22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
Lamentations 3:22-23 ESV
his mercies never come to an end;
23 they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
These are verses we like. The apply to us today powerfully and clearly. They also applied to Jesus in His time of temptation where he suffered and the enemy tempted Him to fulfill natural desires by short circuiting God’s plan. They also applied in the time of Lamentations in the context and history of this book when all of the people in Israel experienced terrible suffering and difficulty.
For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
Matthew 5:45b ESV
Just as we read this verse to understand that good things may come to evil people despite their evil behavior we must also understand that grief and hardship may come to the good despite their good behavior.
We must not miss the first 21 verses of Lamentations where the writer speaks of the many afflictions he has and is experiencing. Over and over the scripture says “He has…” Who is this “he” that so afflicts the writer? Merely turn back a chapter and read.
How the Lord in his anger
Lamentations 2:1a ESV
has set the daughter of Zion under a cloud!
We all say “No!” not our good God, not our loving God, and not our merciful God. Surely, He would never cause affliction or grief, especially not to His prophet speaking for Him, writing His Holy Word. Let us go on and see.
31 For the Lord will not
Lamentations 3:31-33 ESV
cast off forever,
32 but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion
according to the abundance of his steadfast love;
33 for he does not afflict from his heart
or grieve the children of men.
First look in the middle, at verse 32, where it cannot be more clear. It says “though he cause grief,” speaking of God, the Lord. God causes grief. This does not say He does evil, something we know is not true. We must conclude that all these things that God caused–grief here in verse 32, and affliction in verse 1, and skin wasting away in verse 3, and dwelling in darkness in verse 6, and shutting out his prayer in verse 8, and causing him to be a laughingstock in verse 14 and so on are all ultimately for good.
Why do we conclude this. Beyond the great weight of other evidence in the Bible, we can look just where we were in verses 31 to 33. What do we see all around “though he cause grief?” First, “the Lord will not cast off forever.” This is temporary. However long the affliction, the distance, the loneliness God will end it.
See also that “he does not afflict from his heart.” The bad that comes is not from malice. The naïve or flippant reader of the Old Testament will conclude that God is tyrannical and brutal. The thoughtful reader must conclude on the weight of the evidence that God is merciful and compassionate. We might close our eyes to the need for justice and all that it entails until we find ourselves on the receiving end of injustice. We must at that point realize the crucial balance of justice and mercy that is necessary and that justice must be done or else we are left to become a wicked creature fighting and clawing in a world where only the strong survive and only for a time, until savagely overrun by the next strong thing. No, “he does not afflict from his heart.” All of the temporary grief is for the eternal good.
Finally, if it has not yet become clear “though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love.” Here is where we find abundance, not in our daily bread, not in our pleasures, our power, or our reputation. The writer was a laughingstock, a target of harm, and made to do without pleasures and daily food. Somehow, he made it through it all to write the narrative reminding himself and us of God’s compassion that comes from the abundance of His steadfast love.
The optimistic scientist looks at the vast universe and says there must be all sorts of thriving life, numerous habitable and populated planets in variety. The pragmatic scientist looks at the same universe and realizes how harsh and unforgiving nature is and how numerous and layered are the things that have to go right for life to exist at all much less to be sustained. That scientist would be amazed to see anything but bare rock and dust, swirling gas, bombarding heat and radiation, and cold void. The pragmatist sees more clearly that apart from God’s steadfast love we cannot live at all. Every breath is a gift!
12 I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. 13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
Philippians 4:12-13 ESV
When times are hard our call is not to turn on one another, to devour one another, to strike with fist and word in savage rage. Is it not the time to withdraw into caves and call on them to fall on our heads and hide us from the wrath all around us. Paul encouraged us that God provides sufficient strength in times of abundance and need, plenty and hunger–in the highs and the lows. That message is the same, whether your testament is old or new.
Let us test and examine our ways,
Lamentations 3:40-41
and return to the Lord!
41 Let us lift up our hearts and hands
to God in heaven:
Only Jesus passed the test, so as we test and examine our ways we will still be found wanting. So, we are called to return to the Lord! However far we have fallen and however far we have ascended, we have not arrived nor achieved the victory apart from Jesus Christ. So, we must daily return to the Lord. Lift up your hands and your heart to the God of Heaven. He does not need your adoration, though He deserves it. You and I need to experience a glimmer of God through worship. We need to lift our hands. We need to lift our hearts. The writer of Lamentations felt very alone just as we may but in that lonely place continued to worship and seek God.
Like many of those identified in Hebrews 11, the writer of Lamentations did not have the privilege of living in peace and prosperity but God was no less present in His life. The writer came to understand that life does not consist in the abundance of possessions. The writer knew not to say peace, peace when there is no peace. Yet, the writer says “I have hope” (verse 21) and so should we.
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