Rich Hope
We all know Lamentations 3:21-26—if not from the passage itself, then from the hymn, Great Is Thy Faithfulness.
21 Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: 22 Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. 23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 24 I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” 25 The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; 26 it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.
But do we know what precedes and follows these famous hope-giving verses?
Intense Lament
Before Jeremiah’s hope, we hear his candid lament.
1 I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of the Lord’s wrath. 2 He has driven me away and made me walk in darkness rather than light; 3 indeed, he has turned his hand against me again and again, all day long. 4 He has made my skin and my flesh grow old and has broken my bones. 5 He has besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship. 6 He has made me dwell in darkness like those long dead. 7 He has walled me in so I cannot escape; he has weighed me down with chains. 8 Even when I call out or cry for help, he shuts out my prayer. 9 He has barred my way with blocks of stone; he has made my paths crooked. 10 Like a bear lying in wait, like a lion in hiding, 11 he dragged me from the path and mangled me and left me without help. 12 He drew his bow and made me the target for his arrows. 13 He pierced my heart with arrows from his quiver. 14 I became the laughingstock of all my people; they mock me in song all day long. 15 He has filled me with bitter herbs and given me gall to drink. 16 He has broken my teeth with gravel; he has trampled me in the dust. 17 I have been deprived of peace; I have forgotten what prosperity is. 18 So I say, “My splendor is gone and all that I had hoped from the Lord.” 19 I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. 20 I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me.
Wow!
Intense.
Candid.
Lament.
Complaint.
Remember
Here’s our main point:
Before Jeremiah recalls to mind the goodness of the Lord,
he remembers the badness of his life.
I say it all the time when training counselors:
“Help your counselees to face all of reality, and admit:
‘Life is bad,
But God is good.’”
As counselors and friends, we tend to want to rush in with heavenly, eternal hope.
We typically skip or race right past earthly horror.
Not Jeremiah. He remembers. He candidly calls to mind that his life is bad. There’s no denying it.
Groaning Before Growing
Unlike Jeremiah, when someone is hurting, we typically try to race them to Romans 8:28 and the reality that God works all things together for good.
We ignored the preceding inspired Scripture which teaches that in this fallen world we groan—even the Holy Spirit groans for us.
Do we even remember what comes before Romans 8:28?
19 For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. 22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. 26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.
Frustration.
Bondage.
Decay.
Pains of childbirth.
Groaning inwardly.
Weakness.
Wordless groans.
Rich Hope Requires Intense Lament
False hope pretends.
Rich hope is honest.
False hope tries to forget how bad life is.
Rich hope remembers to lament.
Rich hope requires intense lament.
In your life, in mine:
Do we have the courage to candidly call to mind the pain, hurt, and horrors of our fallen world?
Like Jeremiah in Lamentations 3.
Like Paul in Romans 8.
Rich hope requires intense lament.
The Bible is real and raw.
The Bible is honest and candid.
Are we?
Rich hope requires intense lament.
Intense Lament Enriches Hope
Jeremiah’s words in Lamentations 3:1-20, do not cheapen his affirmations of faith in 3:21-26. They deepen it. Lament enriches hope.
Reread Lamentations 3:21-26 now in light of remembering all of the bitterness and gall, all of the affliction and suffering of Jeremiah.
21 Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: 22 Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. 23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 24 I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” 25 The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; 26 it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.
What a testimony—in light of Lamentations 3:1-21.
Lamentations is not called, Great Is Thy Faithfulness. It’s called…Lamentations.
For a reason.
For an inspired reason.
To remind us to remember to lament.
Rich hope requires intense lament.
Yes. Honest laments and faith-filled choices seem dark in the hard, but God is good all the time. He is the present hope to those who earnestly seek Him, even when everything is crumbling and no one else stays or understands.
Lord bless you dearly beloved brother, for yet another gem from His riches of grace! I pray He’s using you mightily to encourage countless saints on their journeys and to help us strengthen each other. We’re experiencing such dangerous times and yet the darker it is, the brighter our faithful Savior shines forth His great glory! Until we meet…..
Great IS His faithfulness!!!
I’m bothered by people who post on social media platforms…. “Praise the Lord for Answers to Prayer”…..almost always they have something good that has happened to them and their prayers seem to go in a favorable direction. Not very often do you see PTL posted for someone who just got a bad call from their CPA, Doctor, or Attorney………………….. Why is that?