His Mercies Never Come to an End

~ Lamentations 3 ~

A Sacred Sorrow

Studies in the book of

Lamentations

~ The Season of Lent 2017 ~

Finding Your Voice When Life Doesn’t Make Sense

When peace like a river attendeth my wayWhen sorrows like sea billows roll

Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to sayIt is well, it is well with my soul

His Mercies Never Come to an End

~ Lamentations 3 ~

The Destruction of Jerusalemby the Babylonians in 587/6 BC

Structure of Lamentations

Ch. 1: Jerusalem’s Lament

Ch. 2: Jerusalem’s Fall

Ch. 3: Jerusalem’s Hope

Ch. 4: Jerusalem’s Seige

Ch. 5: Jerusalem’s Prayer

1 Hope fading to darkness, 3:1-20

2

Be on the lookout for...

Hope rising to new light, 3:21-66

“And it came to pass after Israel had gone into captivity, and Jerusalem was laid waste, that Jeremiah sat

weeping and composed this lament over Jerusalem….”

Introduction to the Septuagint(the Greek Translation of the OT in 2BC)

01 I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of his wrath; 02 he has driven and brought me

into darkness without any light; 03 surely against me he turns his hand

again and again the whole day long.

Lamentations 3

04 He has made my flesh waste away; he has broken my bones; 05 he has besieged and enveloped me

with bitterness and tribulation; 06 he has made me dwell in darkness

like the dead of long ago.

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“The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you;

the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.”

~ Numbers 6

“O Lord, God of my salvation, I cry out day and night before you. Let my prayer come before you; incline your ear to my cry…!

You have put me in the depths of the pit, in the regions dark and deep…. But I, O Lord,

cry to you; in the morning my prayer comes before you.

~ Psalm 88

“O Lord, why do you cast my soul away? Why do you hide your face from me….?

You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me; darkness is my

closest friend.”

~ Psalm 88

16 He has made my teeth grind on gravel, and made me cower in ashes; 17 my soul is bereft of peace;

I have forgotten what happiness is; 18 so I say, “My endurance has perished;

so has my hope in the LORD….”

Lamentations 3

Woven throughout Scripture is an unguarded type of

prayer known as lament. To lament is to ask ‘Why?’ and ‘Why not?’ as well as ‘What

are you doing God?’ and ‘Where are you?’ To lament is to pour out our hearts, holding

nothing back. It is to pray without trying to be more full of faith than we actually are.

16 He has made my teeth grind on gravel, and made me cower in ashes; 17 my soul is bereft of peace;

I have forgotten what happiness is; 18 so I say, “My endurance has perished;

so has my hope in the LORD….”

Lamentations 3

“The Lord” =

The Covenant Lord of History

Yahweh = YHWH

The Creator turned Redeemer

“…to name YHWH in the same breath as lamenting the loss of future and hope is oxymoronic

—a contradiction in terms. With YHWH in the picture…there cannot not be a future. There cannot not be hope.

And so, having sunk to its very lowest point, if the poem is to continue, the only way is up.

“And this is indeed where the Man begins a painful climb, in which for every inch upwards he has to strain every sinew and muscle of faith to grasp

hold of the truths deeply embedded in that one word—

the LORD.”

Key Thought

Lamenting to the Lord roots us in a story

that is larger than ourselves, our sin, and our pain.

21 But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: 22 The steadfast love of the LORD

never ceases;his mercies never come to an end;

23 they are new every morning;great is your faithfulness.

Lamentations 3

Key Thought

With this God—with YHWH— pain and suffering are never

the end of the story.

“You have kept count of my tossing, put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your

book…? This I know, that God is for me.”

~ Psalm 56:8-9

Whate’er my God ordains is rightHere shall my stand be taken

Though sorrow, need, or death be mineYet I am not forsaken

My Father’s care is round me thereHe holds me that I shall not fall

and so to him I leave it all.~ Samuel Rodigast (1649-1708), Whate’er My God Ordains

24 “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”

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~ Psalm 73:25-2

“Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth

that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail,

but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”

31 For the LORD will not 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 willingly afflict

or grieve the children of men….

Lamentations 3

40 Let us test and examine our way, and return to the LORD!

41 Let us lift up our hearts and handsto God in heaven:

42 “We have transgressed and rebelled, and you have not forgiven….”

Lamentations 3

55 I called on your name, O Lord; from the depths of the pit;

56 you heard my plea, “Do not closeyour ear to my cry for help.”

57 you came near when I called to you; you said, “Do not fear!”

Lamentations 3

Lament is a gift that helps us turn to God in hope

when there is nowhere else to turn.

My sin—O the bliss of this glorious thought—My sin not in part but the whole

Is nailed to the Cross, and I bear it no morePraise the Lord, Praise the Lord, O my soul

“In and through and by faith in Jesus Christ…, we can praise, lament, petition, and discover that the story of our loss is

not the only story, or most important, story that encloses our lives…. Our lives are not

our own, and our stories have been incorporated into the great drama of God’s gracious work in the world in Jesus Christ.

“As we come to sense our role in this drama, we find that it is a path of lament

and rejoicing, protest and praise, rooted in trust in the Triune God, the central actor;

we can walk on this path even while the fog is thick. For God is bigger than cancer.

God is bigger than death.

“The God of Jesus Christ is the God of life, whose loving promises will be shown true in the end. Until that time, we wait with the psalmist [and the Poet of Lamentations]

for the Lord and hope in his Word.”

That I belong — body and soul, in life and in death — not to myself but to my faithful

Saviour Jesus Christ….

What is your only comfort in life and in death?

other images used for educational purpose

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