What We Learn From Lament, Part 4

Introduction

Outline

Big Idea: “Lament allows you to hear the lessons God intends to teach you through pain.”

A Broken World and a Holy God

Hope Springs from Truth Rehearsed

Unearthing Idols

A Road Map to Grace

Sermon Outline

Sermon Body

A Road Map to Grace

· Lamentations 5

· Lamentations 5:21

· There are no “and they lived happily ever after” moments in Lamentations. This historic lament concludes without resolution and with questions lingering. It ends by telling us where to look in pain, not by giving us the rest of the story. We’d need to look elsewhere in the Bible for what transpired after the destruction of Jerusalem. However, this lament is still filled with hope because of where it points us.

· So far in part 2, we’ve learned from lament by observing the reality of broken world and a holy God, the hope that comes from truth rehearsed, and the way loss can reveal our idols. This final chapter helps us see lament as the language of spiritual reorientation. Lament identifies the way back to God and even the gospel itself.

· Lament can be a road map to God’s grace.

Lamentations 5: A Road Map to God’s Grace

· The final chapter of Lamentations ends without resolving the destruction of Jerusalem, but it points readers in the right direction. Suffering lingers. The temple still lies in ruin. There is more to come, but the answer has not arrived. Yet the books ends with a hopeful prayer:

· Lamentations 5:21-22

· You may have picked up this book hoping that lament would untie all the knots of pain in your life. But answer to prayer and resolution of painful questions do not usually come quickly. Sometimes the answer is not what we’d want or request. The timing may be much slower than we’d hoped. Lament is the prayer language for these gaps. It tells you where to look and whom to trust when pain and uncertainty hang in the air you breathe. When brokenness becomes your life, lament helps you to turn to God. It lifts your heard and turns your tear-filled eyes toward the only hope you have: God’s grace. I hope you are encouraged by this.

· Lamentations concludes with three prayers that serve as direction markers for the journey ahead. These prayers serve as a guide, showing us what to pray when the future is not clear. I hope they’ll become your road map to God’s grace.

Three Prayers

Remember, O Lord

· Lamentations 5:1

· This request is more than asking God not to forget. For God to remember captures the essence of his grace to his people as their covenant keeper. “Remember” is a request for God to intervene based on his love and promises. It is a call for God to act.

· Gen 8:1; Gen 9:15-16; Deut 9:27; Ps 25:6-7.

· When Jeremiah asks God to remember, he appeals for grace based on God’s character. He’s seeking assurance that this destruction is not pointless. Jeremiah is asking for God’s help.

· Central to his appeal is the feeling of shame. That’s why he says, “See our disgrace” (Lam 5:1). Have you ever tried to hide your tears? Crying is embarrassing. Hardship is humbling. In Israel’s case, suffering devastated their temple, humiliated their leaders, destroyed their city, and ruined their nation. But instead of running from the shame of sorrow, lament embraces it.

· The road map of grace involves an appeal for God to remember while at the same time rehearsing the pain. This is similar to what we learned through the lament psalms – a heartfelt cry of complaint. Verses 2-18 (the bulk of Lamentations 5), paint a dismal picture: Foreign invaders have destroyed the nation (vs 2). The people feel abandoned (vs. 3), survival is very hard (vs. 4), and they are exhausted (vs 5). They must appeal to foreign nations (vs 6) while bearing the consequences of a national sins (vs. 7). Upheaval marks their culture (vs. 8) while desperation and hunger are everywhere (vs 9-10). Women are violated (vs. 11), princes are dishonored (vs. 12), and oppression rules the day (vs 13). Celebrations have ceased (vs 14-15). The glory of Israel has vanished (vs 16), and hopelessness has set in (vs 17). Wild animals now roam the streets (vs. 18). Of the twenty-two verses in chapter 5, seventeen of them carry this tone.

· But this rehearsing of pain has a purpose. The full-throttle cataloguing of pain sets the context for the call for God to remember.

· However it has been my experience that many Christians are uncomfortable with the tension of the long rehearsing of pain combined with the appeal to God’s grace. We tend to hush the recitation of sorrow. However, restoration doesn’t come to those who live in denial.

But You, O Lord, Reign Forever

· We learned in the Psalms about the importance of words like but and yet. After the long record of the devastation in the first eighteen verses of Lamentations 5, Jeremiah says, “But you, O Lord, reign forever” (Lam. 5:19). In this closing chapter of Lamentations we find another example of spiritual reorientation. Jeremiah reconnects his heart to what he believes: God is sovereign over everything, including our pain.

· Jeremiah affirms the rule of God. He confesses that everything works according to the decree and purpose of the Creator. God is in control.

· in Lamentations 5:2–18 Jeremiah has just recounted a long list of troubles. But now he says, “But you . . . reign forever.”

· You might wonder how this is comforting or helpful. Life often feels like it is out of control. God may feel distant. Evil appears to be winning the day. I’m sure you’ve felt that way many times. I certainly have. Or maybe you are walking with someone whose storyline appears to be cruel. Lamentations shows us that God’s sovereignty and his reign are not negated by suffering. God is still in control, even through loss.

· Lament affirms God’s sovereignty when dark clouds linger.

· One of my favorite passages to read when I’m struggling to trust in God’s sovereignty is in the second chapter of Acts. It is part of Peter’s sermon after Pentecost. He says: “This Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it” (Acts 2:23–24). God ordained (reigned over) Jesus’s crucifixion. The cruel death of the Son of God at the hands of wicked men was part of God’s plan. And here’s the thing: if God can take the most unjust moment in history and turn it into redemption, then surely we can say, “You reign!” Even when we can’t imagine how God might use hard circumstances in our lives, we can still believe he’s in control.

· The presence of pain—no matter how strong—does not negate the plan of God.

Restore Us to Yourself, O Lord

· The longest lament in the Bible ends with a prayer for restoration. As we’ve seen through our journey, lament prayers cry out to God and ask him for deliverance: “God, this hurts! Please help me!” The book of Lamentations ends with the same focus and tone.

· Lamentations 5:21

· These words have specific meaning. The word “restore” could also be translated as “return” or “turn back.”4 Repentance and spiritual restoration are in mind here.

· Closely connected to the prayer for restoration is the longing for renewal. The request “renew our days as of old” seeks the kind of divine favor and blessing that was a part of Israel’s history. However, the desire expressed is more than the rebuilding of the ruins of Jerusalem. It is a longing for a heart-based renewal. It’s the prayer of David in Psalm 51:10: Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

· Jeremiah pleaded with the people to return to the Lord, and the destruction of Jerusalem was part of God’s plan to awaken the hearts of his people and bring them back to himself (Jer. 18:11). That’s why the last verse of Lamentations includes the dark tone of God’s judgment: . . . unless you have utterly rejected us, and you remain exceedingly angry with us. (5:22) The sorrow behind Lamentations has its roots in divine discipline. The nation strayed from faithfulness, and God will use pain in order to renew them. This final prayer for renewal is not only what they needed but also what God promised. It is another example of spiritual alignment through lament. This prayer agrees with God about what is ultimately needed and what God promised. It points the way toward God’s grace.

· God promised that one day he would give his people new hearts.

· Jeremiah 31:33-34

· The prophet Ezekiel, a contemporary of Jeremiah, echoed the same hope.

· Ezekiel 36:26-27

· Lament can tune your heart to seek more than just the removal of pain. It invites us to say “remember, O Lord,” “you reign,” and “restore us.” And in asking for God to deliver us, it can also lead us to the greatest need of all: our need to be right with God.

· Lament is the language of a people who know the whole story—the gospel story. They know how the entrance of sin into the world brought death and suffering. As we conclude our look into Lamentations, it is a good reminder that the message of the gospel is where lament should lead. The sorrow of loss can lead us to the man of sorrows because Jesus is the answer to the cause of every pain. Every sorrow, every tear, and every loss gives evidence of the brokenness caused by sin. Something is terribly wrong with our culture and inside of us. Christians know that sin creates the pain behind lament. However, under the dark clouds of brokenness, God offers mercy. The Son of God was sent on a mission: become a man, be perfectly obedient, and die on a cross to provide restoration. As Jesus hung between heaven and earth, he absorbed the wrath of God for those who would trust him. It was the darkest day in human history, and yet it changed everything. After three days, the empty tomb testified to Jesus’s victory. The resurrection of Christ signaled the coming defeat of the Devil and even of death itself. And with this victory, the Christian’s view of pain and suffering in this present life is transformed: “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Rom. 8:18). So we, along with all creation, groan as we wait for the future day when Christ’s victory will be complete. We lament. We embrace this language of sorrow as a road map to God’s grace.

Reflection Questions

1. Why do you think Christians are reluctant to step into the pain of other people’s lives or into the pain of a community? What are the dynamics involved?

2. How can it be helpful to prayerfully rehearse our pain while asking God to “remember”?

3. What verses elsewhere in the Bible might give you confidence to take that step?

4. In your own words, how would you define the sovereignty of God? At what point in your life has this doctrine been a struggle? When has it been comforting?

5. Take some time to read Jeremiah 31:33–34 and Ezekiel 36:26–27 again. How do these passages shape your understanding of restoration?

6. How can lament lead to the gospel? What would lament sound like, or what words would you say in using the language of loss as a bridge to the cross?

7. Is there anything on the horizon of your life, in your sphere of relationships, or in your community that might be an opportunity for you to guide others through lament to the gospel?

8. Spend some time asking the Lord to open doors and to give you the courage to walk through them.

Conclusion

Application