God’s Faithfulness in 2023

Lamentations 3:19-24 “Remember my affliction and my wandering, the wormwood and bitterness. Surely my soul remembers And is bowed down within me. This I recall to my mind, Therefore I have hope. The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, For His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I have hope in Him.””

a. The Lord reminds us of His covenant (언약)(3:19-21)

b. The Lord reveals to us His character (특징) (3:22-24)

1. INTRODUCTION

i. Similar to my Christmas message, the book of Lamentations reminds us of the harshness of life and the difficulties that all humans face in this life. Difficulties and trials are not just what Christians go through, but rather, it is common to all man and all men must deal with hardship in life.

ii. I was having a conversation with my sister and we were talking about hardship and one of the statements I said was “I wonder where I would be had I not been a Christian.” I thought about this because of how much God had blessed me but even, if I were not a Christian, how would I be able to handle the things of this world?

iii. There’s so much pain and suffering in this world. Without Christ, I don’t know how I would be able to process all this stuff. Just hearing from my sister how some of her friends were struggling through depression, through loss and even thinking about aging and coming to a place in life where there are so many uncertainties with our professions, our health, and just the cut throat aspect of life.

iv. When you look at life, life is not forgiving. At times when it gets difficult, life doesn’t say to us, “Oh that must hard, I’ll put off this hardship.” No, in those times, when it rains, it pours. Many people are compounded with multiple problems at once and at times, it can be defeating and overwhelming. And when I thought about this, I just thought to myself, “What kind of life would I be living right now if it wasn’t for God? Would I be married? Would I have any kids?”

v. I think everyone in this room can understand the hardships we all must endure. People in here have lost loved ones, have lost things in life that are dear to them. People are going through loss of not only people, but loss of finances, and other hardships we all must face.

vi. This is what the book of Lamentations helps us to process. The book of Lamentations is primarily about grief, the reality of life and the tragedies that we all must face. The historical backdrop for the book of Lamentations deals with the destruction of Jerusalem in 587 BC at the hands of the Babylonians. The author of the book of Lamentations is mostly argued for Jeremiah because He was the lamenting prophet.

vii. But the significance of this book is because Jerusalem was such an important city. Jerusalem was closely connected to God’s blessing upon Israel through His special treatment of Jerusalem. Therefore, it’s strange that God would let such a city like this be totally destroyed.

viii. This close relationship between Yahweh and Jerusalem almost made the people of Israel think they could escape God’s wrath because of His favor upon them. They thought, we could sin and God will forgive us. Afterall, He loves Jerusalem and would never destroy this city.

ix. It’s strange that sometimes we also think this, because we think that God wouldn’t do certain things to my life because I’m a Christian. I deserve better. Afterall, God came to earth to save me. He will withhold certain difficulties from me. We almost have the same view as the people of Israel.

x. But through the book of Lamentations, we are told that God will do what is best for us. God will let the walls of our lives crumble and let our lives be ravaged by certain sins in our lives. God will bring us to our knees just as the people of Jerusalem describe in the book of Lamentations.

xi. If you ever have read through the book of Lamentations, you can see great pain that these people have suffered. All throughout the book of Lamentation, Jeremiah details how the people have been tortured and killed and how there are dead people everywhere. The worst picture is given to us in Lamentations 2:20, where Jeremiah asks, “should women eat their offspring? The little ones who were born healthy?” How could a city that God loves display a picture of this type of brutality? How could this be the city in which God communes with His people?

xii. The book of Lamentations ultimately aims to answer one question. When we go through the trials of life, when we are faced with the destruction and brutality of life, we ask ourselves, “Has God cut us off? Has He left me?” Despite how empty and bleak our lives may feel, God will keep His promise. This is the aim of this book. God will remember His promise to His covenant people and will never break His promise.

2. BODY

a. The Lord reminds us of His covenant (3:19-21)

i. The context for verse 19 starts with verse 18 where Jeremiah speaks of his strength and confidence in which they have perished and He has lost his hope from the Lord. Through all the things that he has witnessed through the destruction of Jerusalem, Jeremiah is now totally broken through all the devastation he has witnessed by the hands of the Babylonians. Why has God allowed His people to suffer so greatly?

ii. I am sure there are some of us in here who have witnessed pain so great, that sometimes, we lose all confidence in God and think the same as Jeremiah writes here in verse 18. Why would God allow so much pain to inflict His loved ones? I am reminded by a quote from AW Tozer, where he writes, “It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until He has hurt him deeply.”

iii. This reminds us that sometimes, God allows us to suffer greatly. God allows sin to run rampage over our lives and is absent. This was the same as the story of Job. Job lost everything in chapter 1 and it should cause us to ask, “Why would God allow this to happen to Job?” I am reminded in my own life, when I have suffered great loss, even with some of the people in our own church, “Why would God allow such tragedies to hit us?”

iv. I am sure some of us have felt just as Jeremiah describes in verse 18, my strength, confidence and hope in God has perished. I don’t have the energy to keep trusting in Him. This sets the background for our text for today.

v. It is in this beaten down stage in Jeremiah’s life that he writes in verses 19-20. Jeremiah opens verse 19 by praying to God asking Him to remember his affliction and his wanderings, not simply just his but also everyone who has suffered. Everywhere that Jeremiah looks around, Jeremiah is asking and pleading with God to remember the sufferings that he has endured and also the people of Jerusalem have endured.

vi. Jeremiah is writing in verses 19-20 that his sufferings were so deeply impressed upon his heart and that he was the victim of such trials that he found himself constantly thinking about them and the memories that he was left with caused him to be depressed and despondent.

vii. Jeremiah was basically telling us that he had lost the will to live. He didn’t know how he would be able to pick himself up and could not gather the strength to keep going. Verse 20 tells us that his soul constantly was bombarded by these thoughts and his head was constantly bowed down within himself. He was constantly defeated by his own memories.

viii. Then suddenly in verse 21, despite the fact that he is drowning in depression, Jeremiah writes that he recalls to his mind and therefore he has hope. Remember, this is Jeremiah praying and thinking of his sufferings but as he’s praying, God reminds him and it causes him to have hope.

ix. What do we see from verse 21? It tells us the power of prayer. It tells us how powerful prayer is and how God uses prayer as a means to edify us. Look at the sudden change in Jeremiah. He goes from absolute despair to all of a sudden, he has hope. Verse 18 is a man who is completely defeated to a man who in verse 21, is recharged. How did this man become this way?

b. The Lord reveals to us His character (3:22-24)

i. Verse 22, He remembers the Lord’s lovingkindness. What does Jeremiah remember about God as he is praying? The first thing that He remembers about God is His character. The word there is hesed in the Hebrew which simply refers to God’s grace and His love. It is extremely difficult to understand the whole idea of this world but we can understand it from Exodus 34:6 where it links hesed with love, compassion, grace, truth, faithfulness, goodness, patience and forgiveness.

ii. But what about His lovingkindness here? It is because of His lovingkindness that indeed, we are not consumed, literally, it is because of His lovingkindness that they are not finished off for His compassions fail not. The proof that God still graciously loved His suffering people could be seen in the fact that they were not consumed. Even though they were devastated, the reality is that God still preserved them. He still kept them and made it so that they were not consumed.

iii. The term for compassion here signifies a warm compassion, a compassion which goes the extra mile, which is ready to forgive sin. It is a compassion that has no ending. It is an infinite compassion. It depicts God’s willingness to start fresh even though they have offended God greatly. Lamentations 3:22 reminds us that although Israel sinned greatly against God, it teaches us that the Lord will start over with penitent Israel. But this passage also teaches us the same. God will not stay angry at us over our sin. Lamentations 3:22 teaches us that He will not remember our sin and count it against us.

iv. Which is why it makes sense that in verse 23, it says that God’s lovingkindness and His compassion is new every morning. This is why Jeremiah writes here that His love and grace are new every morning. This phrase is telling us that His mercy and grace are continual and are effective daily. God’s grace is never changing, but rather, constant and every day, He continually gives us grace and mercy.

v. But it also points toward the new covenant in Jeremiah 31:31. God explains in Jeremiah 31:22 that He will perform new things and then again in 31:27 where God says that days are coming and echoes that again in 31:31. The truthfulness of this statement speaks of how God will continually display His lovingkindness to us.

vi. Jeremiah then writes, Great is your faithfulness. What is the significance of this phrase at the end of verse 23? Well think about what Jeremiah is writing. Israel has sinned against God greatly. He could have easily cut Israel off and destroy them off the face of the Earth. But because of His lovingkindness and His compassion, He will continue to keep His promise to Israel. God is telling us that He will keep His covenant promise. God could have forgotten all the promises that were made in the Old Testament to the forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But because of His covenant love for His people, He would uphold those promises to Israel.

vii. What is so beautiful about this phrase, great is thy faithfulness? The reality of this verse is not found immediately after the body of believers had just experienced another evidence of God’s blessing on their lives. On the contrary, this word came when nothing looked possible, hopeful, worthwhile or comforting. His faithfulness was not seen when the pastures were green and they were being blessed. Rather, it came when there was nothing to eat, so much that they had to eat their own children. It was during this time, that Jeremiah remembered God’s faithfulness and he writes, great is Your faithfulness.

viii. Then verse 24, Jeremiah’s disposition is totally changed from verse 18. In verse 18, He has run out of hope and here in verse 24, He says I have hope in Him. His hope is in the fact that the Lord is my portion. The word portion here refers to a share of spoils or an inheritance. In the book of Psalms, this word is used to denote the writer’s complete satisfaction in God (Ps 16:5; 73:26;119:57). The context here is that Jerusalem was utterly destroyed and the people have lost everything. But even through this, they have learned that God is with them. And because they recognize God's presence, Jeremiah is able to say, the Lord is my portion. He is what I have left over and that is all I need. God’s presence is all I need even when I have nothing.

ix. This realization is Jeremiah recognizing the peace of God. Even through the devastation of ruin, Jeremiah is able to sing praises to God because he has been made aware of God’s presence. And if we are to combine verse 18 and 24, previously when Jeremiah wrote that He was out of strength, now He is able to endure and persevere. This is not some type of vain or wishful thinking.

x. This is sometimes difficult to understand but it’s similar to a situation where we know we can get up again because we have help. Because we have other people next to us, we have confidence we can stand up again after failure. This is what Jeremiah was pointing to. Although they have been devastated at the hands of the Babylonians, and Jerusalem is now in ruins, because of God, because of His presence, Jeremiah has hope because his hope is in God. He is waiting on God to work and rests on His faithfulness.

3. CONCLUSION