5 For the LORD is good and His love endures forever; His faithfulness continues through all generations.
Psalm 117:2 For great is His love toward us, and the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever. Praise the LORD.
Psalm 145:17 The LORD is righteous in all His ways and faithful in all He does.
Psalm 145.13 Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and Your dominion endures through all generations. The LORD is faithful to all His promises and loving toward all He has made.
firmness, fidelity, steadfastness, steadiness
Dependable
As I think about the faithfulness of God in my life I can certainly relate to the prophet Jeremiah. Things have not always gone the way I had wanted them to (people I prayed for coming to Him, reaching new people, seeing things happen, praying for people to be healed) but He has been a constant, my Rock. As I look back I can see His Hand of Faithfulness and goodness working in my life. In times of devastation He has come to me in ways to wonderful to explain. He has kept His Word. There is goodness in this.
Double Edged Sword
God is so faithful. As Jeremiah was looking at this devastated city, that desolation was a testimony of God's faithfulness. God had said to those people, "If you continue in your wickedness, if you continue in your idolatry, I am going to bring the Babylonian army against you, and they're going to destroy you, and they're going to break down the walls of this city. And those that aren't killed by the famine will be killed by the sword. And those that aren't killed by the sword will be killed by the pestilence. But I'm going to destroy you out of this holy mountain."
If you are facing difficulty today, look at God's faithfulness. If it weren't for His Great Love none of would be here today or anywhere for that matter! We would have been consumed!
Think about His Great Love, Compassion and His Great Faithfulness.
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